Time to balance a weighty problem

A CLEVER man once predicted that progress would eventually turn out to be a circle rather than a straight line.

- CHRIS HEWETT

As the shadows close in on the union game – professional clubs disappearing into the darkness of their own balance sheets; the existential threat of a player welfare legal action reaching its witching hour – the people charged with running the sport in a direction other than into the ground must be hoping he was right.

Modern-day rugby’s straight line is the highway to hell. Something a little more spherical might at least offer the governing class a chance to row back on some its more egregious errors – some of them sins of omission, others very much of the commission variety – and repair the damage.

Contrary to received wisdom and popular assumption – and, in the case of World Rugby, the non-governing governing body, an unnervingly large body of evidence – it is perfectly possible for the top brass to make good decisions rather than bad ones, and, in so doing, bend “progress” to their will. They should start immediately, if not sooner.