{"id":372286,"date":"2025-08-25T12:21:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-25T12:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/372286\/"},"modified":"2025-08-25T12:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T12:21:14","slug":"england-great-wants-action-from-world-rugby-after-pumas-lesson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/372286\/","title":{"rendered":"England great wants action from World Rugby after Pumas lesson"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former England hooker Brian Moore has called on World Rugby to be brave and act on the lesson of last weekend\u2019s historic win for Argentina over New Zealand.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Pumas\u2019 29-23 result in Buenos Aires<\/a> was the first time they have beaten the All Blacks on Argentinian soil, and it has left the Rugby Championship delicately poised heading into round three on September 6.<\/p>\n

With the Springboks due to play New Zealand<\/a> in Auckland and Argentina heading to Townsville to tackle the Wallabies<\/a>, all four teams have one win from their two matches so far.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a situation that Moore, the 1991 Rugby World Cup finalist, is savouring as he had been fed up with the Rugby Championship having fewer shocks to keep interest alive, unlike the Six Nations with its ability to deliver at least one surprise result every year.<\/p>\n

\u201cPredictability bores even the hardiest fans\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Writing in The Telegraph<\/a>, he claimed: \u201cFor many years, the unique quality of the Six Nations has been its propensity to throw up at least one result that confounded the divinations of the best rugby oracles each year. It might not have exhibited the best rugby on the planet, but it kept your interest because of its ability to surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn contrast, the Rugby Championship, in its many guises, has been the reverse; better quality, but fewer shocks. In the end, predictability bores even the hardiest fans, and even the most faithful supporters welcome a bit of uncertainty in a contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey will accept continual winning as the price of predictability but, in the end, it is preferable to have both victory and jeopardy. All the more reason to welcome the recent reversals of fortune for South Africa and New Zealand; not to gloat over their rare losses, but to cheer the emergence of a more interesting Rugby Championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

All Blacks great: Springboks clash \u2018doesn\u2019t fall favourably for us\u2019 after confidence-killing Argentina post-mortem<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

New Zealand legend\u2019s bizarre \u2018referee isn\u2019t strong\u2019 rant following the All Blacks\u2019 upset loss in Argentina<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Moore went to assess the recent flourishing competitiveness of the Wallabies in South Africa following their underwhelming initial effort in the Test series they lost to the British and Irish Lions.<\/p>\n

Of greater curiosity, though, was how Moore ended his column, believing Argentina\u2019s upset result against the All Blacks was something that World Rugby needed to quickly latch on to in the interest of strengthening the international game.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at the decade-long improvement in\u00a0Argentina, who have gone from the inevitable whipping boys of the Rugby Championship to a side that is capable of competing on a level with their opponents\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cNone of this has been by luck. Rather, it has been through hard work by the Pumas and with the benefit of guaranteed fixtures against tier-one opponents over an extended period, irrespective of their instant results.<\/p>\n

Rugby Championship Team of the Week: Eben Etzebeth has \u2018massive impact\u2019 but Argentina\u2019s \u2018match-winner\u2019 edges out Handre Pollard in Pumas-dominated side<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cTherein lies a lesson for World Rugby. If they are serious about extending rugby\u2019s top table, they must be brave enough to create a guaranteed pathway from tier two to tier one, via the world\u2019s top two international competitions, the Six Nations and the Rugby Championship.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever form that pathway takes \u2013 for example, play-offs every three years \u2013 only creating formal progression based on results will enable the subsidiary tournaments that presently lie under those premier tournaments to be viable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis sort of change also takes time, but first it requires the bravery to admit that the problem exists. World Rugby has shown little interest in pursuing this seriously due to vested interests from traditional unions who believe they are owed a perpetual place at the highest levels of rugby because of their history.<\/p>\n

\u201cRugby\u2019s global governing body is about to face a potentially existential threat from the\u00a0R360 professional circus. Showing it is prepared to open the game to more than its traditional masters will go some way to exposing the naked commerciality of the R360 challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Justin Marshall \u2018disappointed\u2019 by Scott Robertson reaction as Argentina loss creates more unwanted history<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former England hooker Brian Moore has called on World Rugby to be brave and act on the lesson…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5008],"tags":[10105,37732,748,393,4884,225,90462,704,12,33131,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-372286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-england","8":"tag-argentina","9":"tag-brian-moore","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-internationals","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-rugby-championship","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115089380811646726","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}