Martin Anayi admits the Northern Hemisphere should blink first to solve rugby fixture dilemma.
The PRO12’s new managing director is just in his new post and already making big calls, or suggestions at least.
Anayi, who is fronting up a revamped PRO12 management team, wants European league seasons and the Champions Cup to wrap up in March, ahead of the annual Six Nations championship. He feels this would be an important step in establishing a world rugby calendar that accommodates the Northern and Southern Hemisphere.
At Tuesday’s launch of the new Guinness PRO12 season, at the Aviva Stadium, Anayi said:
“You’ve got to talk about why is it that we’re losing a huge proportion of international players not week-in and week-out, but in big chunks of the season. Intersperse that with European club rugby as well and you get quite a disjointed season.
“It’s quite hard to follow and then also becomes less of a reason to buy a season ticket.
“We think there’s a simple solution, which is to push the Six Nations back a bit, no need to go that far, and get the club season in before the Six Nations. And that would also tie in with European rugby as well.”
Anayi referred to World Rugby chairman Bill Beaumont’s suggestion that the Six Nations could be held in March and April but wants to ‘go back slightly further’. He continued:
“And then does that work for them, because the Six Nations is critically important for the finance of the game.
“My opinion and those I’ve spoken to in the broadcast industry would say yes, because it gets in before the Champions League final, it doesn’t go into BBC territory for The Open, Wimbledon and the Olympics. And it’s the simplest route for us to get to what we want to, which is club season, international season, Lions, World Cup. That’s how we’ll generate more fans.”
Anayi concedes that the Northern Hemisphere, for the good of the game, should ‘blink first’.
Were his suggestion, which he believes is the simplest to implement, be adopted, it would mean Test matches taking place in August and September [rather than November], a condensed club season with no Test breaks with a March/April Six Nations and Rugby Championship.
World Rugby will debate the current calendar later this year.
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