AS TV fans prepare for six weeks of rugby ahead in the World Cup, English legend Bill Beaumont wants to see skills triumphing over brute force in a game that has been transformed by professionalism.
The former captain of England and the British Lions - known to non-rugby fans as the longest-serving captain on the BBC's television quiz A Question of Sport - says the top-class game risks becoming musclebound as coaches tell young players to beef themselves up rather than spending time on basic skills.
Before eyes turn to New Zealand and the first kick-off on September 9, the vice-chairman of the International Rugby Board and World Cup director warns the northern hemisphere countries: "For some reason, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia - especially the Aussies, have fantastic basic rugby skills. Whatever it is they do with their coaching, they are better rugby players than the guys from the north.
"That's something the European coaches need to look at. France are probably different, but certainly the UK and Ireland have to look at their coaching because the south is producing these better players.
"I think we spend far too much time in the gym and far too little time actually just playing rugby. It's easy for a coach to say go in the gym and build up."
Beaumont has said one of his regrets about his rugby career - he played 34 times for England, 21 as captain, toured with the British Lions in 1977 and 1980 and was team manager in 2005 - was that there was no World Cup. "As a player you want to judge yourself against the best and this is where the best are." The first World Cup was held in 1987, five years after his retirement from the game.
While he wouldn't be drawn on this year's eventual finalists, Beaumont says Group B, with Argentina, England, Georgia, Romania and Scotland, is one to watch. "England have Argentina as the first game which will be tough. It's the only group where you have three teams in the world top 10 rankings and you have a team that finished in the 2007 final [England] and the semi final [Argentina].
"I would say England and Scotland will qualify out of the group and that will set up either Scotland against New Zealand or France, or England against New Zealand or France.
"France have a huge amount of talent in their game. On their day they are capable of beating anybody. But while England would not want to play New Zealand, they would be quite happy to play France and would feel pretty confident. They are used to playing them in one-off games and the French hate playing England. For some reason that 22 miles of sea seems to give England the upper hand."
Beaumont knows French rugby really well. He has a house just on the Spanish side of the Pyrenees and goes regularly to watch Perpignan, with the city less than 40 minutes away. Indeed, it was in France, during the rugby World Cup in 2007, that he enjoyed one of his favourite moments.
"My wife Hilary and I went to Menton to the grave of William Webb-Ellis [the man who is said to have invented the game at Rugby School] and laid a plaque and had lunch with the mayor of Menton. It was the day before England played Australia in Marseille in the semi-finals - so it was a pretty successful visit to the south, as we won 12-10."
As one of the key administrators in the rugby hierarchy, Beaumont is keenly aware of the rising injury count in the modern game and says the 2007 World Cup highlighted one of the concerns when minnows Portugal played the mighty All Blacks.
"New Zealand scored 108 points and they realised themselves that their physicality compared to the Portuguese was huge. No player goes out to hurt somebody, certainly not in internationals because you don't have time to think about that. You get on with the game.
"The game is becoming more physical and, as administrators, we might need to look whether we have the same laws for the recreational game and the professional game. There is such an emphasis on the physicality. It's a physical contact game and you have got to do everything you can to ensure player safety. That is paramount in every game.
"Scrums are not a real problem in club games, but at the top of professional rugby, they are a mess. Everyone is trying to cheat, trying to second-guess the referees when they call 'Crouch, touch, pause, engage', and they try to get the first hit. If they don't get the first hit then they take it down. And that is coached; the coaches say that.
"There are some catastrophic injuries in scrums and as administrators we have a responsibility to do everything we can to ensure players' safety and players' welfare. I think we are doing that."
Away from rugby, Beaumont is managing director of his own fabrics company, Bill Beaumont Textiles; the family business in Chorley, Lancashire he joined from school. His wife is the company's design director and the eldest of their three sons, Danny, an accountant, has just become the sixth generation of the family to work in the business.
Beaumont said: "Between the business and rugby it's a juggling act. But I've been amazed watching rugby this season, albeit in the fourth division, which is where my club was, Fylde."
He joined Fylde Rugby Club as a 17-year-old in 1969 and remained there until forced to retire from the game through injury in 1982. He made his debut for England in a game against Ireland in Dublin in 1975, becoming team captain three years later. By 1980 he had become captain of the British Lions, the first Englishman to head the team for 50 years. Today, his loyalty to Fylde remains strong: "This year they got promotion to the third division," he said. "The former England coach, Brian Ashton, has been coaching them as he lives locally.
"It was Hilary who asked him at a barbecue why he didn't work with Fylde and he said 'Nobody's asked me' and I said: 'Well, I'm asking you now.'
"It's amazing what he has done with a bunch of players who basically finished in the bottom half of the league the season before, lost a lot of the better players and ended winning the league by a mile.
"It's the way he plays the game; he doesn't look at physical contact. What do you want physical contact for? Keep on your feet. It's a different way of playing. Look at any game and at all levels they all play the same way: ball off the top of a line-out, smack it up midfield, second runner smack it up again, another runner smack it up again and then they look to do a cut-out pass. Every team will play exactly the same way."
Beaumont's youngest son, Josh, is following in his father's rugby footsteps, but Bill has his concerns: "He's 19 and in his third year at university, but he's a good player. A couple of clubs want him to sign pro contracts, but one of the coaches said: 'You're 105kg at the moment; no one will look at you for representative stuff unless you put on another 10.
"But I don't want him to become musclebound - and he can't run."
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