North versus South - Who Cares?

North versus South - Who Cares?

It’s the eternal debate, the great hemispheric schism, the hardest to decide and the least relevant argument in rugby.

Who is better? The super athletic Southern teams with the high-paced rugby on fast-forward, or the super combative, grizzled man-mountains that bash each other week in and week out in the North?

Who cares? Well that’s where this debate takes a small detour. Who cares… well the media do and that’s the sandcastle foundation to this ‘argument’.

Despite the ramblings of some at the IRB, rugby is still wobbling along in the formidable shadow cast by football. If the average fan-in-the-street in Blomfontein or Birmingham was questioned about the rugby on the other side of the planet, most would know little and care even less. Unless you can watch the games live or at least have the occasional opportunity to, then genuine local interest will never scale great heights.

So why the constant attention in the print media? Well it's an age-old answer to an age-old question. How do we get more blood out of this stone? The debate has been fueled by journalists without the skill or desire to commentate succinctly on the local game and have stooped to artificially creating a rivalry that exists only in the minds and press boxes of the apathetic and uninspired.

To pump up interest in their columns a manufactured stand-off has been stoked like a wood fire with the unwilling leagues and players from each hemisphere tossed in to fuel the conflagration. (it means fire - ed.) 

Unfortunately a few high profile rugby writers have been drawn into this murky affair and their profile has given the story more credence than it deserves. In these uncertain times there is a particular sector of the rugby community that would trot out the overused quip that 'any publicity is good publicity,' but the bigger picture here is the standing of the game as a whole.

The real derby matches of International Rugby, All Blacks v Springboks, England v Wales, France v Argentina, Fiji v Samoa are the real story. The statue of these games should not be diminished by the undue and overexposed attention afforded the ‘Us v Them’ debate.

Let's give the ‘North v South’ debate a good rucking and stop it spoiling a good game.

by Brenden Winder