Rugby has to change to avoid becoming the injured party
OPINION: There has to be a better way.
No-one begrudges the All Blacks their camps or wants them to fail or do anything of the sort. National interests have to trump those of Super Rugby franchises and their devotees.
But Sonny Bill Williams’ unfortunate knee injury makes it three casualties from the past fortnight’s two camps, with Super teams bearing the immediate brunt of those.
The Crusaders pair of Tim Perry and Jordan Taufua are about to miss their second game, as a result of softtissue injuries sustained at the first All Blacks camp in Auckland. Now Williams faces several weeks on the sideline, after undergoing keyhole surgery to repair damage done this week in Christchurch.
Rugby is a high-intensity, collision sport and injuries happen. Just look at the toll some of this season’s New Zealand derbies have taken.
But coaches accept that as part of the territory. What’s harder, if you’re the Crusaders’ Scott Robertson or Tana Umaga at the Blues, is losing guys while they’re loaned out to the national side.
Again, injuries happen. And if they occur during this month’s test series against France, the Rugby Championship or on the end-of-year tour then, as a Super coach, you just have to shrug your shoulders, send the wounded party a consoling text and begin making alternative plans.
It’s when they’re going down within a Super Rugby game-week that frustrations must surely start.
The Hurricanes haven’t lost any of their eight All Blacks to camp-related injuries. But it’s understood that the players were very fatigued when they reported back for training in Wellington this week.
That’s why, at the risk of being a broken record, there has to be a better way. One that has clearly marked boundaries.
You’re either in the All Blacks or you’re in the Highlanders, Chiefs, Blues et al. You can’t be both. Not in the same week, that’s for sure.
But this is much, much broader than whether the All Blacks ought to be having these camps or not.
The issues here go back to things like scheduling and a global season. Player welfare. Broadcast deals.
Everyone is doing their best to play with the hand they’re dealt, but they all appear duds.
We need a rugby landscape where elite players can get their 12 weeks annual leave, play Super Rugby and then move into the international sphere. This whole June window thing, and playing Super Rugby either side, simply isn’t satisfactory.
In the New Zealand context alone, it places unnecessary pressure on the All Blacks’ and Super Rugby coaches. Not to mention a strain on relationships, while also stretching the players to their physical breaking point.
It can’t go on like this and the game’s administrators owe it to their employees, and we fans and stakeholders, to come up with something better and fairer.