Given the speculation of an exodus at Wasps, with Elliot Daly, Nathan Hughes and Willie le Roux reportedly on the way out in part due to the club’s training facilities, my initial reaction is that agents in the modern game wield far too much power over their players and the game.
If a player truly cares about his club, is it really about facilities? Or is his agent using that as a clause to get him out of his contract for better offers. Where has the loyalty gone?
Forget ‘inadequate’ training facilities: what happened to running around a park backwards 500 times like Neil Back did? He was told his hamstrings were not tough enough, so he ran backwards around a pitch for two hours in a park in the rain. There was no complaining that he could not do it on an air-conditioned, humidified treadmill on a 20 per cent incline. He just went out and did it.
Instead of hiding behind the training facility, at least come clean and admit you are leaving to get paid more money elsewhere. We should not follow footballers from 10 years ago and start hiding behind clauses in your contracts.
You have a short career and have to maximise it. But agents have killed off the rugby spirit in a lot of players, because they are all trying to pick up these 16 and 17 year olds, saying they will get them the best deals. Unless you are Maro Itoje or Owen Farrell, you will not get huge financial deals at that age. Everyone has to get little tidbits and add-ons: free trainers, some protein, a car, a driver. If you start that at 16, by the time you get to 25 you have someone wiping your arse for you.
The moment the big bucks come along, the players take them. Do I blame them for it? Part of me does (the jealous part), part of me does not. The old rugby player in me wants them to stay with their clubs, as I was fortunate enough to do with Leicester Tigers.
There was a point where I did think about leaving Leicester and received a ridiculous offer from Stade Francais. Aside from the main reason - my wife wouldn’t let me go - the reality is you are still in the same financial bracket. If you earn £100,000 a year more at a new club but you are unhappy, then the money does not make any difference to the rest of your life. You only find that out when you are retired and have been through the mill, whereas these players are told that every pound matters.
Some of the rumours about agents turning up... if my agent ever turned up to anything when I was playing, I would have told him where to go. And yes I’ve still got an agent but I see him more as an advisor and a friend rather than someone hell bent on making a few more quid. Players only needed agents in the past to make sure they received a reasonable deal, read the contract for them and to take away the concern about money.
You did not want to talk to your director of rugby about your salary, which was why you had an agent. Your agent was not around to pick up your shopping, or to get you free stuff on Instagram. Players seem to think their agents are part of their housekeeping team.
The game seems to have evolved into that and agents have accelerated the money in the sport to breaking point. They are taking a huge amount financially out of the game that could be reinvested into infrastructure of the clubs or into developing young players. This admittedly is not the case for all players, but some agents have taken the ability away for players to make up their own minds off the pitch. Thinking for yourself off the pitch helps you to make decisions on it and helps you with life after rugby. It stops you being a contrived, manipulated player, and that can only be a good thing.
As for Wasps, I think you have to really feel for Dai Young, the director of rugby. He brought a talented squad together last year and they picked up crucial injuries at key times. Now there are bits of information out in the public that unsettle the players on a regular basis.
It seems like Dai has been constantly putting out fires at Wasps since he arrived there, even dipping into his own pocket during the darkest point with the club on the verge of bankruptcy. Expectations at the same time have continued to grow. Last season Wasps were a very attractive side to watch, but this year they are still trying to find their feet. Speculation that their three best players might be off at the end of the season damages them, so maybe now it’s time to start remembering those good old rugby virtues and get behind a man like Dai who is full of them.
Always a Wasp
