Donal Lenihan: Around the world, rugby was never in greater need of progressive people

RUGBY RETURNS: Asafo Aumua and Reed Prinsep take part in a drill during a Hurricanes Super Rugby training session at Rugby League Park in Wellington, New Zealand. The global game, says Donal Lenihan, will suffer irreparable damage if the Wallabies and the All Blacks find it impossible to keep their best players at home and become a diluted force on the international stage, something that has already happened to Australia. Picture: Hagen Hopkins

RUGBY RETURNS: Asafo Aumua and Reed Prinsep take part in a drill during a Hurricanes Super Rugby training session at Rugby League Park in Wellington, New Zealand. The global game, says Donal Lenihan, will suffer irreparable damage if the Wallabies and the All Blacks find it impossible to keep their best players at home and become a diluted force on the international stage, something that has already happened to Australia. Picture: Hagen Hopkins

With no rugby action for the foreseeable future, I’m about to park my pen for the summer. With the professional game facing its biggest financial crisis since the decision to go open in August 1995, one wonders what the landscape will look like when I return to these pages in September.