Turn the clock back to April 1987 and Rugby World was doing some soul searching in the wake of the Five Nations that had, as so often, displayed every facet of the game in the raw, for good and bad.
With the game on the brink of the inaugural World Cup, Rugby World editor Nigel Starmer-Smith was in full cry about the concerns thrown up by the England-Wales encounter.
“It was a continuing feud for 80 minutes, which left me asking what on earth was the point of it all and why bother to spend £15 to be present as a spectator, or one hour and a half in front of the TV watching something that was sickening to behold. There was scarcely a redeeming feature, and almost as disturbing as the violence was the poor quality of what was supposed to pass for rugby.”
And yet the Five Nations also offered a silver lining, as Starmer-Smith noted.
“I am only grateful that the brilliance of the games in Paris that sane day, between France and Scotland, was able to accentuate the absurdity of the Cardiff affair. It served to show to the uninitiated and the anti-rugby critic the heights of entertainment, discipline and skill which rugby may achieve.”
There’s more from Starmer-Smith, and on both games, here.
