Thank goodness for a man like RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie.
Ritchie, to outsiders at least, conveys a peculiarly English sort of pomposity: exhibiting a sense of entitlement so deeply entrenched that he probably doesn't see it in himself.
![Massive drawcard: Kieran Read's All Blacks.](/web/20170118191207im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/8/e/v/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtj7wn.png/1482975795085.jpg)
And until he appeared on the scene we were all in grave danger of quite liking English rugby under the Eddie Jones revival.
Ritchie's comment earlier this year about the southern hemisphere nations needing to "build bigger stadiums" to improve their financial standing was wholly detached from reality.
And his dismissive response to calls for Fijian players to be more adequately compensated for the Test match against England confirmed his pantomime villain status.
"It is not England's responsibility to help fund world rugby," said Ritchie last month, four days before England fielded two Fijians, two New Zealanders and an Auckland-born former Queensland rugby league player in the win against Fiji, under the coaching of an Australian.
NZ Rugby boss Steve Tew is involved in a particularly high stakes game of financial poker with Ritchie.
Tew wants Ritchie to pay when the All Blacks play at Twickenham inside the World Rugby Test window. Ritchie is refusing, with an implication that the RFU's financial might is such that they don't to bargain with anyone.
I suspect Tew will record a win, or at least a win Ritchie can live with too.
The central point is this: despite Ritchie's bluster, the appetite among the rugby-loving public in England for a schedule that does not involve the All Blacks is zero. It does not exist.
It is Tew's trump card. There is not a stakeholder in the English game who does not crave to see the All Blacks at Twickenham: the same stakeholders to whom Ritchie must answer.
That says something about the All Blacks' huge appeal and also about the globalisation of the sport. Although England play in the Six Nations, their fans and the players measure themselves against performances by men in black and their southern hemisphere peers.
The weakness of Ritchie's position is that it can also be undermined if the Welsh, Scots, Irish or French take a different path.
Let's say the Welsh decide they cannot afford not to play the All Blacks and cut them a slice of the takings of a Cardiff Test. Everyone wins, except the English. They would watch on from across the border and look preposterous: at the same time rich but with no sense of their value.
Tew has been a bit of bull in a china shop on the matter. His very public dissatisfaction at the 'zero per cent' the All Blacks get from matches against England at Twickenham under current arrangements betrayed his frustrations.
And if he holds out hopes of a 50-50 revenue split, he is dreaming. A less ambitious demand could pave the way for an outcome. But he also knows the power of the All Blacks brand.
During the last Lions series in 2013, I sat in a Sydney hotel room with a group of broadsheet UK journalists, pleasantly chatting about this and that.
But when it was proposed that a player like Israel Folau could help the Wallabies' bridge the gap to the All Blacks' level of popularity in the UK, there were looks of incredulity.
No was the answer. Not even close. The Wallabies and South Africa were fine ambassadors for southern hemisphere rugby, of course, but the All Blacks ... well they were simply on a level of their own.
That is why England will pay a share, even if it is begrudgingly.
Stuff.co.nz
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