Time to take stock and look ahead to 2012
First of all, congratulations are in order. Those of you with very long memories will recall John Goldschmidt, one of the pioneers of the Exiles in the 1960´s. Some of us have kept contact with John over the years and we were delighted to see that his daughter, Sophie, earlier this year was appointed new chief commercial officer of the RFU. Sophie is about 20 years younger than most of the blazerati in the RFU management and is the only female in sight. She is, however, probably the best qualified of anyone at the RFU, with an outstanding career in the international management of both tennis and basketball. We wish her every success in her new and difficult venture.
Another name from the past is Richie Dixon, former coach of Scotland, Sweden and most recently, Georgia. Georgia did not badly at all in the World Cup and are moving steadily up the rankings. In recognition of this, Richie has just been awarded the Georgian Honorary Orders of Excellence by Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili. This is apparently the second highest award in the country and is a rather large medal studded with diamonds. Well done Richie, great to see you getting recognition for decades of work in furthering rugby around the world!
A note on the IRB. Shock, horror! A vote takes place for the top position, the chairmanship of the IRB! Normally this is decided among the chaps on the principle of Buggins turn. In 2007 it was thought that former England captain Billy Beaumont was going to run. He stood down to give Frenchman Lapasset a clear run, no nonsense of a vote or anything like that, but only on the understanding, it is rumoured , that Lapasset would stand down in 2011 for Beaumont to take over. And then it turns out that the French bounder is planning to stand for a second four-year term, so Beaumont will have to take part in an election to get the job. This appointment or as it turns out, election, was supposed to take place at the end of the World Cup in October but was discretely postponed until the last minute in December. Let´s not spoil the World Cup with all this democratic election nonsense!
Fast forward to Los Angeles in December where it was announced thst Lapasset has been re-elected by a vote of 14 – 12. Poor Billy even loses the vice-chairman´s position with the chairman giving his casting vote to a South African after a 13 – 13 vote.
The interesting point of this story is how the votes were cast. I have made the point many times that the IRB is a parody of a democratic organisation. Eight founder nations have two votes each, four more have one vote each and there are a further six votes for the six regional organisations of the IRB. These regional organisations were introduced a few years ago to give a semblance of all member nations having a say in the governing body, i e the IRB. Important from the viewpoint of the Olympics.
So let´s look at the votes: England (2), Scotland (2), Ireland (2), Wales (2), France (2), South Africa (2), Australia (2) and New Zealand (2). Argentina (1), Italy (1), Canada (1) and Japan (1). Districts: North America (1, from the USA), South America (1, from Argentina), Europe (1, from Portugal), Africa (1, from Marocco), Asia (1, from Japan) and Oceania (1, from Samoa). One or two last minute changes to the nationalities of the district representatives, perhaps reflecting the fact that it was realised a tight vote was in the pipeline.
Normally, Oz and NZ would not necessarily be on the same side as the home nations, but this time they had a common interest. Both of the Antipodean countries had made it clear that they wanted more money for participating in World Cups and good old reliable Billy was very much in favour of that, along with the four home nations. Who, it has to be said, generate most of the money in world rugby.
Although not revealed publicly, it seems clear that Beaumont´s 12 votes came from the four home nations plus Oz and NZ, representing 6 rugby nations (four Olympic nations). This suggests that France and South Africa plus all four of the one vote nations and all six of the one vote districts all voted for the French candidate. These 14 votes came from around 100 rugby playing nations. A narrow win, in other words, given the pathetic voting structure of the IRB. Even more interesting was that Wales and Scotland were voted off the executive committee and replaced by the USA and Japan. A clear shift in the balance of power in the IRB, suggesting that it will become less of a source of income and power for the founding fathers and more of a genuine world body. There was even some talk of each rugby playing country getting a vote on the IRB. What on earth will they think of next?
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Returning to more mundane matters, the leagues set-up for 2012. A basic principle in any sporting context is that you know what you are playing for each season. After an exciting round-off to the men´s season in 2011, three teams were relegated: Göteborg, Attila and Trojan. Conversely, three teams were promoted: Pingvin, Vänersborg and Lugi. But now, two months later, all of that is ignored and in essence, the SRF has decided that no teams are relegated or promoted. The positive justification a reduction in travel costs, the negative consequences a considerable number of missmatches and a reduction in the number of games. A team can win the Championship playing 11-12 games and a team knocked out earlier as few as 8 games.
Neither of the two teams which have dominated the Championship in recent years think this is a good solution, although they are not yet in agreement. Enköping would like to see a top league of 8 teams with play-offs, giving at most an 18-game season, while Exiles would like to see the same as before, six teams with at most 14 games. There are signs that Enköping might be prepared to accept the ”six” alternative, rather than having an even worse decision. The Exiles chairman has made the point that of last years six ”elite” teams, only four were able to field a full team for all of their games. The organisation of the teams this year would probably be improved by the presence of the promoted teams, Pingvin and Vänersborg. The chairman has also made the point that most clubs seem to have about ten games in them in a season and that this would rule out the eight team format.
If the die is cast, however, with the 4 x 4 format being more or less decided, this will result in a Spring season for Enköping playing Attila, Uppsala and Exiles Twos and Exiles playing Hammarby, Södertälje and Trojan, two of which were comfortably beaten by the Exiles Twos last year. Not a very thrilling prospect.
Two specific requests, however: make sure that teams more or less play every other week at home, instead of long series at home or away. And stop rearranging games because of Sevens tournaments.
I think the Union´s views on the Ladies and U19 is sensible, however. Let the Ladies start off with Sevens and Tens and let the stronger teams move on to Fifteens at the sharp end of the season. Two well-established clubs, Vänersborg and Trojan, failed to field teams last year and many of their better players went to Göteborg who of course won the title fairly easily. Let´s hope these clubs get back on their own in 2012.
The U19 championship in 2011, or rather the lack thereof, was one of the many minor scandals of the past year. A trial balloon was launched to make it U20 but this seemed to fall through and nothing whatsoever was organised at national level. Arranging the early rounds at district level seems more sensible and let the best four fight it out at national level.
By the way, the international standard nowadays is U20 and U18 and Sweden should perhaps move to this sooner rather than later. But not U20 and U17, the gap is too big between these two age groupings.
What can Exiles look forward to in the coming season? As Hamish has recently pointed out, we can probably field four teams this year as our army of young players comes through.
Our first team will probably be as strong as last year, even though we will be trying to phase our younger players in. I created a certain amount of Schadenfreude early last season by suggesting this was our best team ever and that we might win the league easily, only for them to lose by 60 points a couple of months later. The Exiles team pre-season was excellent, but they probably didn´t rise to that level again until the second final. They only won that by eight points, but they missed kicks worth 15 points and suffered a 14 point interception turnaround score.
At the time I made my pre-season claims last year the only serious rivals Enköping were playing no games, admitting they were struggling financially and desperately advertising for players. Well, they got together half a dozen decent recruits and played well to take the title. I said several times last year that Exiles dominated for long periods against Enköping and yet still lost three games out of four. It has taken me some time to realise that dominating for long periods doesn´t necessarily win tight games. Putting together 20 phases without creating any real openings may look good, but a quick counter-attack can still put you 7 points behind. Enköping played tight games with a fast-up rugby league defence, rarely passing outside the fly-half, but snapped up every chance that was going in the loose and they got their just rewards.
I dont know what sort of strength Enköping will have in 2012. They don´t seem to have many young players coming through, with no second team, no U19 and no players in the U18 squad for Spain in the Spring. But there is an army of young men in Europe happy to move and play rugby anywhere. So it´s really just a question of making sensible choices and looking after them.
The Exiles Ladies have half a dozen current internationals, but they were only able to get a well-performing team together on a few occasions last season. The season was much disrupted for everyone so let´s hope they can build up a bit of momentum and peak at the right time.
The bright spots in Swedish rugby over the last couple of years have been the national teams. The senior men, now ranked 35th in the world, look fairly certain to be promoted to the European 1B group in the Autumn, a major step up in the opposition. A win at home against Latvia should be enough to do it. A fine achievement, although I´ve sometimes recorded missgivings about the strength of the team.
At the Sevens level the European Grand Prix Series (GPS) moves into its second year. Only one team was promoted from Division A last year as Scotland was given direct entry into the GPS. Russia and Moldova were relegated while Germany was promoted after a hard-fought battle against Belgium and Sweden. Sweden played some outstanding games last year and are now ranked 4th in Div. A after Romania, Moldovia and Belgium. Two teams to be promoted; if Sweden can play to last year´s level, they are definitely in with a chance.
The U18 team finished second last year in Division B Europe to Spain, whom we expected to be promoted to Division A containing two of the Six Nations countries, while the top four 6N fought it out for the European title (won, incidentally, by Ireland who outplayed a much bigger English team). But this has been changed, with no explanation given in the time-honoured AER (FIRA) tradition. It seems that the 6N now want to play all their games in the same group, probably for logistical reasons, and this leaves only two places for the rest of Europe. A qualifying round was played this Winter, with Portugal and Georgia taking these places ahead of Belgium and Romania. The eight teams in the Division A below the Elite level will now be ranked as Germany, Belgium, Romania, Spain, Russia, Sweden, Lithuania and the Czech Republic. With Sweden being bumped down to sixth, they will have to play Romania in the quarter-final, no easy task. We would hope to stay in this group after 2012, quite an achievement to play among the top 16 in Europe, including the 6N. And with nine Exiles in the squad this must make us one of the best club sides in Europe at this age level.
The Ladies will also be battling it out internationally on two fronts, both Fifteens and Sevens.
They have fallen off a bit after the euphoria of getting to the World Cup in 2010, but are still a side to be reckoned with in Europe.
The European Cup (XV:s) this year will only involve 8 teams and Sweden is one of them. Wales, Ireland and Scotland seem unwilling to take part and the top four will play a round-robin in Group A among England, France, Italy and Spain.
Group B, consisting of the Netherlands, Sweden, Russia and Finland, will only play two matches each, not clear why, semis and final rankings. Sweden to play Russia in the semi, with home advantage in Enköping. It seems as if the winner of this B-group will play in the next qualifying round for the 2014 World Cup. The Netherlands the favourites on current form, but Sweden came through as underdogs in 2010. Seven Exiles Ladies in the preliminary training squad.
It certainly looks as if Sevens is to be the big step forward for spreading Ladies rugby in Europe. First of all there is a European Women´s Sevens Series (EWSS) with the 12 top teams. Sweden did not do themselves justice last year as sickness swept through the camp. They are ranked 9th, but this has no practical significance as each group plays a round-robin format. Sweden in a tough grouping with both England and France involved.
In addition to the EWSS there are two groups of 12 and 10 countries respectively, each with the cryptic heading WRWC 2013, qualification 1st round. This refers to the final Sevens Rugby World Cup in 2013 in Russia, prior to it being superceded by the Olympics in 2016. The best teams in these two groups will presumeably be moved up to the EWSS for a final qualifying round, not clear when this can be fitted in. Interesting to see that Wales and Scotland, not always the most enthusiastic participants in Europe, are ranked low down in these qualifying groups. Someone making a point somewhere. There will be six or seven European teams of the 16 for Russia in 2013. Sweden not without a chance, but they will have to raise their game a notch to make the cut.
Just for the record, here are the international activities this Spring:
Men:
European Nations Cup 21/4, 5/5
Sevens Div A 19-20/5; second round ?
Ladies:
European Cup 3/5, 6/5
Sevens EWSS 16-17/6
U18:
European Championship Div A 31/3 – 6/4
For God´s sake, plan the league fixtures accordingly, and soon!
Best wishes to all for the coming year!
