NZ Rugby: Player load our big issue
New Zealand Rugby is hailing its groundbreaking player management protocols as a differencemaker at all levels, despite continued frustrations of fans and pundits around the absence of All Blacks for their franchises.
And NZ Rugby’s high performance manager Mike Anthony, who co-ordinates the special agreement between Super Rugby teams and All Blacks management around national player workload through the franchise competition, declares the arrangement a runaway success which is here to stay for the foreseeable future while the calendar remains as challenging as it is.
Like this weekend, with the Crusaders running out in Sydney minus Scott Barrett and Richie Mo’unga and the Hurricanes sans Dane Coles, TJ Perenara and Ngani Laumape for their home clash against the Stormers. It’s all part of a very deliberate and thought-through plan that all parties have signed up for, says Anthony.
And the proof of its success, adds the NZ Rugby long-term planner, is in the bulging trophy cabinet, with both the All Blacks and leading Super Rugby franchises succeeding at an unprecedented rate since strategic management of player workload was first formalised in 2010.
Over that time the All Blacks have won back-to-back World Cups for the first time in the sport’s history, as well as almost every other trophy up for grabs on the international scene, and New Zealand sides have won six of the last seven Super Rugby titles.
Anthony is keen to clarify some misconceptions around the agreements, primary of which is that it is driven purely by having All Blacks in the best possible condition to win test matches later in the year.
The former strength and conditioning head for both the Crusaders and All Blacks emphasises that the decision to place restrictions on national squad players through Super Rugby is made purely and simply with the players’ best interests at heart.
It is designed to have them performing at their best, not only for the All Blacks in test matches, but also for their franchises at the pointy end of the competition.
‘‘The collaboration and integration we have in this country we firmly believe is a point of difference, and after five years in the UK I can vouch for that.
‘‘Retention is a real challenge for us as an organisation, but we firmly believe this is something you can hold up, and if they’re staying in New Zealand, players know we’ll manage them well and that hopefully they’ll get longevity in the game, as well as the best chance to perform.
‘‘Since 2010 we’ve had some form of arrangement around how we manage our elite guys, and the whole plan is not just about the All Blacks, it’s very much about getting them to perform at the business end of Super Rugby as well, to be there and still firing when it really matters.
‘‘We do this with everyone in our game, with firm development plans around our younger players in Super Rugby and Mitre 10 Cup, and also making the sure the middle-tier guys get the breaks they need to. But it’s the top guys that have the visibility and are most noticed when they’re not there.’’
Anthony wanted to clarify the restrictions on national squad players currently in place. They include a return to play in round one at the earliest in Super Rugby; a 180-minute maximum through the first three weeks; two complete weeks off on top of the two byes; and no more than six (not five as has been reported) matches in a row.
Anthony says these protocols are not just necessary to have the top players performing at their best, but are indeed vital from a welfare perspective in a sport which has an impossibly short off-season for its best people.
‘‘A big goal for us is protecting that off and pre-season window,’’ added Anthony. ‘‘[All Blacks] get 12 weeks, and if you compare it to any other collision-based sports that’s low. Ideally we’d have a hell of a lot more, but competition structure and so on dictates that.’’
Anthony says communication and dialogue is the key to making something like this work. Each year all parties sit around a table and talk through the structures and any tweaks they would like to make. They leave having agreed upon a process that is managed through NZR’s high performance office.
‘‘We’re working together on this,’’ added Anthony. ‘‘Our players have to perform in Super Rugby to get selected for the World Cup squad, and that’s going to be bloody competitive. We need to make sure they’re going well for their clubs.
‘‘This is very much a New Zealand Rugby strategy, we do it with all our players, we consult with them on it, and it’s very much about getting that balance right.’’
World Rugby recently made moves to formalise a load passport ‘‘to encourage best-practice training load management between club and country environments’’.
NZ Rugby high performance manager Mike Anthony, above