The world of rugby has turned upside down

The phenomenon of polar reversal occurs every two hundred or three hundred thousand years. To understand this, every couple of hundred millennia, the positive pole of the Earth (which today is the North) becomes the negative and vice versa. This causes huge natural upheavals. Here you are, if the terrestrial pole reversal happens very rarely, in rugby it has hardly happened.

Yes why for the last forty years the center of the world of the oval ball was located in the southern hemisphere, somewhere between New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. Today, however, it is located more or less in the portion of the Atlantic Ocean that divides France from Ireland. The national teams of these two countries are the top two in the world rankings and are preparing for a World Cup in which they can aspire to victory. But not only. France and Ireland met last Friday in the final of the Under 20 World Cup. The French wonwith a heavy 50-14 which brought the young Les Bleus their third consecutive world title, proving that the development project is working well beyond the Alps.

The reasons that accompany this change of course can be many, but the pandemic probably has something to do with it. In fact, in 2020, Super Rugby, the club competition that pitted the best players in the Southern hemisphere, unpacked: the South Africans out, the Argentinian Jaguares out, the Japanese Sunwolves out and the birth of two different competitions for New Zealand and Australia. This protectionism has lowered the level of the competition, which has now brought together the New Zealand side with the Australian side, which has welcomed two “island” teams (Fijian Drua and Moana Pasifika), but which has lost other fundamental components, first of all the teams in the South Africa, who are flirting with Europe.

And while this southern schism unfolded, in the North, albeit behind closed doors and with a thousand limitations, the competitions continued to take place more or less normally. Not only though: France has invested a lot in development centers, especially in protectorates or in “overseas lands”, with the aim of finding young champions to bring to Europe and train properly. Result: coach Galthiè has a boundless pool of players at his disposal for the World Cupwhich it will play as hosts and favourites.

Ireland instead? Things have been going well in Dublin for years: the golden generation of Sexton & co. it is making room for young talents to grow into franchises that are expressions of the four regions of a united Ireland such as Leinster, Champions Cup finalists; Munster, winner of the United Rugby Championship, Connacht or Ulster. Structurally, Irish rugby is a business that has been working for years and is churning out top-level talent who grow with a quality technical project. The declared objective for the World Cup is to go beyond the simple arrival in the semi-finals, which has never happened so far. Of course, the group isn’t easy: coach Farrell’s team will face the world champions of South Africa, but also Scotland, Tonga and Romania.

In short: France-Ireland is currently the most beautiful match in the world, both at youth and senior levels. Only a few years ago New Zealand-South Africa had this record. But time passes, the poles reverse. Rugby is back in Europe, in that Europe where it was born exactly two centuries ago. He’s back home.