Rugby stakeholders challenged to stop playing lip service over player welfare and make real change
A key concern is the risk of burn out with some international players facing unprecedented demands from both club and country
By Daniel Schofield, Deputy Rugby Union Correspondent 26 June 2023 ? 6:04pm
Conrad Smith - Rugby stakeholders challenged to stop playing lip service over player welfare and make real change
Conrad Smith who made 94 New Zealand caps is now head of player welfare at the International Rugby Players
Rugby?s stakeholders have been challenged to stop paying lip service to player welfare and place iron-clad rest periods into the regulations with too many stars playing a ?crazy? 12 months a year.
With the latest round of negotiations over the global calendar due to resume in London this week, Conrad Smith, the head of player welfare and high performance at the International Rugby Players, will have a seat at the table to ensure the players? voice is not forgotten.
A key concern is the risk of burn out with some international stars having no rest period between their club and country commitments.
The current World Rugby Regulation 9, which governs player release, states that players ?should have appropriate rest, recuperation and recovery opportunities.?
Some unions, such as the RFU, have their own safeguards but those do not apply to players competing outside of their own domestic competitions.
According to the union?s own research, rugby already has the highest training and playing load of any equivalent ?collision? sport and former All Blacks centre Smith says that the playing cohort are growing sick of having their interests sacrificed for an ever expanding fixture list.
?If player welfare is the priority, whatever is decided that has to be the number one,? Smith said. ?As soon as we don?t, don?t say player welfare is the priority, say commerciality is. Players are getting tired of it.?
?Reg 9 mentions rest, rehabilitation and recovery, but it doesn?t specify when that should be seen. All it does is tell players when they need to go from clubs to international teams. We think it should also include when players have their rest periods, which it doesn?t at the moment.?
?That?s left up to unions ? some do it, because they can for their own players ? but there are international players who are left with no recovery or rest time as in their rest time they play in an international competition.
?That needs to be addressed as it is leaving some players with no rest period across a 12-month calendar, which in a contact sport is crazy.?
?We want a minimum [rest period] for every player. No one should be arguing with that ? but with the current way things are, that?s not what is seen because it?s not written anywhere, so the players fall through the gaps.?
?We now have South Africa ? a well-established nation ? with players playing in the URC, effectively a northern hemisphere competition, but they have a southern hemisphere union who play in the Rugby Championship. It?s just not working.?
Current international framework ?does not work?
Another key concern is that the gap between the established and emerging nations could be entrenched by the Nations Championship which would not allow promotion and relegation until 2030. Smith says that the current international framework, decided in San Francisco in 2017, ?does not work? for countries like Samoa and Georgia but the current piecemeal opportunities against top teams is better than no opportunity at all.
?If we?re going to have a competition with effectively two divisions we can?t have them ring-fenced,? Smith said. ?If you don?t have regular games it?s really hard for their players to only be consigned to playing Challenger teams. When promotion and relegation comes along [maybe in 2030] it might be too late. If we?re having six years with no [tier 1 v tier 2] games in that time, which is what is being talked about, that is our biggest fear. The players do not want a competition where they are worse off.?
North versus south ?grand final? can be a success
Smith remains optimistic that the Nations Championship can be a success with a proper format and hopes the World Cup can put the sport in the spotlight for all the right reasons. The flip side would be if the role of the Television Match Official becomes overbearing and Smith hopes to gather players and officials from both hemispheres to ensure there is clarity over the definition of a high tackle.
He also says that the playing base would support the introduction of a ?bunker system? to adjudicate on marginal red card calls while the game continues with trials taking place in Super Rugby and the Under-20 Championship.
?As players we have spoken to about it and have been massively supportive of the idea but it is just the detail to work through in how it works in practice,? Smith said.
?The thing I have realised is the game is not best served by having everyone sitting through and studying this really hard decision. That then sucks up all the analysis of the game because everyone had to sit through it. There?s enough value in it to definitely do it.?
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Topic: Rugby stakeholders challenged to stop playing lip service over player welfare (Read 1104 times)