BBC SPORT | Rugby Union | International | Rugby minnows face extinction



By David Walmsley BBC Sport Online

Rugby's poorest unions could fold within five years if next month's inter-hemisphere fund-raising match does not go ahead, a leading official has warned.

The International Rugby Board's (IRB) North/South Challenge has been scheduled for Twickenham on 30 November.

But players' unions, international coaches and leading club sides have all called for a boycott of the contest.

Hemisphere clash condemned

The players and coaches fear another international would increase the risk of burn-out.

And England's Zurich Premiership clubs have said they will not release their Test stars because the match date falls outside the agreed international fixture window.

We could have accepted the England tour but it would have meant the end of our unions

Philipp Muller
Samoa RFU

However, the unions the contest is meant to help are demanding the IRB stands firm.

They say without radical changes to the way the game is run and funded, only charity match handouts can save them from extinction.

Philipp Muller, chief executive of the Samoa RFU, told BBC Sport Online: "Without such support at least, the three Island unions will not be able to tour or to host visiting teams for Tests.

"Without exposure to Test matches, these Island teams would lose all competitiveness, which in turn could spell their demise as early as the 2007 Rugby World Cup.

"We have our backs against the wall now."

He also attacked opponents of the north-south match, saying: "It does not augur well for world rugby when rich clubs and players can only think of their own interests.

"I don't see how this one game can damage their welfare so badly."

Afato So'oalo takes on Ireland's Geordan Murphy at Lansdowne Road
Samoa struggle to cover tour costs
Muller believes the match will generate a surplus of about �1m, but not all of it will go directly to the breadline unions of Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and Romania.

He will, of course, be grateful for whatever contribution the North/South Challenge can make to Samoan funds.

But he still believes the match will merely mask the underlying causes of the Island unions' problems.

The Samoa chief executive blames the IRB tours agreement, which insists hosting countries pay all the touring side's local expenses but keep all revenues.

That, he said, means the Island nations end up out of pocket whether they play home or away.

Because of this situation, Muller added, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga might already have gone bust if England's tour to the Islands earlier this year had not been cancelled.

England's Pacific tour cancelled

He said: "We could have accepted the England tour but it would have meant the end of our unions with debt incurred well beyond our ability to pay."

Muller believes until the tours agreement changes and the Island nations gain a greater say in running the game, charity match handouts will be "tokenism of the worst kind."

Alternative sources of funding exist, he believes, but few of the sport's superpowers are prepared to embrace them.

"The RFU were prepared to forfeit their [annual] development grant of �150,000 to support the hard-pressed unions," he said.

"But only one other union was prepared to do likewise."


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