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International rugby would benefit from its own version of the one-on-one challenge formula that maintains the Ranfurly Shield as New Zealand’s most revered rugby trophy.

World rugby would gain from a global Ranfurly Shield

By Pattrick Smellie

International rugby would benefit from its own version of the one-on-one challenge formula that maintains the Ranfurly Shield as New Zealand’s most revered rugby trophy.

According to research by Jonathan McKeown, a sports-mad Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology School of Business researcher, a global version of the Ranfurly Shield would have seen every major rugby-playing nation holding the trophy at some stage in the 11 years since the 1999 Rugby World Cup.

The simplicity of the challenge process might also overcome the complexity that has stymied earlier attempts to create extra international fixtures, particularly those which pit northern and southern hemisphere teams against one another.

Since 1999, “the Shield would have been held by all of the current top six rugby nations,” says McKeown, who plans to send a proposal to the International Rugby Board when his marketing based research is complete.

“What is important is that second tier rugby nations would have had the chance to win an international trophy in a one-off match, a much more realistic prospect than winning a World Cup.”

“Teams like Canada, Samoa, the United States and even Italy, Wales and Scotland could run onto the field with a real chance to create some history for their country. This is the unique aspect that would appeal to players and fans. And instead of some teams sending second string teams on June and November tours, the matches could have the relevant intensity of a Shield clash at international level.”

McKeown reckons the model competition would need to have a Kiwi flavour, because of its roots in this country, and suggests the 1924/25 Invincibles, who won all 32 of their games on a tour of the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Canada would be appropriate.

“It is time New Zealand shared this most successful competition with the world,” says McKeown, who suggests the 2011 Rugby World Cup is the perfect opportunity for New Zealand to give world rugby a legacy that could stretch for another century.

“The symmetry of a unique rugby trophy being presented at the same venue where the World Cup was held aloft for the first time surely would resonate with rugby fans around the globe,” McKeown says.

Since 2003, various expansive ideas have been put forward and failed. Australian Rugby Union boss John O’Neill put some ideas on the table, because the three southern hemisphere unions wanted to make their tours to the northern hemisphere more meaningful. However, the resulting Nine Nations design didn’t get off the groun.

In 2007 the then IRB chairman Syd Millar said “We have to look maybe at some other formula rather than just have the Southern Hemisphere countries coming here in the autumn and playing a few matches and the Northern Hemisphere sides going to the Southern Hemisphere in May and June.”

In 2008, the IRB suggested a biennial World Series to add significance to the rugby calendar outside the World Cup, aiming for 2010 as the year for kick-off. An IRB spokesman told the Daily News this was “a complex jigsaw with a lot of obstacles to be overcome.”

With the season almost over, the obstacles were apparently too many.

“The complexity of these competitions ultimately proved their downfall,” says McKeown. “The absolute simplicity of the Ranfurly Shield is what has made it so successful and enduring. An international version of this competition would have these same qualities. Awarded to the winner at each World Cup, the trophy would then be defended at home games within the current (already crowded) international schedule.”

Key elements of McKeown’s draft proposal include:
• Awarding the new trophy to the winner at the end of each RWC for defence in all international rugby contests at the home grounds of the holding team;
• Playing for the trophy within the current international window, not cluttering an already dense world rugby schedule (apart from development tours);
• Adding purpose to the June and November test windows, and providing second tier nations with the opportunity to win an international trophy;
• The Shield could have a specific focus on developing rugby nations to grow interest in rugby union globally. To achieve this, the Shield could be taken on tour to developing rugby nations to give Japan, China, Georgia, Russia, USA and Canada the chance to challenge a heavyweight for a major international trophy and gain exposure in their country, akin to the pre-season provincial Ranfurly Shield tours.

“Holding the Shield would be of financial and cultural value to the holding teams and as the Shield develops a history and allure, it will invigorate media, administrators, players and fans,” says McKeown.

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