Rugby pays price of professionalism

It's exactly 10 years now since the International Rugby Board (IRB), the organisation that controls world rugby, decided to drop the old amateur status of the game.

It's exactly 10 years now since the International Rugby Board (IRB), the organisation that controls world rugby, decided to drop the old amateur status of the game.

After more than 100 years of amateurism the IRB bowed to the incessant pressure from the southern hemisphere, the satellite television channels and other vested interest and declared the professional age.

A decade on, there is now a unique opportunity to see the impact that professionalism ...