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'We should be and we will be the dominant rugby nation in the world'
By PA
Tom Ilube is convinced England will become the dominant nation in world rugby. The start-up entrepreneur and philanthropist was appointed chair of the Rugby Football Union earlier this year, in the process becoming the first black head of a major national sporting body, and he has big plans for the sport.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday as he chose his Desert Island Discs, Ilube spoke about his vision for the future of the game in England.
He said: “The women’s game is growing massively and I’m really, really excited about that, so I want to see the women’s game growing.
“I want to see more diversity on the pitch and off the pitch and I just want to see the strength of England rugby growing and growing.
“We should be and we will be the dominant rugby nation in the world. I’m really excited about that.”
Ilube, a physics graduate who was born in Richmond to a Nigerian father and a white English mother, grew up in England, Nigeria and Uganda and admitted his teenage years in London were enjoyable but tough at times.
He said: “My early teenage years in the 70s were wonderful, everyone around. It was rugby, parties, afros, ice-skating, Chopper bikes, all that good stuff, and I was figuring out my identity as a mixed-race kid in 1970s London.
“I loved it. It could be tough. Early 70s, London, you’re a little black boy and the sort of overt racism that you have to experience, you have to figure out how to deal with it.
“But then I was a rugby boy and I had my friends around me and if I had to fight, then I’d fight and if I didn’t have to, then I’d navigate and we found a way through, so it was okay.”
Asked if he had been able to be tough when he needed to, he replied: “Yes, absolutely. I could definitely stand my own in the playground.”
Ilube recalled his tears at being blacked up for a part in the opening night of a school play with his mother and some of his siblings due to be among the audience, and the memories of having to protect himself against the racism which came his way.
He said: “You do have to do that sometimes. You know what’s happening, but you have to put on armour and go out anyway, so I’ve sort of had to do that over the years.
“I’ve got quite good at that. But I was pretty small then, so that was a bit tough to do.”
Ilube’s time in Uganda included a traumatic experience which saw him and a friend tied up by Idi Amin’s troops as suspected looters after they had gone to visit a neighbour.
He said: “Fortunately, my dad was driving home just at that time and then he looked and he thought, ‘I know that little looter over there’.
“It was a pretty tough time. He came over and begged them and they untied us and stood us up.”
*Desert Island Discs will be broadcast on on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4 on Sunday at 11am.
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The boy needs to bulk up if wants to play 10 or 11 to handle those hits, otherwise he could always make a brilliant reserve for the wings if he stays away from the stretcher.
Go to commentsIn another recent article I tried to argue for a few key concept changes for EPCR which I think could light the game up in the North.
First, I can't remember who pointed out the obvious elephant in the room (a SA'n poster?), it's a terrible time to play rugby in the NH, and especially your pinnacle tournament. It's been terrible watching with seemingly all the games I wanted to watch being in the dark, hardly able to see what was going on. The Aviva was the only stadium I saw that had lights that could handle the miserable rain. If the global appeal is there, they could do a lot better having day games.
They other primary idea I thuoght would benefit EPCR most, was more content. The Prem could do with it and the Top14 could do with something more important than their own league, so they aren't under so much pressure to sell games. The quality over quantity approach.
Trim it down to two 16 team EPCR competitions, and introduce a third for playing amongst the T2 sides, or the bottom clubs in each league should simply be working on being better during the EPCR.
Champions Cup is made up of league best 15 teams, + 1, the Challenge Cup winner. Without a reason not to, I'd distribute it evenly based on each leauge, dividing into thirds and rounded up, 6 URC 5 Top14 4 English. Each winner (all four) is #1 rank and I'd have a seeding round or two for the other 12 to determine their own brackets for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. I'd then hold a 6 game pool, home and away, with consecutive of each for those games that involve SA'n teams. Preferrably I'd have a regional thing were all SA'n teams were in the same pool but that's a bit complex for this simple idea.
That pool round further finalises the seeding for knockout round of 16. So #1 pool has essentially duked it out for finals seeding already (better venue planning), and to see who they go up against 16, 15,etc etc. Actually I think I might prefer a single pool round for seeding, and introduce the home and away for Ro16, quarters, and semis (stuffs up venue hire). General idea to produce the most competitive matches possible until the random knockout phase, and fix the random lottery of which two teams get ranked higher after pool play, and also keep the system identical for the Challenge Cup so everthing is succinct. Top T2 side promoted from last year to make 16 in Challenge Cup
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