"Pro12 = A cesspool with the stench of mediocrity'

One of Ireland’s best known rugby pundits has launched a blistering attack on the Guinness Pro12, calling for his country’s four provinces to quit the cross-border competition.

Veteran TV broadcaster George Hook has condemned the league as “a dead horse”, claiming no-one cares about it, and he insists the Irish teams must find a way “out of the cesspool”.

Hook says Leinster, Munster, Ulster and Connacht cannot compete financially with the top English and French clubs because of the disparity in TV revenue generated by the respective European leagues.

The broadcast deal for coverage of the top two flights of French domestic rugby brings in £75m a year, while the Aviva Premiership teams receive around £42m per annum through their contract with BT.

In contrast, the total TV revenue from the Pro12’s various agreements with Sky, BBC, S4C and TG4 amounts to around £11.6m.

Hook says Irish professional rugby is in danger of fizzling out into the abyss and he insists a move away from the Pro12 - either by joining the English sides or setting up a new all-Ireland club league - is “the only viable solution”.

“The Celtic League is a dead horse no matter what way you look at it,” he said in his Irish Independent column.

“The competition is repeatedly whipped and cajoled by Sky Sports in an admirable attempt to make it into something it is not, but the declining attendance figures and sub-standard performances by the teams involved expose the grim reality of life in the Pro12.

“The Irish provinces need to find a way out of the cesspool. The future of the professional game in this country depends on having a competitive, financially stable league to play in.

“The truth is that nobody cares a jot for the Celtic league; not the players, not the television executives and certainly not the fans.”

He continues: “The time for pleasantries is over.

“The Italian club experiment has utterly failed. Treviso and Zebre continue to prop up the table, as they have done almost every season since their inception.

“The best players in Wales are playing their club rugby in France or England and one half of Scotland’s professional set-up looks more like a South African third-string club side than a fair reflection of home grown Scottish talent.

“If the current mess is left to fester, revenues for the provinces will continue to decline and interest in the league will drop off to base-line level, if it isn’t at that stage already.

“A move away from Celtic league is the only viable solution. Whether that means banging the door down on our neighbours, to join up with the Aviva Premiership, or, much more radically, disbanding the provinces in favour of a new professional All-Ireland club league, time will tell.

“But if nothing is done to arrest the slide, it won’t be long before the professional game in this country dies off altogether.”

Hook points to the Champions Cup to illustrate the scale of the problem, with no Pro12 team having reached the quarter-finals of last season’s event.

He says past Irish glories in Europe have now been replaced by an “all-consuming stench of mediocrity”.

“There is a major problem brewing in Irish professional rugby that cannot resolve itself if the status quo remains intact,” he said.

“Last week’s announcement by Aviva Premiership of a new deal to televise matches with NBC Sports Group in America, in addition to its lucrative agreement with BT, is the latest progressive step for a league that continues to outclass the Pro12 in terms of resources, talent and financial muscle.

Pot Hale wrote:

Griff wrote:Doesn't this sort of talk from the Irish media paint the league in a bad light, devalue the league and put off potential sponsors and investors?  For shame Ireland!  "Get your house in order"  

Well it was published 3-4 months ago and had sunk without trace or subsequent commentary.

Then Wales Online decided to write about the article and try to portray it as something new and recent.  

Crappy journalism standards frankly, Griff.  Welsh media reheating it three months later doesn't look good.  

funnyExiledScot wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:

Griff wrote:Doesn't this sort of talk from the Irish media paint the league in a bad light, devalue the league and put off potential sponsors and investors?  For shame Ireland!  "Get your house in order"  

Well it was published 3-4 months ago and had sunk without trace or subsequent commentary.

Then Wales Online decided to write about the article and try to portray it as something new and recent.  

Crappy journalism standards frankly, Griff.  Welsh media reheating it three months later doesn't look good.  

Not to worry. The new season will be upon us soon, and they can revert back to bashing Warren Gatland and pretending that with a different coach Wales would blow away the rest the rugby world with attacking rugby hitherto unsurpassed.

Griff wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:

Griff wrote:Doesn't this sort of talk from the Irish media paint the league in a bad light, devalue the league and put off potential sponsors and investors?  For shame Ireland!  "Get your house in order"  

Well it was published 3-4 months ago and had sunk without trace or subsequent commentary.

Then Wales Online decided to write about the article and try to portray it as something new and recent.  

Crappy journalism standards frankly, Griff.  Welsh media reheating it three months later doesn't look good.  

Not to worry. The new season will be upon us soon, and they can revert back to bashing Warren Gatland and pretending that with a different coach Wales would blow away the rest the rugby world with attacking rugby hitherto unsurpassed.

Love how you guys twist this to Welsh bashing.  I've seen very little from the Welsh media that berates the Pro 12.  Can't really remember any to be honest.  It is only on here that I read it.  But the message from Irish posters is that sponsors will be put off by this negativity.  That sponsors even read 606v2.  Fans won't turn up when they read it.  Investment will drop.  Numbers will drop, etc.  OK, but you must extend that to your own media too.  Just because the Western Mail has commented on it doesn't take away from the fact that your OWN media have now sullied the league.   Doesn't matter if the guy is a buffoon.  We have buffoons too.  Doesn't matter if you don't rate him as a journalist.  Very few rate the WOL/WM either.  It would just be nice if you accepted your own (Irish) part in running down the league rather than trying to turn it back to us.  It's only fair.

Griff wrote:

funnyExiledScot wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:

Griff wrote:Doesn't this sort of talk from the Irish media paint the league in a bad light, devalue the league and put off potential sponsors and investors?  For shame Ireland!  "Get your house in order"  

Well it was published 3-4 months ago and had sunk without trace or subsequent commentary.

Then Wales Online decided to write about the article and try to portray it as something new and recent.  

Crappy journalism standards frankly, Griff.  Welsh media reheating it three months later doesn't look good.  

Not to worry. The new season will be upon us soon, and they can revert back to bashing Warren Gatland and pretending that with a different coach Wales would blow away the rest the rugby world with attacking rugby hitherto unsurpassed.

Love how you guys twist this to Welsh bashing.  I've seen very little from the Welsh media that berates the Pro 12.  Can't really remember any to be honest.  It is only on here that I read it.  But the message from Irish posters is that sponsors will be put off by this negativity.  That sponsors even read 606v2.  Fans won't turn up when they read it.  Investment will drop.  Numbers will drop, etc.  OK, but you must extend that to your own media too.  Just because the Western Mail has commented on it doesn't take away from the fact that your OWN media have now sullied the league.   Doesn't matter if the guy is a buffoon.  We have buffoons too.  Doesn't matter if you don't rate him as a journalist.  Very few rate the WOL/WM either.  It would just be nice if you accepted your own (Irish) part in running down the league rather than trying to turn it back to us.  It's only fair.

Pot Hale wrote:
My point was that Wales Online deciding to reheat the story was pretty poor journalism given it was 3 months old.  

Irish Londoner wrote:Dr Grey, the problem with a merged league is very simple, what are the benefits for the English clubs ?
They've just signed a TV deal that (in rugby terms) is huge, the top clubs are getting big crowds anyway (Saracens excepted) and the smaller clubs are happy to be given enough to stay sustainable in the medium term.
If anything I'd say the mood in the Avivia is more towards ring fencing and it would happen in a heartbeat if they thought they could get away with it, without the wrath of the RFU and Championship clubs falling on their backs.
The RFU are filling Twickenham for every game, the RWC overall was a huge success and the England team are in the ascendant.
So what do England get out of it that they don't get now ?

Dai Llewod wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:
My point was that Wales Online deciding to reheat the story was pretty poor journalism given it was 3 months old.  

What do you think Wales Online's agenda is regards this? Why run the Pro12 down?

Stone Motif wrote:http://theeastterrace.typepad.com/

Lulz

Pot Hale wrote:

Stone Motif wrote:http://theeastterrace.typepad.com/

Lulz

Is that meant to be humourous?

You'd know where it came from when you see the "Oirish" name - Patrick Connor.  

Stone Motif wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:

Stone Motif wrote:http://theeastterrace.typepad.com/

Lulz

Is that meant to be humourous?

You'd know where it came from when you see the "Oirish" name - Patrick Connor.  

Laugh or cry, you decide

Pot Hale wrote:

Stone Motif wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:

Stone Motif wrote:http://theeastterrace.typepad.com/

Lulz

Is that meant to be humourous?

You'd know where it came from when you see the "Oirish" name - Patrick Connor.  

Laugh or cry, you decide

God - it's full of truly dreadful, cliched, cringeworthy stuff.  

I couldn't even waste tears on it.  

Stone Motif wrote:http://theeastterrace.typepad.com/

Lulz

Stone Motif wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:

Stone Motif wrote:

Pot Hale wrote:

Stone Motif wrote:http://theeastterrace.typepad.com/

Lulz

Is that meant to be humourous?

You'd know where it came from when you see the "Oirish" name - Patrick Connor.  

Laugh or cry, you decide

God - it's full of truly dreadful, cliched, cringeworthy stuff.  

I couldn't even waste tears on it.  

The PrO'12?  I couldn't agree more