Moves in place to stave off the ‘chronic’ burnout

The world’s leading players are to be given a “passport” to monitor their training and playing workload before next year’s World Cup in Japan in an attempt to reduce their risk of “chronic” burnout.

The move comes after a survey of international players revealed that almost half had been pressured into playing when not fully fit.

The study, carried out by International Rugby Players, the global representative body, also highlighted concerns about the number of contact sessions in training for both club and country. Omar Hassanein, the IRP chief executive, revealed that to reduce the risk of mental and physical burnout, players would be issued with “player-load passports” so they could monitor their workloads.

The passport, which will include an app to log training sessions and matches, will form a key plank of the IRP’s bid to change the culture in a similar fashion to the approach to concussions. The system is expected to be in place for the World Cup training camps in July.

“We are bringing in a playerload passport which monitors when a player moves from province to country and back to province, or indeed when they move from one country to another to a new environment and need an understanding of what kind of load they have been subjected to in the past couple of seasons,” said Hassanein.

“There are two approaches to this. There is the acute load – whether we damage someone in the space of a week by blowing them out – and then there is the chronic rate aspect.

“I think when you look at a player like Johnny Sexton, his load is no doubt managed better at Ireland than it was in France (during a two-year spell at Racing 92 between 2013-2015) but he was probably playing some of his best rugby when he was in France. It wasn’t until a year or so after he came back that there was that knock-on effect, the chronic build-up.

“It is a few years later now that he has got right back to his best because he has had time in the Irish system to readjust.”

The introduction of the passports was agreed at the inaugural meeting of the IRP council in Monaco last month and Hassanein claims it could reduce the injury rate of Premiership players following events such as Lions tours.

Tensions between Premiership clubs and the Rugby Football Union rose last season over the number of training-ground injuries during England camps.

“I think there is no doubt the English players needed to be better managed as far as how they transitioned out of a Lions series through the next year,” added Hassanein.

“The idea is that it is playerdriven. Aside from just the strength and conditioning coach taking responsibility for that aspect, the player also manages their own load passport – essentially through an app – and they try to track their own load management.” — Daily Telegraph

There is the acute load – whether we damage someone in the space of a week by blowing them out – and then there is the chronic rate