Gregor Paul: Rugby does not need artificial cups

COMMENT:

It seems that World Rugby has the ball in the room and the gun pointed firmly at his feet with a determination of steel to pull the trigger.

The executive body leading the global game will not be dispelled by its belief that too much international rugby has "no meaning" and that there are too many friendships reducing the value and impact of the wider testing program .

Thus, regardless of the evidence to the contrary in November, plans continue to be accelerated to create a new global format that will make the test windows of June and November from 2020 more "meaningful".

A kind of mini-world cup format has been proposed to provide a broader context and, therefore, the logic is: more reasons to engage in rugby testing longer.

In theory, the abstract resists the exam, but World Rugby does not need to work on the theory, it just looks at the data collected during a month of field research, which suggests that test football is in great shape.

Good luck to all the brave executives to have entered the Irish locker room after defeating the All Blacks in Dublin and telling them that the match was meaningless.

Even more luck to anyone to play enough to go to the locker room of the All Blacks after losing; or ditto, for telling English players, after their defeat of one point in Twickenham, New Zealand, that none of that mattered, as it was just a friendly match.

There is an extremely serious problem: do executives who develop these plans deserve to be trusted?

Could they be more disconnected from what fans want?

It was virtually impossible to buy tickets for the All Blacks match with Ireland months before the match.

As the atmospheres disappear, it is hard to remember that there is a better one. The purity of the contest was all that was needed.

That was the All Blacks against Ireland: No. 1 versus No. 2 in the world. This was not a friend. This was not without meaning and even suggesting such a thing is a terrible insult to the players who have run out and for the paying fans who have done the same thing.

This scenario was not limited to that of Dublin. Twickenham was sold four weeks in a row and offered a dramatic series in different ways.

In Cardiff, Wales gave them an unstoppable victory and managed to win victories against Australia and South Africa, which no one will be convinced in the Principality.

Murrayfield was crowded for the Bok test and surprisingly well populated the week before when Scotland played against Fiji.

And that's where the horror of contact comes in. What World Rugby really means when they say they want to create a broader context for international games in June and November is that they want create a kind of pseudo flog competition to a sponsor for naming rights and up to the supposed broadcast value.

And as all seasoned executives know, if you can associate the name of an insurance company, bank, airline or brewer with a contest, then that makes sense.

Imagine how deep the engagement would have been for Irish fans if they had not just beat the All Blacks for the first time at home, but had also seen the captain Rory Best get the Cup of cheap loan?

Apparently, this is not an appropriate rugby event as long as there is not a white, middle-aged corporate character who smiles blankly on a makeshift stage, handing a trophy over to a perplexed captain.

The respective test windows of June and November are not broken. They do not need a massive reshuffle or artificial element.

They just need smart planning. The All Blacks faced England at least once a year at the World Cups from 2004 to 2014, but had not contested them for four years. The absence has actually made the heart more loving.

It's been two years since they played against Ireland, and rather than break everything, World Rugby probably just needs to know more precisely how often the best teams face each other.