Shaken and stirred but no need to strike

PLAYERS’ VIEW

The world’s top rugby players are up in arms over the international body’s plans for what they see as a fundamentally flawed global league, but Kiwi powerbroker Rob Nichol does not believe the standoff will come down to a strike.

Top test stars, via their collective the International Rugby Players Association, have come out hard in their condemnation of World Rugby’s plans for a new global league that is slated to run non-World Cup years and effectively create a closed shop among the chosen 12 sides locking in to a 12-year agreement.

The players’ body has major concerns over unfeasible workload and the integrity of the game and believe that far from addressing the key issues of international rugby, the mooted competition would just create a rich-getting-richer scenario and severely compromise the nations sitting outside the chosen few.

They also believe it would have a major impact on the existing World Cup and Lions tours, and create a serious impasse with clubs when they realise the state they would be getting their players back in.

The players have clearly been stirred by the proposal, with All Blacks skipper Kieran Read among those coming out swinging over the mooted plans.

Ultimately World Rugby needs its players’ buy-in to get the competition underway, but Nichol, who heads the New Zealand collective and is a key figure in the international players’ body, does not believe they would be required to withdraw services. . ‘‘By taking this stance, or being forced into a corner where they’ve felt they had to take this stance, this will force World Rugby and the national unions to reassess their strategy.’’