Brian Dick: Time to blow the whistle on the British & Irish Cup
Relief, blessed relief, is close at hand. After this weekend, I may never have to watch another British & Irish Cup match again. Oh joy and raptures.
Not that I’ve not enjoyed the flea-bag, germ-ridden, stinking cesspit of a competition, far from it without the B&I Cup – Lord bless it – I’d probably never have made it to Aberavon.
And despite what one Billesley-based Welshman noted – ‘Port Talbot, Tuesday night, p****** rain – it does what it says on the tin’ – I have to confess the welcome we received at the Talbot Athletic ground made up for driving two hours through snow and rush hour traffic to get there.
For me the tournament will forever be synonymous with Aberavon’s head coach Simon King meeting my companion and I at the gate, inviting us into the club’s inner sanctum and making us a cup of tea. This region’s rugby directors should take note.
But, in case you’ve missed the point so far, I hope beyond all hope that a better format is found for next year’s tournament because a fourth meeting with London Welsh in a year, Friday night at Chillesley watching Ulster Twos, a trip to Doncaster and a 50-pointer at Rotherham were not my idea of mass appeal.
In fact when you set that little lot against the wonder of a double header semi-final win and victory at Twickenham, such elongated, meaningless jaunts are quite the opposite of mass appeal.
To my mind the competition was holed beneath the water line before it had even kicked off – both in principle and application.
The whole point of knockout matches is that they are do-or-die, win a few and an entirely different campaign is created, one separate from the rigours of forward-dominated, bread and butter league matches.
Cup rugby is about glory and inspiration not four round robin matches and worrying about how many try bonuses you get. That’s what the Championship is for.
But once you’ve dragged the rest of the sport down that line, at least make it equitable. Where’s the sense in dragging cash-strapped Birmingham & Solihull up to Ayr to play in front of a few hundred people – particularly when the organisers barely disguise the fact that the main purpose behind the B&I Cup is to fill fixture lists left short-changed after the reduction of the league.
Bring back the old format, let’s get Leicester down at Sharmans Cross and see how Gloucester cope on the Common. At least most of their players will be familiar with it.
