This summer we have seen four events where England has competed in an international tournament. The Football World Cup, the Women's Rugby World Cup, the U20's Rugby World Cup and the Commonwealth Games. This isn't a dig at the Commonwealth Games, by the way. In fact, after this paragraph, I probably wont mention it again. Whilst I only watched the 7's, I still appreciate what an event it is, and how well the athletes all performed, and well done to England for coming top of the medal's table.
Now, back to the ball sports. My main complaints about the media relationship with rugby at the moment is there simply isn't enough of it. It's on the increase, I grant you, what with blogs coming up here, there, and everywhere, and other online formats coming into contention. But in the Sunday paper, (The Time's, if you're wondering) I was somewhat appalled to see what a relatively minute coverage of the Women's World Cup final being played that evening. Just one double page spread, and even that could've been purely on one page, had it not been for the short column about the Rugby Championship, and padded out with little articles about golf and cricket. Now, at this time of year, I don't mind seeing golf, tennis and cricket taking up several pages in the sports section. That's fine, it's their turn, we have the rest of the year. But even in the off season, we see feet of information and interviews about football. I can't really say inches, since it betrays the enormity of the thing. That's just not right. I appreciate the season was about to start, so that may have added to it. But I can pretty much guarantee that on the 31st of August, I wont open my paper to find a 6 page spread of a preview of the Premiership. Two, maybe. Three or four, if we're lucky.
I appreciate that rugby is less popular in England than football, and that its players are less in the limelight than their footballing counterparts, but seeing such a miserly coverage of a World Cup final, whatever the sport, is just not right. Now, since England's ladies won on Sunday, and a hearty congratulations to them, there has been an increase in the media coverage, if anything, just to interview the players and find out more about what's going on. Great, it's what they deserve, and these women aren't even professional athletes. Unlike the Olympians, or men's rugby players, there is no professional league. Not yet anyway. I suspect that a murmur may be spreading through Twickenham to at least trial a semi-professional league for our women, and I hope we see that happening in the next few years.
But my point, if there is one more I can make, is that English rugby teams are the most successful in their respective sports. I'm not talking about the Premiership vs Premier League, that wouldn't be a fair fight. I'm talking about the National sides. Ok, I'm being unfair to cricket. If we look at the rankings, our cricketers have risen to third in the rankings after their victory over India last weekend, and well done to those boys. England's men are 4th, and there may be some who say "well they still lost all their tests this summer." Yes, against the best team in the world! In their own back garden! Sorry, back on track. As I said earlier, we had three World Cup events this year. The Women's and the U20 rugby cups were won by England, both of them for the second time, and for the U20's in as many years. In fact, just once have the U20's failed to make the final four and the Women have NEVER failed to get that far. And who remembers the last time the footballers lifted the Cup? Yes, 1966. A team who are currently ranked 20th in the world and have floods of money being thrown at them. I'm sure you know how well they did in the last World Cup.
The ramblings of one person will hardly make much of a difference, but I hope I have made my point. Had the English footballers made the World Cup semifinals, there would have been countless pages of newspaper printed with profiles of every single player in the squad, with their career from foetus to man. The Women's team are the Champions of the world and are rightfully being praised for their achievements. Well done, ladies. You've done us all proud.
To end on a lighter note, congratulations to James Haskell for getting the captains armband for Wasps this coming season. Another strong leader and hopefully a strong season for them.
No comments:
Post a Comment