Gerry Thornley: A move to summer would damage Irish rugby on many levels

Back in its more sepia-tinged days, when matches were often played on grassless mudheaps, there's an iconic picture of Fran Cotton and his fellow Lions during their match against the New Zealand Juniors in Wellington in July 1977. It's one of those snaps where the players of both sides have become so covered in mud that they are fairly indistinguishable from each other.

A decade on, there was also a famous photograph of Irish tighthead Des Fitzgerald and Welsh loosehead Jeff Whitefoot. They were coming off the Cardiff Arms Park after Ireland had just beaten Wales 15-11, arms around each other, in the final game of the 1987 Five Nations. Likewise, they were so caked in mud they could just as easily have been team-mates as opponents.

Indeed, the two props had been opponents in the corresponding game at Lansdowne Road the year before, and also team-mates when the British and Irish Lions played the Rest of the World in Cardiff when, according to Wikipedia, ‘the wet weather marred the game’.

Part of the sport's allure is that for a century and a half it has soldiered through the darkest days and nights of winter

Following that 1987 finale in the Five Nations, Fitzgerald and Whitefoot opposed each other again seven weeks subsequently in late May when Ireland met Wales in the sides’ pool opener at the inaugural 1987 World Cup in New Zealand. Windy Wellington lived up to its moniker that day, and a rusty Ireland’s inability to build a bigger buffer than 6-0 saw Wales come through to win 13-6.

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Endless winters indeed.

Okay, pictures of rugby mud-splattered players have perhaps become a little clichéd over the years if also a little less commonplace, thanks in the main to the improvement in pitches.

Yet rugby remains, to a relative degree any way, a game for all shapes and sizes, but perhaps not so much so for all seasons.

Part of the sport’s allure is that for a century and a half it has soldiered through the darkest days and nights of winter. In that sense, it has served society well, maintaining a social connection when otherwise there might not have been any, and the last three months serves as a reminder how valuable that can be.

Whether it’s participating at training sessions on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, with matches at the weekend and mini rugby sections on Sunday mornings, or providing supporters with weekly spectacles at professional level, rugby fills a void in a way that only a few sports do.

There was always likely to be one major sticking point when it came to the revived topic of a global calendar, and when the various unions and federations presented the clubs with a plan that required them to play through the summer months the indignant reaction from Premiership Rugby and the Ligue Nationale de Rugby was hardly surprising.

The respective chief executives of Leinster and Munster, Mick Dawson and Ian Flanagan, have also not been shy of expressing their opposition to the concept of playing through the summer months.

While they are not part of the debate at World Rugby, the Union and their counterpart in the IRFU, Philip Browne, represents their view. But while there might be a case for modifying the Test calendar to make it more aligned and financially remunerative, it's hard to see how summer rugby would not be anything other than damaging to all other levels in Ireland, the UK, France and Italy.

For example, there’s been little or no consideration for the amateur or semi-professional club game and how they would fit into a global calendar. Take the Energia All-Ireland League.

Moving to a summer season would inevitably see a further drop off in playing number as this would simply not suit players in the club and university game. Students would be doing exams and then heading abroad. Others would have families and holidays, or play summer sports.

Worse still, were the pro game to move to the summer and the amateur/semi-pro to remain in its traditional slot, it would ensure an even greater disconnect between the two and make the All-Ireland League even less relevant for academy players, those on development contracts and aspiring pros. This same disconnect would occur throughout the European game.

Nor will aligning the global Test calendar suddenly make frontline players available more often for their clubs or provinces. There will still be the same number of Test matches and weeks set aside for international rugby – ie 13 weeks or so during the season plus end-of-season tours. In other words, the maths won’t change, just the timing.

But if there’s one country where summer rugby is not really a runner it’s France, where most of the Top 14 and ProD2 clubs are located in the warmer climes of the south. Once at a game in late August in Biarritz some of us had to take refuge in the shade, the heat was so unbearable. It was pretty tough on the players too! They had to take at least two drinks breaks in each half.

Whatever about the ideological arguments against summer rugby, there are the economic ones. First and foremost, the Pro 14 and Champions Cup would surely suffer for going up against the GAA’s All-Ireland Championships. Munster and Connacht would struggle all the more so if one of their counties progressed to finals, especially if it was Limerick, Cork and/or Galway.

In England, rugby would be competing with traditional summer sports such as Wimbledon, cricket, the Henley Regatta, the British Open and major Flat racing meetings.

If the French and English have no intention of embracing summer rugby, then neither can the rest of the northern hemisphere, Ireland included

Similarly, the Top 14 would be up against the summer sporting behemoth that is the Tour de France, and the immensely popular clay court tennis circuit, of which the French Open is the highlight. Tennis is a hugely popular sport in France. If Gael Monfils had an extended run in Roland Garros, rugby wouldn't get a look in. Furthermore, many French people take to campsites for lengthy vacations and most of France simply shuts down in August.

The LNR and by extension therefore Canal+, the primary broadcaster of rugby in France, has made it clear that their summer schedules cannot be further divvied up.

Then there are the Olympics every fourth summer and the European finals and the World Cup in football every second summer.

And, lest we forget, for the sake of the European competitions, if the French and English have no intention of embracing summer rugby, then neither can the rest of the northern hemisphere, Ireland included.

For sure, you can’t help but wonder at times. There are days, and especially nights, when you’d wish rugby was a summer sport. Early season and particularly end-of-season games often helped to facilitate and display the game’s more skilful elements.

However, when you think of it, there’s a reason rugby has been played through the winter for the century and a half or so of its existence.

gthornley@irishtimes.com