Scotland lead the way in tier two nations

Published on 22/06/2012 00:49

SCOTLAND will launch a new era for world rugby in the early hours of tomorrow morning when they face Samoa in the Pacific Island, but probably with a television blackout.

The IRB hasworked to encourage leading nations to play Test matches in the tier two countries, such as Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Japan and the USA. The big three rugby nations, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia, have shunned the idea and used the excuse that Tests played against those nations in the bigger countries bring revenue for both sides through television. Scotland’s only Test match away to Samoa, in 2004, was shifted to Wellington in New Zealand where New Zealand television did cover the game and Samoan rugby benefited from a small fee, but the team lost heavily to the Scots and there was no obvious benefit to younger generations in Samoa. However, there has been rising concern that rugby in the islands is missing out with none of the world’s top rugby teams visiting and so there has been a plea for the top countries to visit more often.

Scotland have kicked that off with visits to Fiji and Samoa However, the trip remains out of reach for Scottish viewers.

BBC Scotland said they could not cover the game, which kicks off at 3.30pm in Samoa and 3.30am here, because there was no satellite feed available. SRU director of communications Dominic McKay said: “We’re disappointed that we don’t have a home broadcaster to cover the game in the UK. We’ve had long dialogue with the Samoan union and gone direct to the broadcasters in Samoa in an effort to get the game covered in the UK, but to no avail so far. We’re still pushing broadcasters to at least take some highlights – we’ve not given up yet. We’re talking to the Samoan union still about streaming it live on their website, and we will have Twitter updates and post-match analysis on video.”