Top players are right to threaten strike action over extended season
The voices of those who will suffer on the pitch must be heard loudest
England’s leading players are entirely right to consider strike action over putative plans for an extended season. First, Billy Vunipola, then Joe Marler voiced the concerns of many in expressing their belief that they would be flogged to exhaustion and beyond if the mooted drawn-out season stretching from September to the end of June came to pass in 2019-2020.
Of course, there are caveats. There are many discussions yet to take place. There are also different schemes doing the rounds as the various vested interests stake their claim on the calendar. There is nothing yet set in stone. It may all be two years away.
And none of that matters a damn. The players have had enough. They feel that they are the last to be properly consulted, although it was heartening to see that the Rugby Football Union acknowledged the importance of their input when responding to The Daily Telegraph on Sunday. These are not prima-donna sportsmen chasing another buck, self-indulgent and self-absorbed. They have vented their feelings on the matter because they care not only for their own wellbeing, but also for that of their team-mates.
Of course, it is the international contingent who will be the hardest hit. It is they who will play on beyond the end of the domestic season and into – it beggars belief even to write it – early August for Lions tours.
It is all very well for Premier Rugby administrators to speak of built-in rest periods for the players during the course of a season, but the reality is that their heads will be clocked on for duty throughout that 10 to 11 months. There is no proper rest to be had if the brain is still ticking over. It is easy to calibrate what is needed for the body. The mind is quite another thing entirely.
We all know that there will be negotiations to come. But it is vital that the players’ voices are heard loud and clear now. They do have a well-established union to represent them in the Rugby Players’ Association, and in chief executive Damian Hopley they have a man who has been there since the outset of professionalism in 1995 and is well aware of the issues. Hopley was on the front line when the England team did go on strike in 2000. Back then, it was over terms of pay. There was little monetary difference between the players’ position and that of the
RFU.
But the union was for giving not another penny and would not yield. Nor would the players. It was a point of principle rather than one of pounds, shillings and pence. In a symbolic stand-off that prefigured
Martin
Johnson’s literal refusal to budge along the Lansdowne Road red carpet before kick-off in the Grand-slam decider against Ireland, the England captain stood his ground alongside fellow lead negotiators, Lawrence Dallaglio and Matt Dawson, as well as the squad themselves.
Clive Woodward, who had seen the team record a notable 22-19 victory over Australia at Twickenham three days earlier, was initially angered by the players’ stance. He called it ‘rugby’s darkest day.’ The head coach declared that they would not be picked for the game against Argentina the following Saturday. The players would not be broken, though, a position of deep solidarity that actually impressed Woodward. The walkout lasted 24 hours. But a point was made and precedent set. The same terms of reference ought to apply here. You might assume that players are contracted employees and that they will do as they are bid. But that would be the outlook of the hidebound and myopic. In 2000, the surface issue was one of money, as it so often has been in the many strikes and lockouts that have affected all the major professional sports in America. In reality, it is always about power. Who calls the shots? Who needs each other the more?
As ever, one cannot exist or endure without the other. But what the governing bodies need to recognise is that this is not a problem that has only reared its head since the revamped global season was approved earlier in the year. The purpose of that gathering in San Francisco was to try to align the northern and southernhemisphere calendars with input also from the clubs in England and France. They pushed for a June slot for the climax of their domestic programmes, believing that June offered better purchase on several fronts.
The kink has occurred with suggestions the club season might still begin in September. There is no doubt the physical demands on players are far greater than ever
Physical demands on the players are greater than ever, the punishment wince-inducing
they were. They may have better conditioning programmes than ever they did. There may be more physiotherapists on call to tend to battered bodies.
Yet the game is faster than it has ever been. The hits are harder, the punishment more wince-inducing. And the desire to make a dollar ever more tempting.
The voices of Billy Vunipola and Marler may be regarded in some quarters as no more than incidental noises. That would be wholly wrong. What they have articulated will be felt by hundreds of their fellow professionals. In that regard, this is a seminal moment. The players’ views should be the starting point in any future discussions. Others may have the money. But the power is with the players. And rightly so.