Nichol: Rugby players input ‘ignored’
New Zealand Rugby Players Association boss Rob Nichol has blasted the game’s international governing body for its failure to listen to those at the coalface as it looks to hustle through a new top-end global competition.
Nichol, a board member of the international players’ group that has condemned World Rugby’s latest proposal for a formalised annual test competition, said it was their understanding the mooted championship was being fast-tracked for mid-March approval.
The concept, as the players body understands it, is for a 12-team competition (with no promotion-relegation) to be locked in for a 12-year period with additional commercial revenue of up to $14 million annually for nations.
Nichol said the players had sent a ‘‘clear and decisive message’’ through a strongly worded release highlighting their concerns. ‘‘If this kind of format is put to the table, we’re telling people we won’t be agreeing to it,’’ he told Stuff.
He added it was an ‘‘embarrassment’’ that this was the concept mooted in the first juncture since the game went professional to come up with a workable, engaging and agreed upon way forward at the top end of the game.
Nichol went on to slam World Rugby for a clear failure to listen to their players. ‘‘The format they’ve put forward, which we first saw last November, presents a lot of issues from a player welfare and game integrity point of view, and we highlighted those issues. They seem to have been quite dismissive of it. It’s got to a stage, as we’ve learnt their plans around potentially adopting this in mid-March, where we’ve realised they have not genuinely listened to the players. The No 1 concern is they’ve developed something they know is fraught with issues from the players’ perspective, but rather than engage with us and the clubs, they’ve actually turned a blind eye to it.’’
The details emerging over the proposed new competition presented a laundry-list of concerns for the players’ body, with a schedule of 11 tier-one tests followed by a semifinal and final. ‘‘That’s just not going to work,’’ he said.