Munster's Sharks shootout agony proves to be URC's biggest ever highlights hit
There really is no such thing as bad publicity given the news that highlights of Munster's controversial BKT URC quarter-final defeat to the Sharks last Saturday have generated the most views for such a package in the competition's three-year history.
Almost 350,000 people have already taken in the seven-and-a-half minutes of footage on YouTube, which includes the 100 minutes of rugby in Durban and the resultant shootout that has made such a star/villain of the Sharks' Jaden Hendrikse.
Munster were infuriated by what they deemed to be gamesmanship on the part of the Sharks and, in particular, Hendrikse, whose wink while lying on the floor and receiving medical attention wasn't long in going viral.
There have been no disciplinary issues flagged as a result of the shootout antics but URC CEO Martin Anayi did concede that it may be an idea to examine rules regarding the numbers of personnel allowed access to the field of play.
'If there was someone on the pitch who should not have been on the pitch then that will get flagged. From it being something that has spiked viewership, yeah, obviously it has. That game is the most viewed highlights on YouTube that we have ever had, in two days.
'So it shows the level of intrigue and interest spiked by the gamesmanship and there is a bit in that between positive and negative, isn't there? It's a difficult one. I have listened to a lot of podcasts talking about it the last few days.
'But ultimately we want characters in sport and when you have characters you encourage people to show their character and that can be positive and negative. There are heroes and villains in all great sporting stories.
'That's kind of what is emerging here, isn't it? It has certainly spiked interest in the league and in that fixture and in a rivalry between Ireland and South Africa that is really bubbling along. I guess it is another chapter in that story.'
Anayi was also asked about the proposed R360 league which aims to attract hundreds of the world's top players, male and female, to a new franchise competition played mostly through the northern hemisphere's summer season and in some of the world's major cities.
'I probably know as much as you guys know. What we do is just focus on ourselves. We've got big games, we had 80,000 at Croke Park for the Munster-Leinster game. We encourage big games like that, we are in big cities, we are at community level as well.
'We are about being part of an ecosystem. We care deeply about the grassroots at one end and international rugby at the other, and play a really important part in that pyramid. We just focus on making the URC as great as possible.
'That's all that we can control.'
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