Summer rugby

It's a simple question - would summer rugby improve playing numbers?
It was John Allan (the former Scotland hooker) who said that there is very little chance of anyone taking much in at training on a sleety Thursday night in mid-December when the mud is over the top of your boots and when you can barely feel your hands because it is so cold.
On the plus-side, the nights are longer and you can train in daylight, underfoot conditions are much better, as a TV spectacle you aren't competing with soccerball (apart from their World Cups) and, for the smaller clubs who lose playets to Uni in bigger cities, those guys might well be back home.
The only downsides that I can see are that, in Edinburgh in particular, a lot of rugby pitches become cricket pitches in the summer so there would be a lot of confloct as to who got priority and there may be golfers who woudl rather play golf in summer. Pitches can be watered (they woudl have more grass on them anyway if they hadn't been beaten to hell and back during the winter months) and, if you are being really picky, you could say that heat may be a factor but you can play games earlier or later if needs be.
With so many other distractions/excuses for the large number who play at school but then don't carry on, I genuinely think that moving to summer (even if just for the non-pro game) would bring stacks more players in/back.

Rupert Murdoch would never allow it.

You would only have the two codes of rugby "competing" against each other (ignoring cricket apart from test matches). It would take the rugby/soccer clash away and may even improve viewing figures.

InjuredYetAgain wrote:You would only have the two codes of rugby "competing" against each other............

Precisely.

Rupert Murdoch would never allow it.

It's a nice idea but how do you start it.

Lets say next year they decide to do this ,do you finish the Heineken Cup and immediately begin the next season with no rest for the players that year.

Sorry missed the non pro game part,yeah I agree 100% then summer rugby is far better.

Do you just leave out France and Italy? The conditions are too much for them to play at that time of year.

asoreleftshoulder wrote:It's a nice idea but how do you start it.

Lets say next year they decide to do this ,do you finish the Heineken Cup and immediately begin the next season with no rest for the players that year.

The best thing would probably be to do it in a World Cup year. Let's say it was brought in around 2015, you would have the 2014/15 domestic season and Heineken Cup as normal, then only focus build-up on the 2015 World Cup. Then in 2016 you would start the season (probably in February) and go from there.

I can't see any clubs being happy to give up all the revenue they get from playing matches for a stretch of April til February,they'd still have to pay players wages in all that down time.

I like the idea myself but don't think it'll ever happen for these reasons.

the only reason the scrum exists is so half the team can have a warm on a freezing febuary afternoon, so says this wing/fullback

Summer rugby would be a great idea.

Personally, I'd hate it. I'd probably end up going to and watching far fewer matches, my weekends get a lot more full in the summer and I'm often away on an activity trip. Moving games to the evening to avoid any heat issues would have a similar effect.

The season already starts in August in France. They play in the evenings to cope with the heat.

In Ireland it would force people to choose between GAA sports and rugby. Not good.

World Cups and European Championships would blow us out of the summer. Every second season... it would really effect the sports TV coverage and money.