The decision by the English Rugby Football Union (RFU) to sign an £87 million deal with Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB, for exclusive live broadcast rights to all their international representative and dub matches, must represent a very serious threat to the Five Nations Championship. Unsurprisingly, the other `home' nations Ireland, Scotland and Wales resent the RFU's unilateral action.
The International Championship is the most venerable competitive series in international rugby, for years it has been a by word for camaraderie and solidarity among nations. But now its future is threatened by a nasty, acrimonious battle about millions of pounds. The RFU says that it is entitled to secure the best possible deal for its `product'. The other home nations believe, with some justification, that the RFU has reneged on a long standing agreement in which all four home nations negotiated en bloc with the television companies.
In its own way, the dispute between the RFU's the other home nations again underlines the coarsening effect that a television predator like Sky is having on the sporting world. A long tradition of co-operation and solidarity among the `home' rugby nations counts for very little in a marketplace increasingly controlled by Mr Murdoch's deep pockets. In recent weeks, the sole imperative guiding the RFU's behaviour appears to have been the need to secure the best possible price. The fear of sundering the traditionally close links between the home nations indeed the very real threat to the International Championship appeared to be of secondary importance.
The options facing the Irish Rugby Football Union and the other home countries, as they mull over their response to the RFU's deal, appear limited. A plethora of senior rugby officials from Ireland, Scotland and Wales has hinted, darkly, that England could be banished from the Championship because of the RFU's breach of faith. There is loose talk that Italy or some other emerging rugby nation could step into the breach.
But any such approach is fraught with danger and could be counter productive. The harsh reality is that the championship would be seriously diminished without the white shirts. England remains the glamour team in the competition, the team with the highest profile and the side to beat in the Triple Crown. Italy would be a poor substitute.
Rugby officials from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and indeed France must also be alive to the very real danger that the RFU deal with Sky may herald not just the end of the Five Nations Championship but the beginning of a new era in rugby in which England's main priority will be regular test matches with the giants of the international game South Africa, New Zealand and Australia. If this materialises, Ireland could find itself with a permanent place in the second division of international rugby as Mr Murdoch restructures another international sport to suit his own purpose.