Unfit players ‘pushed to perform’
A survey conducted with 350 international players between October and November by the International Rugby Players’ Association and Rugby World magazine has revealed that 45 per cent felt pressured to play or train when not fully fit.
Each of the 20 teams taking part in next year’s Rugby World Cup responded to the survey, plus representatives from Germany, Kenya, Hong Kong and Romania.
“It is concerning, particularly the pressure to train consistently,” said Omar Hassanein, the IRPA chief executive. “Not only are they not fully fit but they feel very run down mentally, which does not bode well.
“The key is we need to link these things into performance. Having players training and playing that are not fit is going to be counterproductive towards performance.
“The game needs to protect the players from themselves. They will sometimes play because they do not want to lose their position.”
Regarding concussion management,
‘The game needs to protect players. They will play because they don’t want to lose their position’
28 per cent of the players surveyed also admitted to hiding a head knock in order to start the return-to-play protocols.
“The whole [concussion] area has come a long way. Players have shown support for the HIA [head injury assessment] process,” Hassanein said. “The focal area now is around the protocols, players getting back onto the park within six days. We feel the decision needs to be taken away from players. More and more players are retiring due to repeated concussions.”
A third of the players surveyed missed six matches or more due to injury last season, and suggested the optimum number of matches per season should be between 21 and 25. For context, 16 per cent of the players surveyed featured in 31 or more matches last season.
“You could say that players should get paid more to do less, given that sometimes less is more,” Hassanein said. “We believe the World Rugby player of the year, Jonathan Sexton, only played 22 to 24 games, and that speaks volumes in a lot of ways.”