RUGBY: To rest or not to rest

Yahoo!Xtra / Marcus Forbes

OK, hold the phone, back the truck up and give me a minute to get something off my chest.

So the Springboks have decided they want to give their top players a bit of a rest before the World Cup.

Sounds fair to me, the rest of the world's power players have done the same at some stage this season and let's be honest some have been doing the same thing for years.

Now there is outrage and officials are seething, disappointed and surprised over the issue.

But seriously, what is the difference between what the Springboks are doing and the All Blacks rotating their squad or England and France sending C strength teams on the road?

There is none.

And anyone who says this is devaluing test rugby should take a look at the state of the game.

It's World Cup year and we have all had it jammed down our throats that the most important thing this season is bringing home the William Webb Ellis trophy.

Every team involved in the competition will do everything in their power to win.

And who can blame them?

This is the most valued prize in world rugby.

You can call yourself the Tri-Nations champion, the Bledisloe Cup holder or Six Nations champ but it doesn't mean a hell of a lot when it comes to the world cup.

This is the be all and end all.

And no one is really going to bat an eyelid come September when the world cup kicks off about who did or didn't field a full-strength team in the Tri-Nations.

What's good for the goose has got to be good for the gander.

So basically if you ask me, there's really not a lot the power brokers can do about this.

And is it just me or are the head honchos at the various rugby unions getting it all a bit wrong?

At the end of the day it's the fans that are suffering.

The ticket prices won't come down because the strength of the opposition has.

Your Sky subscription isn't going to get any cheaper because the teams are weaker.

And too be honest something needs to be done about this.

This isn't going to be an issue that disappears.

Yes, next season we'll see the Super 14 and Tri-Nations completely full of A grade sides.

But when the next World Cup comes around it will be the same issue.

Each team will find a way of resting their top players to make sure they are at full strength to be in the final and win it.

So, what are the people at the IRB doing to help out the fans?

Whatever they do they must act now.

This is a right now topic, once we get to the World Cup no one is going to care again.

So the message is pretty clear to all the rugby unions.

Do what you have to to win the big trophies but don't do it at the expense of the fans.

*Disclaimer - Views expressed within this story are not necessarily the views of this Blog