Loose Pass: Who is speaking out for the players?

David Skippers
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This week we will mostly be concerning ourselves with player welfare…

Finance to the right of me, cameras to the left, here I am…

That it took up to 24 hours for a dissenting voice raised the eyebrows of Loose Pass. Was there some extra regulation we didn’t spot? Some tweak to the schedule? Some form of compensation or even gag order?

But we do have a voice speaking out. And high time, even only a couple of days after the official confirmation of English club rugby’s restart in August.

“I am speaking out because the players are being penned in a corner. They have been trapped with pay cuts and now these rumours of seven games in 28 days. It’s just madness. The physical toll on the body is going to be brutal. Player welfare is a term we hear a lot about but I don’t think it’s quite backed up by anyone in the game.”

Thus spoke Freddie Burns, himself on his way to earn his crust in Japan. Three midweek rounds are scheduled for the Premiership when it resumes in August, while players in elite squads and at the top clubs could notionally be asked to compete for 52 consecutive weeks if they make it into the Lions squad.

Some clubs will find themselves playing once every four days in order to get the season finished less than a month before the next one kicks off, while the mooted super series of internationals and Six Nations finale will bridge that in-between period. Oh yes, don’t forget the European finals.

“No player is going to turn round and say they need a rest,” continued Burns. “But someone outside of the players has to be looking out for them and saying ‘hang about’ – and I don’t think anyone is.

“It’s just not right… They’re taking money off the players and asking them to do more for less.”

That there was little unrest among the playing masses following the announcement was all the more surprising considering the slapdash nature of the regulations surrounding the restart. Avoiding player burnout remains something ‘under discussion’, with playing time limits likely to be the solution.

But players are working not only to earn their keep any more – a rather paradoxical situation when they’ve all just been told they are earning a lot less than before. When push comes to shove, when injuries, as they inevitably do, strike, or when things don’t go to plan and a club faces an unexpected must-win game, how much will those limits be pushed? Will that be under discussion as well?

The same ‘under discussion’ moniker applies to the consequences of what happens if even a small local outbreak (think Leicester) leads to a postponed match. Points shared? Variations on the Duckworth-Lewis method? A Zoomed game of Spoof?

Premiership Rugby CEO Darren Childs insists that “we think we’ve found a way of doing it safely,” and given the general silence from the clubs and Players’ Association, there does seem to be consensus. Much of it probably stems from the fact that not pressing ahead with this schedule will leave many a club facing financial ruin – a key factor in what Mr. Childs also called a unanimous decision from the clubs to press ahead.

Yet 52 weeks? A schedule that now features rugby for at least some of England’s club rugby players for every calendar month for the next two years?

While it ticks the boxes for short-term broadcast and finance, there is a risk of medium-term damage accumulating to the brand and brands across the board. Players simply cannot be at their best for such long periods. Clubs will not always be able to field their strongest sides. Fans will find their attentions split between matches. The overall quality of both fan experience and the league will tail off as a result. Will broadcasters, whose money is so important now that we are asking rugby players to play non-stop for a whole calendar year, be prepared to pay the same money down the line for a tired and worn-out product?

And as for the players…

Players are paid now, to have a mindset focussed on excellence and success, with anything other than this often defined, most commonly by the players themselves, as failure. This places them under continual stress, which can, and frequently does, build up and overwhelm. Mental health concerns had, before the coronavirus crisis, been making their way into the public sphere courtesy of the laudable honesty of players such as Kearnan Myall.

The wider societal and economic impact of the coronavirus crisis has pushed such discussions to one side, but they need to be born in mind as the league restarts, not least because the pressures created by the pandemic only serve to exacerbate such anxieties and fears.

Yet now, in the wake of a pandemic that has disrupted society, separated families, destroyed economies and livelihoods, we are asking the players to play uninterrupted at the peak of their game for a whole calendar year.

We understand the need for the money to be brought in, for the contracts to be fulfilled. The need for the numbers to match up.

But we hope that among all of this, there are enough people looking out for the players.

They, after all, will be the ones performing their duties, more than ever before under some unique pressures, and for longer than they have ever needed to before. They will be the ones nursing 52 weeks’ worth of bruises and bumps next August. They will be the ones blamed if the quality of the league falls away. They will be the ones blamed if clubs fail to achieve their targets. And they, considering the efforts they have made to get where they are, are the ones with the most to lose.

Loose Pass compiled by Lawrence Nolan

 

Bath