Rugby Football Union to introduce in-season breaks

The Rugby Football Union is set to introduce in-season breaks from the 2019/20 season to manage the workload of the players.

For the first time the England board has announced guaranteed in-season breaks and it will be applicable for the next three seasons with the World Cup and British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa scheduled in 2019 and 2021 respectively.

The changes also sees a player feature in a maximum of 35 games in a season and will have a five-week post season rest. The Gallagher Premiership for the next year will be played between 21st September and 20th June while the summer tours will be shifted to July from traditional June series.

England players part of the 2019 World Cup will not be eligible to play in the summer tour in the subsequent year unless they have played significantly less number of the matches in the season.

The international players who will be part of the British and Irish Lions tour of South Africa in 2021 will have a 10-week rest on their return from the tour and a week off for their autumn international campaign.

Rugby Football Union chief executive Stephen Brown said the decision was arrived after mutual consent between RFU, Premiership Rugby and the Rugby Players' Association with key focus being the welfare of the player.

“This is very much a partnership and this domestic season structure has been a collaboration between the RFU, Premiership Rugby and the RPA; driven by the professional game board (PGB) and with the San Francisco 2017 agreement underpinning everything,” said Brown.

“We’ve taken into account the obligations under the PGA and developed the new domestic season structure, focussing on the requirements of player welfare and input from the PGB sports science advisory sub-committee, which we all feel is the right approach for professional rugby in England.”

Premiership Rugby chief executive Mark McCafferty also expressed satisfaction at the outcome of the meeting with RFU and RPA.

“The professional game continues to develop quickly and we’ve worked extremely hard with the RPA and RFU over the last 18 months since San Francisco to achieve a number of progressive goals for the English structure over the next three seasons, building in new player management approaches, reducing overlaps and scheduling more of Gallagher Premiership Rugby for the better weather conditions of spring and early summer.”