Time IRFU picked up the ball and ran with sevens

FRENCH NOTES:In the words of "the dissident," the IRFU are unjust in denying Irish players the opportunity to play international sevens rugby.

“The dissident does not operate in the realm of genuine power at all. He is not seeking power. He has no desire for office and does not gather votes. He does not attempt to charm the public, he offers nothing and promises nothing. He can offer, if anything, only his own skin—and he offers it solely because he has no other way of affirming the truth he stands for. His actions simply articulate his dignity as a citizen, regardless of the cost.”

Vaclav Havel, Czech dissident.

RUGBY WAS conceived by the actions of a dissident. When in 1823, William Webb Ellis picked up the ball in a game of football and ran with it, his dissent would lead to schism with soccer and the creation of a game that, in its playing and values is a contradiction. A game of gladiatorial violence that is performed within a rigid code of sportsmanship and ethics is, to say the least, a contradictory pastime.

What Rugby school underestimated was that Bill and his “guerrilla” mates had experienced the “drug” that is the sheer caprice and joy of “the running game”.

The simple act of picking up a ball and running to avoid a defender is exhilarating to the core of your being. It is extraordinary to contemplate that almost 200 years after those dissident schoolboy actions would morph into a global multi-billion euro sporting business.

In the 1890s English rugby union dissidents based in Manchester split with the RFU in London to form the professional Northern Rugby Union. This body in time evolved into modern day Rugby League. In 1908 huge sections of Australian and New Zealand rugby rebelled and followed their English counterparts and the great dissident brother of rugby was born.

In 1995, dissident forces would gather once again and bring the traditional rulers of rugby to their knees. Exactly 99 years and 363 days after the formation of League, the IRB was forced to declare the entire game of rugby professional.

There are very few major international sports which have endured such civil wars and remained a global force.

When Webb Ellis broke all the conventions of his time and ran with the ball, there is little doubt that he would have been sanctioned. Being at Rugby school, one could well imagine young Bill suffering corporal punishment. He attended the exclusive school free of charge. His father died when Bill was a baby. Rugby school took in local village boys for no fee. In the class driven English school system of the time, Bill’s humble background carried a stigma. You could well imagine Bill endured bullying and some form of ostracism.

All dissidents suffer.

Being a sporting dissident is minor league compared to the seismic change created in society by dissenting giants like Mahatma Gandhi, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Lech Walesa and only days ago Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyis. History proves that dissent, in all its varieties, is the mother of reform, change and progress.

Ireland’s political heroes were all dissidents. From Wolfe Tone to Mick Collins. From Robert Emmet to Daniel O’Connell, they all chose to dissent from the incumbent government.

All those that choose to be a dissident pay a price.

Mandela spent two and half decades on Robben Island because of his beliefs, yet he emerged the victor. Solzhenitsyn spent more than 25 years in the Siberian Gulags because of what he wrote, yet he lived to see his writings used as a weapon in the fall of Russian communism.

My own tiny world of dissent is not much when compared with Mandela and Solzhenitsyn. Yet we can all only hope to effect change in our own world.

Two weeks ago Australia won the IRB sevens tournament held in Tokyo.

No Irish team participated.

The Australians were one of the youngest to ever feature at an IRB event. Their coach, Michael O’Connor, stated that it was hard to keep cohesion in the group because as soon as they created a winning team the players were contracted into Super Rugby teams. The Australians Sevens budget is also lower than it was three years ago.

So the Australian sevens programme is cheap. It is creating players for senior provincial teams. It is providing a pathway for talented players under the age of 20. The team is regularly winning tournaments. It is not impinging on Australian club rugby because the numbers for the sevens are so small and the windows of their absence are so infrequent.

In short, the Australian sevens programme is living, working proof that the official IRFU arguments for not playing international Sevens are false. In the words of “the dissident,” the IRFU are unjust in denying Irish players the opportunity to play international sevens rugby.

I know there are good men in the IRFU who want Ireland to compete in the IRB sevens and the Olympic Games. I have spoken to them. They need to dissent from the current policy and challenge the rationale behind non participation in IRB sevens.

The ARU have provided them with a cheap blueprint to copy.

In 1975 the inspirational Australian prime minister, Gough Whitlam, was unconstitutionally removed from office by Queen Elizabeth’s representative in Australia, the Governor General. Gough rejected violence in any form, but he railed against the undemocratic actions and the injustice done to him and his democratically elected government.

To all dissidents, wherever you seek justice and truth, take heed of Gough’s immortal words.

Speaking on the steps of the old Australian Parliament building, his giant six foot six frame commanded the platform, his charisma hurtling out to the nation. He spoke three words of command to his people.

“Maintain the rage.”

That is the dissident’s creed.

“When Webb Ellis broke all the conventions of his time and ran with the ball, there is little doubt that he would have been sanctioned. Being at Rugby school, one could well imagine young Bill suffering corporal punishment.