Allan Massie: World Rugby's decisions come under microscope - radix malorum est cupiditas

The decision by World Rugby this week to award the 2031 World Cup to the USA has raised a few eyebrows.

Certainly all the talk is about the loot that may be expected. It’s not of course anything like as scandalous as FIFA’s award of football’s World Cup to Qatar, but it is nevertheless bizarre. I guess they had better now amend the articles concerning qualification to ensure that the host country will be represented.

This decision follows hard on their dog’s breakfast proposals for World Rugby’s latest scheme for a global championship to be staged every two years. Does anyone outside the Dublin-based organisation want this? Is there a clamour for it? Or is one of Scotland best and most experienced rugby writers in Alastair Reid correct when he asserts that “it appeals to absolutely no one outside the inner circle of those who stand to make a tidy profit from the change?” I guess he is. “Radix malorum est cupiditas”: Greed is the root of evil things.

Ostensibly, of course, this is intended to “spread the game” and benefit countries ranked in rugby’s lower tiers. No doubt this is a laudable ambition. One can think however of easier and better ways of doing this. One might be to require tier 1 countries to commit themselves to sending A or B teams to play international matches there – as, indeed, for example Scotland will be playing an A international against Chile this summer.

This “global championship” is a ghastly proposal. It is already recognised that far too much is demanded of players and that fixture lists should be pruned, not expanded. By December Scotland will have played 12 full internationals in 2022. Is this desirable? Doesn’t it take something from the individual games? It’s a bit like the old line about