Players strike over new season ‘an option’
Christian Day, the chairman of the Rugby Players’ Association, says that blocking Premiership Rugby’s proposal to extend the domestic season to 10 months will be his generation’s defining battle.
There was incredulity among the playing fraternity two months ago when Premiership Rugby announced – without consulting the RPA – its intention to add a month to the 2019-20 season when the revised global calendar comes in.
Day, the Northampton lock, kept his counsel until Mark Mccafferty, Premiership Rugby chief executive, presented the proposal to the RPA players’ board, representing all 12 Premiership clubs. Reassurance regarding player welfare was not forthcoming, and the move was unanimously rejected. Talks will continue, but Day does not rule out striking as an option.
“This is far beyond anything that I have seen since I have been involved with the players’ association,” Day told The Daily Telegraph.
“This is not a tweak, this is a gamechanger. We haven’t discussed going on strike, we don’t want to go on strike, we want to sit down at the table and discuss this. There’s a long way to go before we would consider that, but is it an option? Of course it is. It is an option I hope we will never see, but if the powers-that-be want to harm the welfare of those who play the game, I see no reason why they would not be forced to consider that.”
Under the global calendar agreement struck in San Francisco in March, the domestic European seasons would finish at the end of June, with internationals taking place in July. The Pro12 opted to move the start of its season to October, but
Premiership Rugby wants to keep its early September start date. With all players entitled to a five-week off-season, that would effectively eliminate any form of pre-season for international players.
Premiership Rugby maintains safeguards would be put in place, but Day is unconvinced. He says the 32-game limit that a player can play in a season is a farce. “The fact that Dan Cole in the last Lions year could play more than 40 games and not actually reach the 32-game limit tells you that number is null and void,” Day said. The limit applies only to 80-minute appearances.
Talks will continue through the Professional Game Board, but Day is adamant that the RPA will not move unless more detail is forthcoming from Premiership Rugby.
“Premiership Rugby haven’t provided any information why their proposal is good for the players and have basically said, ‘Just go with us’,” Day said. “That’s not good enough. Tell me how you are going to make sure injury rates are not going to go up? How you are going to make sure catastrophic injuries aren’t going to happen more regularly? The players need a safeguard beyond, ‘Don’t worry, it is going to be safeguarded.’
“Until Premiership Rugby sits down with a plan as to how they are going to make this happen, there is no way that we can agree to an expansion of an already brutal nine-month season, which is in excess of every other contact sport.”
Reports in the French press of Montpellier owner Mohed Altrad summarily sacking six players at an end-of-season barbecue are a reminder of how precarious life as a professional can be. “There is a horrible reality in professional team sport that players are pieces of meat,” Day said.
Day counts himself lucky to have
enjoyed a career spanning 14 years. By 2019, he hopes his boots will be gathering dust, so Premiership Rugby’s plans will not affect him, but he says the fight must be fought.
“There has to come a point where you take a stand and say, ‘No this is not going to happen for the next generation’,” Day said. “The Curry twins [from Sale], who are 18 years old, are going on their first England tour this summer. Are they still going to be playing at 33-34 with 100 caps under their belts? Or are we going to put them through the meat grinder and one of them retires at 25 because their knee gives out?”