THE news isn’t that good from certain parts of the rugby world and in fact, it has been downright gloomy for a few former stars too, of late.
From France has come the shocker on a merger of Paris-based big clubs Racing 92 and Stade Francais due to take effect from next year.
This is subject to approval by higher authorities but for Racing owner Jacky Lorenzetti, the proposal is definitely on, which would mean some players losing their places.
The French Rugby Federation has stated that it was not informed of the plan and only came to know of the merger following Lorenzetti’s announcement earlier in the week.
There were hints in the tycoon’s statement about what will happen following the merger because he spoke about merit, youth and selectability for France.
Racing, last year’s French Top 14 champions, has former All Blacks Dan Carter, Chris Masoe, Joe Rokocoko, Anthony Tuitavake and Casey Laulala in the squad, all of whom are between 34 and 37 years old.
The other former All Black there is Ali Williams, whose recent arrest for an alleged drug offence is almost certain to cost him his place even this season itself.
Carter was a star last season but of late his form has taken a dip, with the situation made worse by an alleged drink-driving incident in Paris in mid-February.
Lorenzetti went public with his criticism of Carter recently, although this is nothing new in French rugby where tycoons own the clubs and with tycoons, it’s their money that decides everything.
Stade Francais is also one of the big clubs in France and was founded in 1883, a year after Racing, and has in its books former and current internationals like Italy’s Sergio Parisse, Australia’s Will Genia, South Africa’s Morney Steyn and Willem Alberts and Frenchmen Dmitri Starzewski, Brice Dulin, Maxime Machenaud and Rabah Slimani, amongst others.
We won’t know who will have to go from both clubs but the arithmetic is very simple – the merger would cost 45 players their jobs and the older ones should be among the first to have to go.
Changes too are to come down south from next season in the Super Rugby competition, now participated by 18 teams following last year’s expansion to include a sixth franchise from South Africa, and one each from Argentina and Japan.
With full-fledged professionalism in rugby from the later part of 1995, Super 12 took off in 1996 with five franchises from New Zealand, four from South Africa and three from Australia.
The Aussies later lobbied strongly for a fourth team and then a fifth, so too the lobbying from South Africa.
But this later turned out to be not a wise decision after all, with at least two of the Australian franchises finding it tough to cope both on and off the field, the latter especially with finances.
This year the crowds too have dwindled in both countries and for the Australian franchises, scouting for enough home-based players is becoming more of an issue and have forced the franchises to look across the Tasman.
There have been calls too to return to a 15-team competition, with a round-robin regular season format that requires teams to play each other at least once, as was the case up to 2011, instead of the current conference system.
Rugby officials from the participating countries met in London recently and are expected to announce their decisions later in the week but already there are speculations that at least two teams will be dropped from next season – one from Australia and another from South Africa.
In Australia there’s the further issue of questions being asked about leadership within the national union but whatever the changes to be made from next year, the light isn’t so bright in the union game in Australia at the moment.