Showing posts with label damian corbet. Show all posts
Damian's Global Rugby: Rugby in the Netherlands
I recently met up with Willem de Jong, the new president of the Netherlands Rugby Union, to talk about Dutch rugby. I quizzed him on his ambitions to make the men (and women) in Orange a force in European rugby.
I started off by asking Willem about the current state of rugby in the Netherlands and how he sees things developing in the next few years.
Willem de Jong (WdJ): There are now over 10,000 registered players in the Netherlands, that’s double the number from just five or six years ago. One of the main drivers for this big increase is the introduction of rugby in schools.
I started off by asking Willem about the current state of rugby in the Netherlands and how he sees things developing in the next few years.
Willem de Jong (WdJ): There are now over 10,000 registered players in the Netherlands, that’s double the number from just five or six years ago. One of the main drivers for this big increase is the introduction of rugby in schools.
Damian's Global Rugby
The way the IRB is run is a joke
“If we carry on as we are, I fear the consequences. The horse trading & threats were disgusting.” The words of a delegate at the recent meeting to elect the IRB’s new chairman.
According to this and other eyewitness reports, the attempt to ‘elect’ a new IRB chairman last month descended into pure farce, with the vote now postponed until December.
The shenanigans were caused because the current chairman, Bernard Lapasset, who had apparently agreed to hand over to Bill Beaumont after one term in office, changed his mind. This infuriated Beaumont to the point that the election meeting descended into a rugby match of its own. The ridiculous behaviour of some of the delegates prompted the highly respected Welsh representative Gerald Davies to call out: “Gentlemen, take a look at yourselves. This is not the way to behave.”
Damian's Global Rugby
Is it time for the Six Nations to be expanded into a two-tier competition? BY DAMIAN CORBET
The current structure of the Six Nations is holding back the Tier Two European rugby nations. As the Rugby World Cup showed, there is still a significant (but narrowing) gap between the leading rugby nations and the rest. In Europe this gap is narrowing even faster than in the rest of the world, with countries like Georgia knocking on the door of top tier rugby. For the moment, however, that door is firmly locked to them. They can knock all they like – they’re not getting in.
Damian's Global Rugby
Awarding the 2015 RWC to England is a backwards stepBut… although the decision to give a ‘non-top eight’ nation the RWC – and the decision for it to go to Asia – is commendable and will help to raise rugby’s profile in the region, the IRB’s decision to let England host the next RWC, in 2015, is predictable and backwards-looking.
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Damian's Global Rugby
For all his many faults, Blatter has turned the Football World Cup from a European/South American competition into a truly global tournament. The English don't like him, but the developing world thinks he's great.
Damian's Global Rugby
Bye Bye Tier Two Nations – it’s been fun
So the group stages of RWC 2011 are over and the Tier Two nations have packed their bags and gone home. Did we learn anything about the development of Tier Two rugby from watching the first round of matches? While a few pundits said how well the teams played and how the ‘gap is narrowing’, a lot of the teams themselves felt unhappy with the way they were treated.
Samoa is a case in point. Compared to its opponents Samoa had shorter recovery periods between matches, something many of their players felt gave the Tier One teams an unfair advantage. Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu has become a bit of an unofficial spokesman on this subject – not only for the Samoan team but all Tier Two nations. His outbursts on Twitter and his interviews have made him a cause célêbre for those (me included) who sympathise with him.The Tier Two Nations - Part 2
A lot of Georgia
The Tier Two Nations - Part 1
The Tier Two nations need a helping hand – and a level playing field!
Feature by Damian Corbet
The
Tier two nations have been showing a lot of promise at this year’s Rugby World
Cup, but there’s still a very long way to go before they reach the standard of
the top rugby nations.
Feature by Damian Corbet
 |
There
was a lot of pre-tournament hype about Georgia
Just
looking at European rugby for a moment, the biggest problem for countries like
Georgia and Romania – both of which have strong rugby traditions – is a lack of
regular, high level international competition. Playing in the World Cup every
four years, and getting heavily beaten by the ‘big boys’, is simply not enough.
They need more high level game time if they’re to reach the level of Italy, let
alone Scotland, arguable the weakest of the home nations.