Melville: 11-month season is non-starter
ENGLAND players no longer face the threat of an 11-month season as talks between Premiership Rugby and the players’ union reach a climax.
With a global season due to kick-off in 2019 and Premiership Rugby floating plans for a September to June campaign – with Test windows in July – the Rugby Players Association had threatened strike action unless demands for a 14-week off-season were adhered to.
Sports science has torpedoed Premiership Rugby’s controversial proposals, with RFU director of professional rugby Nigel Melville telling The Rugby
Paper: “There was talk about the Premiership season starting in September and ending in June, but that’s not where we are going to land.
“The professional season will probably end in June, ahead of the Test window, but it won’t start at the beginning of September, it will start later than that.
“We’ve got to finalise the exact dates but we know the optimum time off for players is 12-14 weeks, so we’re determined to get that right and sports science has been really helpful in that process.”
Melville explained: “We brought a sports science advisory group into the process of how the Premiership season would look in the new global
season post-2019 and they’ve pulled together data on how we manage players moving forward – how many games they should play, what rest periods there should be – rather than just having subjective views.
“Talks with PRL and the RPA have been very productive and we’re nearly at the end of that. It’s based on objectivity and managing players and workloads on an individual basis, because you have international and club players to consider rather than assuming everyone is the same.”
Meanwhile, Melville insists promotion and relegation between the top-flight and the Championship will occur this season, although he has refused to close the door on a moratorium in 2019, along with changes to the existing promotion system.
He said: “There’ll be promotion and relegation this year – one-up, one-down – but we need to set in stone by the end of this season what’s happening next year.
“What we don’t want to do, though, is cut the Championship off so there’s no chance of a team coming through like an Exeter. It’s always got to be aspirational and there are mechanisms we can put in place to ensure that if a club have the means and facilities to play in the Premiership, they could make their way up there.”
Melville wants more Championship coaches to be given top-flight chances and admits that recent decisions by Northampton and Worcester to appoint overseas head honchos have provoked some concern.
Melville said: “We’ve been good at developing our own players, but there are good coaches out there who’ve been in the English system a while and it would be great to think that in future people had more confidence in our coaching and gave people chances.
“Harvey Biljon has done a really good job as a coach at Cornish Pirates and now as director of rugby at Jersey, so when does his opportunity come? Likewise, the two guys at Cornish Pirates now, Alan Paver and Gavin Cattle – who will give them a chance?
“Our top clubs should be looking at those guys because it’s not easy in the Championship and they’re all people who are really learning their trades.”