Jamie Roberts slams proposal for an extended domestic season

Wales international Jamie Roberts expressed his opposition on the extended domestic season proposed by the Aviva Premiership.

Premiership Rugby the umbrella organisation of the 12 English clubs came up with the proposal of a 10-month domestic season with the global calendar set to kick-off from 2020.

With the summer tours scheduled in July, the international players will be left with only August as the rest month in a year.

Roberts, who joined Harlequins in 2015 believes time away from the game is equally important for players to bring out their best game.

"The Rugby Players' Association stance is pretty clear - rest is equally as important as playing," Roberts said.

"The lads will tell you that when you have a good off season and rest and get a good pre-season in, that's when your body feels at its best.

"If you are going to extend the season you have to remember that international players will be playing into July.

"You can't expect them to have four weeks off and maybe three weeks pre-season. It is crazy.

"In-season breaks aren't the same because you will still be in training. That mental time away from the game is equally as important."

According to a report from The Telegraph, a total of 82 players from the first team have suffered injuries in the first four rounds of the Aviva Premiership. In the last week alone, five Aviva Premiership A League games were postponed following injury concerns and Roberts believes tackle and ruck laws need to be tweaked to address the issue.

"The ball in play time is higher. The collisions are tough, everyone can see there's been quite a few injuries. The physio room has resembled a bit of a morgue at times," Roberts said.

"One thing I have noticed is defences during first, second and third phases are not competing for the ball.

"They are just making that tackle and filling the field so there's not too much space out there to try and exploit.

"And that means there's a lot of two-man collisions, you're getting halted by a couple of blokes rather than one.

"Whether that has an influence on the injury rate, I don't know, it's hard to quantify. The game has always been attritional, it's never been too different and we carry on."

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