To remain competitive we need to go full-time

RUGBY UNION AT THE CROSSROADS Tony Underwood, the England wing, believes the amateur is extinct at international level

All the omens were that the recent Rugby World Cup in South Africa would be the last to be held under the auspices of an amateur game. Indeed, some would argue that 1991 was the last time such a competition was held. Whatever, it is no secret that rugby players in South Africa have long been beneficiaries of generous travel expenses. In New Zealand and Australia players have shared in significant pools of money while their respective unions turned a blind eye.

While not all would have been able to live off these earnings we can be assured that employers' requirements of them would have been pretty rudimentary, if any. No surprise, then, that certain individuals, if not teams, were significantly fitter, stronger and quicker than others. Indeed our very own Dewi Morris stood out as one of England's stars on the back of six months self-enforced unemployment.

In the southern hemisphere players benefit not only from having more time to devote to training, rest and recuperation but also from exposure to an incredibly high standard of rugby week in, week out in the shape of the Super 10 tournament. The event brings the best players of the southern hemisphere together to compete in a contest not far short of, if not equivalent to, the standard of international rugby.

In the northern hemisphere we do not have an equivalent structure to bridge the gap between club and Test match rugby. The Courage leagues have served their purpose but we need to take a step further.

A damning indictment of the current state of affairs was delivered by Rupert Murdoch. When asked whether he would approach the northern hemisphere unions to work out a similar deal to that worked out in the south he said probably not as the game was too boring and wouldn't generate the interest. Crudely speaking, then, a domestic restructuring and financial reward were what we were seeking on our return home from South Africa.

Therefore when Kerry Packer's Rugby World Corporation emerged on to the scene and answered these requirements, of course we were interested. Unfortunately the idea had come from a separate embryonic institution rather than from the establishment themselves. If it had been the latter then we would all be set for a step along the way to Rugby World Cup 1999.

However, all is not lost and we are now left in the hope that some clear direction will be given by the International Board this weekend and scope is given to our union to take the initiative provided by the southern hemisphere. There, regardless of the lack of an IB mandate, groundbreaking developments have already taken place to counter the threat of RWC, with unions contracting their players on a generous package and in Australia allowing player representation at the committee level. One would expect the IB to simply rubber-stamp these arrangements otherwise we are back in the situation we were in a month ago with the rugby world in turmoil.

The difficulty that the home unions face is the lack of a television deal of the magnitude Murdoch has signed in the southern hemisphere, coupled with the fact that historically the heart and soul of our game is in the clubs as opposed to the southern hemisphere's provinces.

Restructuring this would have much the same effect as the Premiership in football, where the top players filter through to the top clubs who get bigger, consequently leaving some famous clubs to flounder behind. To their credit, the senior clubs have taken the brave decision to back this and allow the formation of a smaller First Division (Premiership) and a European Superleague.

Of our other demand for greater monetary reward this is not just greed but a simple case of enabling those who wish to make the decision to train full-time, to do so in the knowledge that they are not sacrificing their careers to the detriment of future financial security.

Come November, when England tackle the Springboks, 15 players will have that and will, as a consequence, be better prepared.

Such a discrepancy must be tackled by a union that must come to terms with the fact that if the national team are to beat the best then for better or worse the goalposts have changed and full-time rugby is becoming a reality.

Despite the fact that we have a stadium well ahead of its time we have a committee who have to catch up so that we have the best possible opportunity to grace it with the spectacle it deserves. To their credit they appear to be making the right steps. Fifty-seven old farts on Bisodol!