Cricket has always been defined as a summer sport. Likewise rugby is a winter sport.
Tonight the Super 14 Provincial rugby tournament featuring Australia, New Zealand and South African provinces commences and it’s the start of February – yes SUMMER.
It isn’t even Autumn yet and we are playing rugby. It is becoming greedy of sports administrators to start and complicate various codes in their unnatural weather environments.
Players will find playing in Australian summer’s difficult and heat exhaustion, dehydration, hyperthermia are all heath concerns to playing rugby at this time of year.
It is also not a strong marketing strategy as fans are not interested in the rugby season now anyway. Cricket is still going strong and for school children the second half of their season is yet to commence whilst television will be screening rugby.
I understand it is a busy calendar 2007 for rugby with a world cup, a super 14 competition and launch of the Australian Provincial Championship. The administration of rugby is all ready in shambles and this only further exacerbates the point.
There is too much rugby and we are trying to squeeze too much into one year. The annual tri nations featuring the Wallabies, the Springboks and the All Blacks should not have been contested this year.
Instead rugby is seeing the threat of soccer (which might I add also plays a traditional winter sport in summer), as well as the threats from AFL and League.
If sports administrators returned to a traditional calendar for their codes then even on the local level, councils would not have as many issues in fighting for grounds. Cricket season runs from October through till the end of March – the summer season. Whilst Rugby and the winter season has April – September.
Keep it like that
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