Rugby strives to regain positive popularity in England
England has one of the best sporting cultures in the world. With popular sports such as horse racing, football and golf, rugby fails to gather the same attention in the media.
Last year, the English Rugby team went through an interesting year. Drug scandals, rape allegations and who could forget the famous bloodgate scandal - 2009 was surely a rough year for England’s national rugby union team.
In April 2009, the English rugby union team is popularly known as the Harlequins were involved in the use of blood capsules during a game and hence this became known as the bloodgate scandal. Harlequins’ winger Tom Williams faked a blood injury by using blood capsules during the quarter-final of the 2009 Heineken Cup. When inquired later, Williams confessed that he had done this in order to get a tactical substitution. Later, investigations revealed that the Harlequins had faked such injuries on four occasions in the past as well. Bans were imposed left, right and centre - Williams was slapped with a yearlong ban, a three year ban was imposed on Rugby Director Dean Richard and a two year ban for physiotherapist Steph Brennan. Even club doctor Wendy Chapman was suspended since she was the one who covered up the use of blood capsules in the English team. Due to an appeal, the ban on Williams was reduced to four months.
In March, rape allegation on some members of England’s rugby union team took the country by storm. One woman claimed that she was gang raped by three members of the team at the Ramada Hotel in Bewdley, Worcestershire where the team was celebrating after beating an Irish club.
No matter how bad the situation gets, rugby is still not like football as it doesn’t undergo transfer madness during the summer season. Players prefer to go to another team when their contract is over. Normally, players renew and sign contracts with club teams during the month of January. If the players have less than six months to go on their current contract, they are free to go and inquire about other clubs. Although a number of controversies have erupted in British rugby, many believe that it’s just another attempt to attain the coverage that football gets. Others call it a trick to cover up the scandals and accusations that have embroiled British rugby over the year.
The four main teams in rugby’s domestic season in England include Sale, Leeds, Newcastle and Leicester. With Leicester’s ahead of the other three, stiff competition is witnessed between Newcastle and Sale. This season has seen the salary cap making its presence felt as well which has caused a lot of worries amongst British rugby players about their wages. Obviously, since this depends on how well they play, all the teams are actively practicing and hoping to avoid the cap this year. Fans of the Tigers and Northampton have debated that the cap needs to be looked at again or should be completely eliminated.
People think that the cap should be determined after looking at the maximum turnover of different clubs. There shouldn’t be a fixed level. That does seem like a fair practice as to why should the salary be equal if the turnover for all the clubs isn’t the same? This way, it is assumed that all the clubs peak the cap’s limit. In the previous season, Leeds didn’t and they obtained a smaller amount of central funds as compared to other clubs. This year however, Newcastle and Sale are in danger since they need to increase their turnover in order to receive more funds and hence a higher salary. Both the teams have lost their high earners last year.
Some clubs like Northampton, Harlequins, Leicester and Gloucester are amending their facilities amid hopes to gather a larger fan base. Wembley really appears to be the rugby favorite as many clubs are conducting their matches over there.
With so much going on, Rugby clubs are on high alert and are careful to stay friendly with the media. They are trying their best to increase awareness and encourage positive sentiments about England’s domestic rugby teams.
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