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#Post#: 127644--------------------------------------------------
Premiership clubs to face fines if they abuse player-welfare
limits
DIR By: deadlyfrom5yardsout
Date: September 11, 2024, 5:18 am
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Wiggle room will exist for players involved in the Lions tour
next summer but new plan does have ‘teeth’, says players’
association chief
Daniel Schofield,
Deputy Rugby Union Correspondent
10 September 2024 • 5:03pm
Maro Itoje will play no pre-season games this year as result of
the volume of rugby he played last term
Premiership clubs face the prospect of fines if they abuse new
player-welfare regulations with the game limit coming down to 30
matches this season.
Last season, three England players – Maro Itoje, Theo Dan and
Tommy Freeman – exceeded the previous limit along with Wales
centre Nick Tompkins. According to research published by the
University of Bath, that quartet are deemed at elevated risk of
injury this season and consequently will not play in any
pre-season matches.
Under the new Professional Game Partnership, to which the Rugby
Players’ Association were co-signatories for the first time, the
number of games a player is allowed to participate in is coming
down from 35 to 30. While welfare safeguards have been routinely
abused in the past, Christian Day, the general secretary of the
RPA, has warned that the new framework does provide “teeth” for
action to be taken against serial offenders.
“If one specific club consistently breaches these welfare
initiatives then the Professional Rugby Board [PRB] does have
teeth,” Day said. “I think it will be an extreme case. It would
need real mismanagement. But it is there. We see this whole
agreement as a step forward and a modernisation of the system.
The proof is always going to be in the pudding, but I am very
hopeful that we’re going to see something slightly better than
what we have seen previously.”
There will be a slight grey area for those international players
involved in the end-of-season Lions tour, which could add an
extra six matches to their schedule. However, Day says that any
player who goes over the limit will need to have their workload
reduced the following season.
“A Lions tour is very challenging in that regard,” Day said.
“It’s such a block of rugby right at the end of the season. It
will need some special management of those players. You hope the
new IDPs [individual development plans] are going to help manage
that number.
“No one wants to tell a player ‘you’ve played brilliantly all
year and been ever present but now you’re not going to play in
the Premiership final as you’re at the limit’. That’s always
going to be the difficult discussion. Certainly my take is that
if players are going to get limits, and we know what the limits
are and why they are there, the management of that player
afterwards is what’s really important.”
As part of the PGP, the RPA will have seats on the new PRB which
will be the main decision-making body on elite English rugby. In
their recently released Impact report, the RPA have highlighted
their work in securing at least £200,000 for the players of
London Irish, Worcester Warriors and Wasps who went into
administration as well as tripling their women’s membership.
Much of their good work takes place behind the scenes, whether
it is securing residential care for a player struggling with
their mental health or preventing two players from being played
against their will.
However, much work remains to be done and a significant battle
will be minimising the amount of contact training that players
are subjected to in both pre-season and the regular campaign.
“Everyone wants to see a fast physical sport,” Day said.
“Everyone likes that about rugby union. People who play rugby
union enjoy that aspect. But at the same time for us
representing elite players anywhere we can remove that contact
load and that head-impact load is going to become really
important for us. That’s going to be our next push.
“We want to reduce players’ exposure to head impacts because of
the potential or possible implications for brain health. Why
can’t we say the start of pre-season is non contact? That to me
is low-hanging fruit where we start to build, the players get a
five week off-season as it is and if we say the first three
weeks of pre-season are non contact then you have got an
eight-week bloc where players just won’t have any head impacts
and that to us is a good thing and a real start down the path
that we want to continue.”
#Post#: 127646--------------------------------------------------
Re: Premiership clubs to face fines if they abuse player-welfare
limits
DIR By: Squint
Date: September 11, 2024, 7:57 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Can England get fined for ignoring their own welfare rules as
well?
#Post#: 127647--------------------------------------------------
Re: Premiership clubs to face fines if they abuse player-welfare
limits
DIR By: Yareet
Date: September 11, 2024, 8:06 am
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--- Quote from: deadlyfrom5yardsout link ---
>
> Last season, three England players – Maro Itoje, Theo Dan and
Tommy Freeman – exceeded the previous limit along with Wales
centre Nick Tompkins.
>
> “If one specific club consistently breaches these welfare
initiatives then the Professional Rugby Board [PRB] does have
teeth,” Day said.
>
--- End Quote ---
Interesting language used by Day
#Post#: 127656--------------------------------------------------
Re: Premiership clubs to face fines if they abuse player-welfare
limits
DIR By: FatQuin
Date: September 12, 2024, 2:47 am
---------------------------------------------------------
How extraordinary? Saracens not sticking to the rules.
Presumably they’ve engaged their lawyers and this will all go
away with a threat or two. At least they are consistent in
having no respect for the game.
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