London Welsh Trumoil

I haven't commented much on this one, but it is a sorry tell of alleged fraud, deception and poor due diligence. With the club back in the hands of the good and true its time to look to the future.

What is needed a coherent plan which must start with what level funding the club can raise and which level of the game that will get them. Previous planning seems to have been to aim for the top level or bust; well now they are bust. What next?

I don't think the club have leveraged the brand successfully in the past; this must be addressed. Though I think it has been moving in the right direction, there is an enormous amount of untapped potential. London Welsh has good facilities and a great location which are under utilized.

Once the potential value of franchise has been properly assessed then the club has the hard decision to make. Can it afford to play in GP (not a chance), the Championship (probably) or will it be lower down.

London Welsh have to access if the value of franchise is enhanced or reduced by the 'soft 'n' friendly' family club with a good social atmosphere and the need to centre activity at Old Deer Park? London Irish is a much bigger and successful club because of its move from Sunbury. Many current members (myself included) won't like this but it may be for the greater good. If the new management maintains the status quo then the club may have to accept a lower league is the best balance of ambition and resources.

The membership and owners needs to realise the club is neither a ‘community resource’ nor a business but must recognise the success will come from objective business management and engaging the broader stakeholder community.

Finally, the RFU needs to end the arms race in the lower leagues. Salaries in the lower leagues are clearly at a level that is unsustainable and are only justified in buying promotion to the top level. However, like the rest of the country, debt and living beyond ones resources is doomed to failure; Coventry, Birmingham, London Welsh and Manchester have all hit the skids this season. Simply, there is not enough money in the game to allow this to continue. The solution is either to pull up the draw bridge to the Premiership and allow funding and salaries to find its own level or if the RFU want to use the Championship as a development league then it needs to increase the funding available and impose a salary cap.

Referees to get TVs

Sounds like a good move to me. It will save a great deal of confusion an
will see the referee restored to the sole arbiter of law

http://www.planetrugby.com/story/0,25883,3943_5868505,00.html#

Back after a Long Break

DSC_3887
Originally uploaded by Dai Stanton

The combination of Autumn Internationals, man flu, Christmas and the weather have contrived to keep me off the park for over two months. Sunday saw me return to action in a U17 game which was a top of the table clash.

The home side were dominant, but managed to give the oppo two first half interception tries. They fought back to win 18-14 despite the referee blowing up 8 1/2 minutes early and needing to restart the game.

It wasn't my best day, the lay-off took its toll as did the mince pies. I wasn't sharp enough and my fitness was below where it needed to be for the speed of the game. Still and enjoyable contest.

IRB Player of the Year

Hardly surprising since they changed the game to accomodate him.

Richie McCaw. Well done.

Holy Trinity

Last night the Society hosted three of the iRB panel referees, Wayne Barnes, Stu Dickinson (or Dicko, aparently) and Bryce Lawerence. There was an informanal Q&A session and some predicable ribbing about Cueto's non-try in RWC07 (Dicko was the TMO) and the scrum in the 1st Lions Test (Bryce was the Ref).

The most interesting point to come out of it came when the three were asked about crooked feeds at scrums. Barnes said that if every other safety-related issue was in hand, then he would look for crooked feeds. Bryce agreed but astonishingly, admitted that prior to the ANZ Cup season the referees agreed between themselves not to referee feeds.

Bryce showed some humour when asked how he thought England would play he said that he'd been reading the English press and Jonny was going to win it for them and if he didn't it would Bryce's fault. Perceptive man. Our session last night also included a scrumaging presentation, so I hope that helped.

The three were also asked what rule changes they would like to see.

Dicko said he would like to see no points for a drop goal

Bryce said he would like collapsing the maul back

and Barnes said he would like referee replacements!

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Bombay Mix

For most of us rugby and India only mixed at 10.30 on a Saturday night after 10 pints but a recent Society meeting saw a couple of referees from the subcontinent talk to us on the Game in their part of the world. The London Society has undertaken an exchange with India as part of the generous sponsorship from Standard Chartered Bank. I was surprised to hear that two of the oldest clubs in world rugby are Bombay Gymkhana and Calcutta (of the Cup fame). Despite Britain’s long residence in the country the locals failed to take up the game to the same degree as the rest of the colonies; preferring, to whoop us at cricket instead.
These days, the iRB are leading the development of the game and the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in 2011 is proving some development focus as well as much needed pitches. There are only two pitches in the country during the monsoon season! Since 2001 players numbers in Indian have risen from 1,500 to over 17,000 as development of the game has focused on armed forces and the police as well as youth.

http://rugbyindia.in/

Referee development is more difficult, there are very few in the country and they suffer from having on a small number of games, typically 4-5 per year. Then there are distances involved with limited expenses to cover travel and with only one assessor to cover the entire country getting help for improvement is a slow process. The two referees who came to London were found 4 games each, both youth and senior and were assessed at each. There thoughts are that with adequate support from Standard Chartered this type of exchange can continue in Indian and other developing rugby nations.
A final story, the corresponding London referee who visited India was given a match between Uzbekistan and the Bombay Police. It was all going well with the large crowd enjoying the game. Unfortunately a high tackle by the Uzbeks provoke ire amongst the crowd and 150 plastic chair welding spectators invaded the pitch and began attacking players and each other!

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Holy Trinity

An exciting prospect for next week's referee training is that it will feature three top international referees giving us the benefit of their wisdom. Our own Wayne Barnes will be joined by Bryce Lawrence and Stuart Dickinson. The latter two will, no doubt, be keen to pick up tips on refereeing the scrummage from the lively JP Doyle (one to watch) .