League of nations savours boom time

Half the rugby-playing world are heading towards English shores for a dabble in the Guinness Premiership; the other half wish they were doing likewise. Rico Gear and Brent Russell, Aaron Mauger and Luke McAlister, Butch James and Carl Hayman and Chris Jack... no union nation in the world, including France, can boast a transfusion of international talent on this scale. Who knows? One of the 12 elite clubs may yet end up with Stephen Larkham on their books. Here comes everybody.

There are those who believe that the leagues on either side of the Channel – the Premiership in England, which begins this coming Saturday, and the Top 14 in Tricolour territory – will reinforce the position of the two countries as the financial powerhouses of the sport. Mark Evans, the razor-sharp chief executive of Harlequins, is among them. "It's a simple question of economics," he said a couple of weeks ago, just as the French were putting the finishing touches to a World Cup in which the ticket take-up had passed the 90 per cent mark. "The market for rugby here and in France is getting bigger, very quickly. I don't think it's possible to avoid the conclusion that the professional club game has played a significant part in that growth. After all, only two countries have a league of the kind we're talking about, and they happen to be the countries who are driving the business side of the sport."

Evans is on firm ground in his argument, as per usual. (If the Rugby Football Union had an ounce of sense, they would throw a decent salary in his direction and let him modernise the organisation to his heart's content). While the Premiership has little choice but to launch itself during a World Cup, thanks to a planning strategy that reflects southern hemisphere desires and aspirations, it is a sure sign of burgeoning confidence that the participants should be so eager to get going. The likes of Gloucester and Bristol have no doubt that they will fill their stadiums during the coming weeks, irrespective of how long England remain in the global tournament. Leicester? They are merrily breaking box-office records right, left and centre. Newcastle? Likewise.

There is still a notion, temporarily strengthened every time England deliver a non-performance of the kind they inflicted on the audience in Lens last Saturday evening, that Premiership fare is too slow, too forward-oriented and too narrow in its scope to serve the needs of the international team. A couple of points here. While there is undeniably too much club rugby, it is equally true to say that there is too much international rugby. At this stage of the game's professional development, the season expands to fill the calendar space available. If the Premiership dropped to a 10-team format and an 18-match programme, the RFU would find four more Tests to stage at Twickenham, the biggest cash cow in the rugby-playing world.

What is more, the nature of rugby-watching continues to change, with increasing numbers identifying with club teams rather than the national side. It is a natural consequence of the way the sport is set up. The general public cannot buy Twickenham tickets, because Twickenham tickets are not on public sale unless England happen to be playing Romania. What the public can do is turn up at Kingsholm, Welford Road or Edgeley Park and love every minute of partisan rivalry. As one senior figure at the International Rugby Board admitted recently: "We can no longer quibble with the fact that the Premiership is a bloody good product."

A few weeks into last season, the Premiership chief executive Mark McCafferty was told in no uncertain terms by an RFU grandee that English clubs would flop in Europe, as well as undermine the chances of a successful defence of the Webb Ellis Cup. Why? Because league rugby was sub-standard. A few months later, three English sides were playing on Heineken Cup semi-final weekend, and in the final, Wasps beat Leicester in front of the biggest audience ever to watch a club game. England may not retain their global title, but those who pay their money to watch the Lawrence Dallaglios and Danny Ciprianis on a weekly basis will happily live with that if Wasps continue to trip the light fantastic.

Continue they will, in all probability. Worcester, relegation certainties for so long last season, may have made the best signings of the summer, along with their nearest and dearest from Gloucester, but the Londoners are a lean and hungry lot, with youth on their side. Expect Cipriani to develop into a world-beater in the coming months; expect James Haskell, who really should be in the World Cup squad, to do likewise. And one last thing: expect the Premiership to break its own attendance records once again.