The Big Interview: Hugo Porta - Why the success of the Rugby World Cup is endangering the soul of the game

The 2015 Rugby World Cup is set to be the biggest and, financially, best in the history of the sport, but that success endangers the soul of the game and its traditional values according to one of its greatest players and global ambassadors, Hugo Porta.

Hugo Porta loves rugby union. It is the game that taught him how to tackle not only his opponents, but also life itself.

It is the game that took him round the world, introduced him to friends and made his reputation. It also gave him a code of moral and ethical values that clearly remain close to his heart.

But, after watching the 2015 edition of the Rugby World Cup unfold in a blaze of commercial splendour, amid a series of statistical records for cash, crowds and media viewing figures, he is worried for the future of his game.

As this burgeoning sport’s administrators, executives, managers and marketing men make the leap to ‘the next level’, the 64-year-old Porta is searching for signs that all is well and that his game is not rushing in the wrong direction or, as someone less diplomatic might put it, poised to sell its soul.

“I am concerned,” he said. “We need to be mindful of the dangers that lie ahead of us. We need to make sure that the right message is passed on to the young players and in the clubs and in the game…

“My message is a message of peace. Many people are talking about sport, and our sport, as if it is a war. And it is not a war. We have a different message and I hope that it comes through at this World Cup.

“It can be really dangerous, a worry, if we are not careful. You will never hear me talking about rugby going to another level…I don’t know where rugby is going to end up. It has changed so completely that I worry for the players now, that they don’t have the freedom that I felt when I was a player.”

Standing in steady drizzle by a touchline on a south London sports field, all this was clear as Porta encouraged boys and girls at an Active Communities Network event, supported by the Laureus Sport for Good foundation, of which he is an academy member.

Just hours after the first weekend of World Cup action had delivered Japan’s historic and heart-lifting victory against South Africa and Argentina’s torrid testing of champions New Zealand, this was rugby back at grass roots level with former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick and South Africa’s triumphant 1995 team manager Morne du Plessis also in close attendance.

All three wanted to inspire and bring hope for the children, some from a rugby-focused social inclusion charity, School of Hard Knocks.

Somehow, they smiled and agreed, it summed up what this was all about. For them, rugby – like all sport - is a tool for social change, as Nelson Mandela believed and demonstrated.

“Sport has the power to change the world,” he said in 2000, five years after the new ‘rainbow nation’ South Africa won the Webb Ellis Cup.

It was also, they confirmed, a long way from the hype and clamour that swirled at Twickenham, and Wembley, where huge crowds attended the opening weekend group games.

Like most other great players from earlier eras, Porta was an amateur whose appreciation of his sport was moulded by its Corinthian values.

Rugby was very different from football, for example, and had a different moral and sporting code.

It was not influenced by money or professionalism, a condition that has been consigned to history with the rapid evolution of the modern professional game and the World Cup’s status as the world’s third-biggest sporting ‘mega-event’.

Now, as rugby focuses its ambitions on going to another level of global growth, backed by the momentum of the World Cup, the modern game of breathtaking grace, pace and power is delivering new concerns: concussion and brain damage on one side and fears of a gulf between the commercialism of the professionals and the traditional values passed on by the amateur code.

Du Plessis, a man closely associated with Mandela’s triumph, fears a growing separation. “We have to really look at avoiding separating amateur rugby from the commercial, I mean professional, rugby,” he said. “We are so reliant on the amateur game – like professional golf, which sets such a good example because the professionals respect the amateurs so much.”

For the big South African, another fear is that much of the development of rugby in schools is geared towards professionalism. “They are so well prepared, they are almost like professionals,” he said, a comment that chimed with the concerns of Porta. “But it is not about producing a player who will go on and play for England. It is about someone at a session like this one going away and saying ‘that was a better day than I would have had normally’.

“And changing how they think and react because of it, because of rugby. So they go on and one day they become a meaningful member of society.”

For Du Plessis, Japan’s triumph over South Africa in Brighton was both “inspirational” and a warning sign. “For me, sure it hurt,” he said. “But can you imagine the hope and inspiration it delivered to the 3,000 rugby clubs in Japan?”

For Du Plessis, the next level for rugby is a reconciliation of its sporting and commercial ambitions at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. “It is about how rugby is presented there,” he said. “It is such a wonderful platform and it is a chance to regroup and to re-establish the values through those Games.”

Porta recognised that theme. The ideals of the Olympic Games can regenerate the values in rugby that he and others hold dear. “I think there are values in all sports,” he said. “But sometimes, it just depends on the shape of the ball. The main thing is the teaching of the values, who is coaching the teams and the players. At the end of the day, it is just a game.”

Like Du Plessis, he worries about the direction of the professional game, the game he describes as “this high-performance rugby, this rugby that can exclude people because you have to be such an athlete to play that game…

“As long as those professional players have the feeling that I had when I was wearing the Puma jersey, I think we can be on a good track. But it is very difficult now, because there are so many other interests.”

Asked to elaborate on his thoughts, he paused. “You know, it is hard for me when I see a young guy and I say ‘what are you doing?’ And he says ‘I am a rugby player’. And I say ok, yes, but apart from that?

“Rugby is a game that prepares you for life, not just to play that brief game. Life is the longest game they will play…And sport is a preparation for that.

“But today, I don’t know. I see the players go into the field with such a lot of input, with tactics, with techniques and instructions - and then, if they don’t do what the coach has said, probably the coach will take them off.

“It must be very difficult for the player now. They don’t have the freedom that I had. I am so happy with what rugby taught me and the rugby I played.

“I played as an amateur for my country and for only one club and I never made a cent out of rugby so, now, my feelings are in a sort of crisis because I came to see a World Cup and I am sad just to see and to think that the game is used just as a spectacular show and I am worried about the players and I worry about the game, and the future…”

Specifically, Porta is fearful for the players. “You see the size of the players and I wonder if they develop their minds and their thinking the same way they develop their bodies. There is a saying that you must think what you feel and feel what you think. I would like these modern players to be aware of that.”

Hugo Porta is widely revered as the greatest player in Argentina’s rugby history. An artistic fly-half blessed with superb kicking skills, he was a one club man whose international career saw him score 530 points in 57 matches from 1971 to 1990. Then, after retiring, he became a significant figure on another stage as Argentina’s Ambassador to South Africa, from 1991 to 1995, and then, back home in Buenos Aires, as Minister of Sport from 1996 to 1999. (Laureus)

The 2015 Rugby World Cup in England will generate about £240m (€327m/$370m) in revenue, according to Brett Gosper, the chief executive of rugby union’s global governing body, World Rugby.Gosper told reporters on Tuesday, October 15 that 65 per cent of the total would be sourced from rights sales for the tournament, with new markets increasing exposure of the event to record levels. A total of 103 broadcasters in 2015 territories will show 23,000 hours of coverage of the Rugby World Cup to 772 million homes worldwide – a 15 percent increase on the 2011 edition in New Zealand. “We will have 24 live matches screened in Germany and 22 live matches in China for the first time,” Gosper said. “We know it will be the biggest, but we think it will be the best. It certainly will be a record breaker on several fronts.” Bernard Lapasset, chairman of World Rugby, said: “This record broadcast platform represents our commitment to make rugby available for all and demonstrates our strategic commitment to favour strong free-to-air platform coverage to more lucrative pay-television in key strategic markets such as India, Brazil, USA and China.” (Sport Business International)