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Re-wiring rugby union - a concerned fan's dream of the future

Fantasy or fact...what will the world game be like in 2095 and beyond?

by Greg Smith on 12 April 2009

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I awoke this morning pondering the current nightmare status of rugby union (and its future) and as I was filled with morning glory, for a minute I wandered off into rugby dreamland. This is what it looked like...

Starting with hardcore dreams, I pictured New Zealand on par with Canada. That whetted my lips for the USA and Argentina to battle to beat Mexico while India were cleaning up the sub-continental trophy leading up to the 2095 Rugby World Cup (in Mozambique) featuring 150 participating countries.

The IRB rankings, led by Kenya (1), Korea (2), Kazakhstan (3) and hot contenders India, were closely monitored by six billion rugby union fans worldwide (in a future world population of 18 Billion)

Go-on Lukme, the Chinese president of the IRB, confirmed that the $3 trillion needed for the building of stadiums in Jerusalem (in the run-up to RWC 2100 celebrations) wouldn't be a problem as a tidy profit of $16 trillion was expected from RWC Mozambique in 2095.

News from the African continent indicated that Kenya were stretching their lead as the continent's hottest property while Lesotho and Namibia were waving the flag for southern Africa against northern giants Sudan and Libya.

In South America, Chile were again in a ding-dong battle with old rivals, the Honduras Hurricanes, with Peru hosting Brazil in the semi-final of the local derby for RWC qualifying before jetting off to Manila for the Trans-Pacific Cup.

Samoa and Japan were concerned about the relative weakness of teams from New Zealand and were sending a coaching team to bolster rugby in this region.

Australia had finally successfully lobbied the BNP-led government in England to withdraw their independence and the joint British, Irish, Faroe Island and Australian Lions were playing in St Petersburg against the Tzars, who were leading the Test series 2-1.

France, Germany and Holland were locked in a titanic struggle with Georgia, Albania and Greece.

Egyptian rugby union fans were furious that Italy had been allowed a home referee against Sweden as new Euro Cup teams like Lebanon and Jordan hadn't.

The USA had again thrashed the new Republic of the Eastern Cape in southern Africa, while the Republic of the Western Cape looked good against local powerhouse Botswana in the SADC conference.

Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Namibia all looked set to dominate the pan-African Cup to be held in Madagascar.

China and Scotland played a quarter-final for the prestigious InterWeb TV Channel 3 Cup in Cyprus.

More was expected from Fiji, Tonga and Belise before the Captain's Trophy final in Jamaica.

But then I woke up. - and turned on the telly to see egg and bacon rugby. New Zealand beating whoever... yawn!

Happy days!

Comments (2)

by Brad on April 14, 2009

Rugby is almost dead in Aussie...no one watches it on tv and attendances are down... and apparently same in NZ. You know rugby is in trouble when people in nz stop attending especially when theres nothing else to do in nz.

by Xavier on April 22, 2009

I agree rugby is in turmoil in NZ. NZ fans are a fickle lot and demand the impossible. We must learn to lose before we can win. Too long now have the public expected NZ to win every game. That simply cannot happen as they are only human and not supermen. A common theme I hear in NZ is that the ELVs haven't helped either turning many NZ fans off simply because they cant understand what's going on and the refs seem just as confused!?! Inconsistencies has plagued the super 14. I hope that they will revert back to the old rules, the rules we are familiar with and then leave the game alone!! Strength in international rugby is becoming more apparent. Its great to see and can only be good for the game. South African depth at the moment is very impressive with some exciting players coming up through the ranks such as Kankowski, Spies etc and Kenya are doing really well in the 7's. I'm all for international rugby becoming a success, it will make for a much more interesting world cup rather than the usual 10 ten teams in with a shot.