It is finally upon us, the Amazon Prime Autumn Nation Summer Series Cup, edge of your seat stuff.
In other words, the world cup warm up friendlies are here, with little to no fan fare and half empty stadiums.
Who is even playing you ask, and the honest answer is I can’t tell you. Did you see that thrilling match featuring a seagull at the Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium last week, no neither did I? Apparently, Scotland beat Italy, yeah, I didn’t know about it either.
Well, it properly begins this week, the unofficial start to the World Cup campaign, where squads are thinned, partnerships moulded, and desperately sad injuries incurred. The only jeopardy that exists is that the that world cup places are at stake, but these are internal battles, that will end after only the first weekend by Borthwick picking his eighteenth and final squad on Monday.
The truth of the matter is the schedule is ridiculous. Wales and Scotland are likely to play as many warmup games as they are competitive games in the whole World Cup.
At least the Southern Hemisphere teams have the Rugby Championship to get the competitive juices flowing in what is some serious and actually useful preparation for the bigger Webb Ellis prize.
And to dress up these warm-up games under the guise of a ‘Summer Nations Series’ is kidding no one and looks nothing more than another cheap gimmick. But in a world where rugby needs all the cash it can get Bezos’ dollars mean more than you’d think.
But don’t even get me started on why all games are being played at Twickenham/Cardiff/Edinburgh, isn’t this the perfect opportunity to spread the game across the nation to parts of the country that don’t see international regardless of the competitiveness.
I thought the RFU had learned this lesson with a journey up to St James’ Park in 2019, the same year it successfully hosted the European Cup Final, but I suppose those Saudis’ have never heard of rugby before.
But there is genuinely no good reason to host these games at HQ, other than greediness, it’s not like it is even a ‘fortress’ there anymore having only win two out of the last six games.
Everyone knows that rugby and commerciality have a difficult relationship but isn’t this the chance to market the game better; cheaper tickets, imaginative kick off times, different venues. Instead, lets stick to a 3pm kick off on a Saturday afternoon in Twickenham, oh how original.
The build up to these games is expectedly limited but it doesn’t have to be this way.
Rugby desperately needs a successful, exciting World Cup, and France will deliver one, but if the warm ups are anything to go by British rugby has a long way to go.
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