Club Vs. Country

This week I got into a debate in the comments section of the Daily Telegraph rugby blog (hosted by Mick Cleary, that paper's rugby correspondent).

The subject was club vs. country in the wake of yet another injury to Super Jonny Wilkinson. Below I reproduce my original comment:

"I was born in East Anglia and was brought up in Cambridge. We have no Premier League rugby. There's North Walsham in Norfolk, who are quite strong, and Bedford is just down the road - but I've never bothered to watch them. Indeed, the only team I watch regularly is Delia's NCFC in the round ball game. But my one true love in the sporting arena is England Rugby. I go mad for England playing rugby. It sets my heart racing like no other game. I was brought up by my father as a rugby player and the annual 5 nations tourny was the focus of the year - now the 6 nations. I've watched England play in Australia, Italy, France, Cardiff and at HQ. I never miss a match and have gone to enormous lengths to watch them play in remote places on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Several wedding receptions have been disrupted by my zeal to be in front of a box for a game. The days when England are playing rugby are the most important days in my calendar. Oh, and I'm a big fan of the Lions too. I couldn't give a monkeys about the Premier League. I may tune in to a Heineken cup semi or final but ultimately I have no connection to these regional teams. I find their bleating about damaged goods shortsighted since without a successful England rugby team their clubs are worth less - much less. Notwithstanding my own feelings about Premier League rugby, it is surely true that the national team's success directly reflects on the popularity of the game as a whole. And I sometimes feel as if they don't recognise this. The only point I feel in favour of the Premier League teams is that possibly England play too many games. Combined with the 4 yearly Lions matches we spread the players too thin. It's a brutal game rugby and we're burning the players out. The number of England matches needs to be properly limited and planned out well in advance."

Woof! And what a response I engendered. However, none of the freaks who said club was more important than country had any new arguments and most simply whined about how their clubs had to pay the hospital bills for players injured playing for their country. Pah! It should be the other way round. When Jonny W got injured YET AGAIN playing for Newcastle in the week before the England vs France match it struck me that Newcastle should be paying us - England Rugby supporters - for stealing our Jonny away from HQ.

Consider this as well: The best supported rugby teams in Europe have smaller crowds than 3rd Division football teams. My own club, Norwich City FC, averages over 26,000 spectators for league matches - that's more than any other rugby club in Europe. However, when England play a Six Nations match the domestic audience averages between 5-6 million. And you can add another 4-6 million when incuding live worldwide viewers.

The RFU needs to stamp down on the clubs now and show them who is boss. All clubs should be 100% subservient to the national team. If the clubs choose to employ players who are in contention for a place in the national side they need to account for that in their planning and alter their wage structure accordingly. There are 6 million supporters out there who want a winning national team. Why should the 1 man and his dog who support club rugby therefore dictate to us?