European season format is a mess

So that was the weekend that was. England conducted a lap of Old Trafford after their heaviest home defeat to New Zealand, South Africa bade adieu on behalf of everyone to Parc des Princes with an, er, slightly more justifiable lap of honour after inflicting France with their heaviest defeat ever and Scotland suffered their heaviest defeat to Australia. Heavy stuff.

This was the pick of the Northern Hemisphere at home to the pick of the Southern Hemisphere, and one of the former's Celtic also rans (Scotland) against the weakest link in the southern chain, Australia. Yet the final tally was 15 tries to three for the visitors, or 114 points to 28.

A fortnight into this autumnal war of the worlds, and the southern raiders have plundered five wins and one draw on European soil, by an aggregate of 228 points to 88, or 29 tries to eight. Despite the slightly misleading achievement of the Lions' results in South Africa, the gap is as big as it ever was, maybe bigger.

The differences are pronounced. "Southern Hemisphere rugby is a different game from that which we are used to playing in Europe," opined French captain Philippe Saint-Andre after arguably the most stunning rugby result of the 1990s.

So much for winning the Grand Slam. France's achievement has since been put into perspective by four successive defeats to Southern Hemisphere sides. And they didn't even play New Zealand.

Saint-Andre drew on past meetings with many of these same South Africans when adding: "The same players have all put on half a stone of muscle, but at the same time they have also become faster by two-tenths of a second."

Cynical observers might be suspicious about that but Saint-Andre correctly attributes this to the greater intensity which these Southern Hemisphere players are regularly experiencing.

Even a cursory look at the respective seasons in the southern and northern confirms this truism. All the leading New Zealand, South African and Australian players played in their combined, representative tournament, namely the Super 12s from March to May.

From this their international squads came together effectively for two and a half months, warming up with maybe a trial and then a couple of internationals against visiting teams before embarking on their home-and-away, four-game Tri-Nations championship.

In contrast, the leading European players are not being exposed to the same intensity on a weekly basis. The European Cup, would-be rival to the Super 12s, is nothing like as viable commercially.

Below European Cup level, the club game is directionless and in danger of going bankrupt. All bar Cardiff (currently in dispute with the Welsh Union) of the eight premier Welsh clubs are urgently seeking talks with their union to head off what they describe as impending bankruptcy. Similar tales are emanating from an English game spending money it doesn't have and also here in Ireland, where the Union are desperately trying to conduct a near impossible balancing act between provinces and clubs.

True, England played well against the All Blacks. They tackled hard, got in amongst the All Blacks, put them on the back foot and rattled them. They even put together a good last 15 minutes. But for the time being it has to be set against the previous week's offering against Australia and viewed as a one-off.

Still and all, England have effectively come together for a month and by playing the world's best over four successive Saturdays will probably be better honed for the Five Nations than any of their rivals, all the more so as their players have come from the European Cup to the most competitive club league in Europe.

Nonetheless, it would perhaps best serve their rugby and European rugby in general, if South Africa and New Zealand reaffirm the yawning gap between the hemispheres. The danger in the occasional wins for Northern Hemisphere sides over their southern counterparts is that they dupe people into believing everything in the European garden is rosy. Clearly it ain't.

By comparison, defeat concentrates the mind. In the fall-out from France's record 52-10 defeat, the calls for a complete revamping of their unwieldly French championship has gathered pace.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch so to speak, and a zillion miles away from all of this, the first series of matches in the AIB League concluded with a 33 draw. 'Nuff said.

The key to this seismic weekend in international rugby is how the Northern Hemisphere countries respond to it. A combined response from the Five Unions is called for, as it's quite clear that the structure of the European season is a mess.

Copying the Southern Hemisphere season, (and why not for heaven's sake?) ideally the European Cup should be a build-up to the Five Nations. As things stand, it's ridiculous that the European Cup is spread out over four months, with the semi-finals and final being conducted like bolts from the blue in the two months after the group stages are completed. The knock-out rounds should follow the group stages immediately, while the competition still has impetus.

Given a brief interregnum, with which the international squads can do as they best please, the Five Nations perhaps ought to be run over successive weeks, rather than being hostages to tradition and dovetailing on a fortnightly basis with domestic club competitions. This way, the international squads would stay together over a shorter, but more intense period.

Here again the European game is a hostage to tradition, in that its base lies with the clubs and not the provinces. But the domestic club competitions could also be run off in one phase of the season, either before the provincial/European competitions or after the Five Nations' international campaign. At least then it would all be clearly defined and structured, providing the requisite levels of intensity for the leading players and a chance for each strand of the game to be financially viable.

It's comforting to know that Ireland is dragging its feet into professionalism pretty much as unsurely and limply as are most of its Five Nations counterparts. In some respects the IRFU's hands are tied, but this shouldn't mean they just sit on them.

For example, still nothing has been done vis-a-vis contracting the provincial squads for next season. Were they provided with 25 full-time contracts now, with allowance for another five once the season has started, it would have a twofold purpose.

Aside from giving the four provinces the wherewithal to assemble professional squads, they could then provide a base from which Brian Ashton could choose his domestic players in the international squad. This is far preferable to choosing an international squad months before the season starts from which the provinces receive a few full-timers.

But still, nothing has been done.