Season extension hasn't fully protected player welfare
The players are already pushed hard argues Joe Harvey
©PA
Following last week’s announcement that the Gallagher Premiership season will be extended, Joe Harvey offers his thoughts on the new proposal.
It was revealed at the end of last week what changes would be made to the league season in England. There have been many mixed opinions on whether the changes will be good or bad, and of course, there are arguments for both sides.
Now with enforced breaks throughout the season, it looks like the top-flight of English rugby will span across 10 months. Starting in early-to-mid September and ending in mid-to-late June, it is baffling to think that England players will have to play on for another month at the conclusion of the domestic season to play summer internationals.
That is actually a quite astonishing amount of time to be playing top-class rugby. For the England players at top clubs, they could be playing around 40 games, unless their coach has a rotation policy.
It makes you wonder why there aren’t others like Joe Marler ending their time in international rugby prematurely with the added workload being too much for him mentally. Marler has reportedly asked for a meeting with RPA Chairman Mark Lambert about these new changes, signalling that some players may not be thrilled with their representative body.
As much as players will be getting enforced breaks, that doesn’t really take away from their workload; it just prolongs it. Before the playoff stages of any competition, Premiership Rugby sides have 32 fixtures to play across the domestic league as well as in Europe and the Premiership Cup.
With the Anglo-Welsh having recently been ditched due to the Welsh provinces not having the depth to be competitive, it seems like organisers are scared of a weekend with no fixtures. The fact is that most sides play weakened teams anyway, making the competition no greater than the Premiership Rugby Shield.
Now, limited to a maximum of 35 league games a season, that still seems like a large number of matches to be playing. It almost feels like English rugby is paying the price for mistakes made over 20 years ago.
From an English perspective, seeing Ireland, New Zealand and Wales being so successful due to centralised contracts, it fills you with jealousy. We’ve seen Ireland be benefit from closely monitoring their player’s workloads meaning they can keep the players fresh for international rugby.
If the Premiership are looking at offers for the business, then you’d hope that the RFU would be interested to purchase the competition to benefit the international game. Also, the matter of ring-fencing will have to rear its head again.
If players are expected to manage a 35-game a season workload, squad depth will have to increase. This could either mean that there would be more foreign imports in the league, or the lower leagues could have their squads depleted of quality players.
One thing that many can get on board with is that England internationals are entitled to 10 weeks off following their summer commitments to their country. This does mean that they’ll miss the start of the Premiership season, especially now there is a 12 week break between the conclusion of the Premiership campaign and the start of a new term.
These new guidelines are going to be used, there’s no doubt about that, but the matter of player welfare still doesn’t seem to of been addressed. The expectation on players to be involved for 35 games in a season is far too much.
It would make more sense to take fixtures off the list. The Premiership Cup springs to mind straight away. Instead, have a series of breaks throughout the season, and don’t be so scared to play league fixtures on the same day as internationals.
