Player welfare during the remaining games

[Heathen]

Picked this up off Twitter :

Some player welfare measures have been announced

No player will play more than 180 mins if selected in a matchday squad 3 times in a week.

No player will start all 3 games in a week.

No player will be selected (including as a sub) in more than 6 games up to September 13th.

[Wiltshire Wasp]

That’s interesting. What was the source of it?

[Shugs]

That's interesting. Sort of what you'd expect but an official steer helps protect the players. Lots of admin in terms of game time to record!

[Neils]

That’s interesting. What was the source of it?

Bobby Bridge picked it up from RFU & PRL - there are more requirements covering the AIs and next season.

[Neils]

https://www.englandrugby.com/news/article/professional-game-board-agrees-player-welfare-initiatives

[Wiltshire Wasp]

Thank you.

[Bloke in North Dorset]

I understand the reasons for these regs but unless there is more detail that's not referred to in that link this has the potential to cause lots of problems problems in interpretation:

•    No player will play more than 180 minutes if selected in a matchday 23 on three occasions in a week
•    No player will start all three games in a week

What if a a player in week 3 is on the bench with the intention of playing, say, 40 minutes and he's already on 140 minutes but is needed as a sub after 2 minutes? Do they replace him at the 180 minute mark? What if he's the specialist cover in the front row and there's no other specialist, does that mean they have to go to uncontested scrums?

What defines a week? Are games Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday 3 games in a week, technically I don't think so but I think that is the spirit.

I haven't checked the fixture calendar and that situation might not occur, but that's not the point. We all know that the devil is in the detail and when it comes to a crunch situation at the end of the season with a team vying for top4 or 6 the temptation will be to look may look to finesse* the regulations, which will lead to more bitterness between clubs.

I hope I'm wrong, but as anyone who's been involved in contract disputes will know, hoping that the contract won't be needed is a fools errand.

* I'm being polite, some would say game

[JF]

Sunday-Wednesday-Sunday is more than a week. You can't have more than one of a day in a week.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

IF you (as any sane person would) interpret a week as 7 days, then I don't think any team IS playing more than 2 games in any such window, regardless of what day you 'start' the week. 2 x 80 minutes per game is 160 minutes.

When there is a stoppage, the players are not 'playing'. True, there will be the few minutes at the end of each half waiting for a dead ball moment, but that would rarely be more than 10 minutes in total.