Clubs and Unions must get on better – Halliday
OUTGOING EPCR chairman Simon Halliday insists the relationship between clubs and unions must improve for the sake of player welfare.
The partnership between clubs and national unions has come under stress in recent years due to the absence of a globally aligned calendar resulting in a clash between club games and Test matches.
Top 14 and Premiership fixtures regularly clash with international matches, and although the newly rebranded United Rugby Championship has limited such instances Wales’ out of window Test against New Zealand will be played at the same time as a Welsh derby.
“They have to improve their relationships because, one you won’t succeed, and two the players will not buy into it, and three you are risking player welfare, and you can’t do that,” said former England full-back Halliday, right.
“I fully understand whether it’s 50,000 at Eden Park or 75,000 at the Principality Stadium they are big paydays. At the moment there’s things like Wales playing New Zealand on October 30, which is not in the international window, so a variety of club players aren’t available. “Outside of that it’s a defined window of opportunity and it certainly doesn’t need to get any bigger. Everybody knows that the strength of the club game drives availability for internationals. You can’t just have training paththe ways all the way to the top.”
World Rugby recently published guidelines that all professional teams should limit sessions to only 15 minutes per week.
Halliday believes a better relationship between clubs and unions will improve player welfare.
“We are all dealing with the same assets,” he said. “These aren’t different players; they are the same players. The stats show too much rugby training that is over physical doesn’t do anyone any good. It just doesn’t and I don’t care what anyone says whether coaches agree or not.
“The defence coaches have been coaching high tackles. We know that. Forget it – it’s off the agenda.
“So much has to change but if you get that bit right and you have players who are fresher for the international game within their windows, and the club window, which is by definition a longer one, allows for this creativity like bringing in new teams from South Africa, building more emerging sides.
“The club game can never be separate because the club game supplies the players for the international game but the connection and the relationship has to improve in some areas.”
There has been a lot of debate over whether to include an emerging nation such as Georgia in the Six Nations, and how to build the sport in countries like Romania, Germany, and Portugal. But instead of throwing Romania into a Test match against a side like South Africa Halliday insists the growth must start at club level.
He said: “Commercially Germany and Spain are two big countries that we would love to see come through and build at club level. How do we build Germany? How do we build Spain? The Spanish Sevens team beat the All Blacks Sevens side a few years ago.
“Can we get the best Georgian internationals playing in Georgia? The Georgian club scene isn’t good because all the top players play in France.
“Romania used to beat tier one teams in the 1980’s like France, Scotland and Wales. We need to get that back. It needs to happen next.”