Brett Gosper
IRB chief executive Brett Gosper has revealed that while an IRB committee is working on it a global season is unlikely to happen before 2019.
Super Rugby and Rugby Championship organisers SANZAR have requested that the IRB move the current June Test window to July in order to allow their Super Rugby tournament to run without a break for internationals.
July does not currenly fit in with the European season as the climax of the Northern Hemisphere tournaments take place in May and the June Internationals follow on.
Moving the mid-year internationals to July would therefore not work for Northern Hemisphere teams as the players would not get sufficient rest and the season would have a “dead” month in June.
rugbyweek
“I know that’s something the SANZAR unions are keen on,” Gosper said.
“We know moving the window would have been good for SANZAR.”
“It was felt that really the northern hemisphere unions were a little bit reluctant to move down that route because it meant shifting some of their competitions that are in place contractually.”
Gosper says that an IRB committee is working on the creation of a global calendar, but adds that there would be no change until after 2019.
“Most of the calendar discussion by that working group will look at the calendar after 2019. There is probably little scope for change up to that point, which seems a long way off,” Gosper said.
“If someone found a great solution to the global calendar and everyone got excited about it, maybe they could bring it forward in some way.”
Gosper said that creating a global season is not an easy task and compared it to solving the Rubik’s cube.
“They have been down this route prior to my arrival several times and had great difficulty in reconciling all the different interests,” he said.
“It seemed like a huge Rubik’s cube. It’s difficult. You have the club interests that have to be reconciled as well.”
“The working group is trying to find a global calendar that will suit everyone.”