Off-field clashes expected at Rugby World Cup
The next Rugby World Cup is expected to be the scene of just as many clashes off the field as on as English clubs recruit the world's best players, according to a University of Queensland researcher.
Human Movement Studies Department senior lecturer Dr John Nauright said if the clubs were successful at snaring the best internationals, the highest form of the game could become media-serving English club rugby rather than the traditional bouts between nations.
"Cashed-up English rugby teams are expected to use the upcoming World Cup as a great opportunity to recruit top world players," Dr Nauright said.
"This is likely to cause tension as the clubs are not renowned for releasing international players for national duty.
"It used to be the case that the best Australian players played in Europe at the end of their careers. This could be about to change."
A well-published authority on the social and cultural significance of sport in modern society, Dr Nauright has studied such phenomena as the devotion of fans to a particular team or club and the increasing corporatisation of sport.
He has established a Football Studies Group and a Rugby Studies Research Group at the University co-ordinating research in these areas on a national and global basis.
He is the author or editor of several books on football and rugby including Making Men: Rugby and Masculine Identity (with Kent State University, Ohio, academic Timothy Chandler) (Frank Cass) and Rugby and the South African Nation (with David R Black) (Manchester University Press).
His latest book, including chapters by postgraduate students within the University's Rugby Studies Research Group, Rugby World (Frank Cass), will be released to co-incide with the next World Cup held in the United Kingdom in September this year.
In addition, he appears and was a consultant on a four-part ABC Television series on the social history of world rugby entitled "The Union Game" to be screened from May 15.
His recent research projects include a three-year, $107,000 Australian Research Council Large Grant examining how fans respond when their team is eliminated, merged or moved. Australian, Canadian, American and English teams have been examined in detailed case studies.
During July 15-18 this year, the Department will host the "Teams and Fans" conference. Topics covered by researchers from across the world include "History, Memory and the Hero: Don Bradman and Australia" and "Tradition Versus Globalisation: Resistance to the McDonaldisation of Football".
For more information, contact Dr John Nauright (telephone 07 3365 6767).
