Williams plays down north-south divide

IT’S 13 years since the game of rugby union officially shed its amateur status and yet here we are still, in the middle of another raft of ‘autumn’ internationals, lamenting that lingering north-south divide.

It wasn’t meant to be like this. Professionalism was supposed to eradicate this class divide and, until this month, arguments could have been made to suggest that it was working.

Now this. New Zealand and Australia cantering over the finishing line while even the troubled Springboks have been able to forget about their internal problems long enough to squeeze out the Welsh and the Scots.