A TALE OF TWO CAPTAINS
Jean crumbles while Ritchie rumbles
IT’S only a few weeks before the Springboks take part in the most important phase of their season — The Rugby Championship — and skipper Jean de Villiers is being held together by plasters, magic spray and willpower.
By contrast, the most contact All Black skipper Richie McCaw has taken in the last six months has been while playing rough and tumble with his dogs. He’ll go into the southern hemisphere’s flagship competition with a refreshed body and mind while his Springbok, Wallaby and Argentine counterparts enter the tournament with thousands of minutes of training and playing under their belts.
The way the New Zealand Rugby Football Union (NZRFU) have handled McCaw has been exemplary thanks to a system that gives them total control over his contract.
But it’s also an unsustainable model on a large scale. The NZRFU could hardly withdraw 25 of their top All Blacks from Super Rugby competitions and not expect a backlash from the television networks that own the rights to rugby. TV after all, provides the financial muscle that keeps unions, clubs and players alive.
Player fatigue, over-playing and the associated fatigue-related injuries should be a major concern for the game, but rugby executives only pay lip-service to player welfare and prefer to focus on the hundreds of hours of TV time they need to fill with product.
Yes, rugby is a product and the players are ingredients that can be replaced or substituted.
The product we’re seeing is a Super Rugby competition where some of the top teams have used nearly 40 players during the campaign. That means in some positions they’re down to their third or fourth choices. Is the viewer actually earning value, because they aren’t seeing the best players in action? They aren’t seeing them performing at optimum levels.
De Villiers, after nearly two
Player fatigue and fatiguerelated injuries should be a major concern, but rugby executives only pay lip-service to player welfare
full seasons of non-stop rugby, has finally broken down with a sternum injury. While the setback cannot categorically be linked to fatigue, there is a fair chance that it is.
The same goes for knee and ankle ligament injuries that occur where there is no, or minimal, contact.
“We can’t say definitively that those types of injuries are caused by general fatigue caused from over-playing, but we can’t rule it out either,” says Joburg-based sports physician Dr Jon Patricios.
“Some players are simply victims of a freakish tackle that noone can legislate for, and the end result is a severe injury.
“But there are others that we suspect are related to fatigue because they have muscle imbalances around the joint, their muscles are tired and their reaction speeds slower.
“Maybe they haven’t fully rehabilitated from a previous injury and their sense of balance isn’t spot on. The body is complex and one area has a knockon effect on another.”
Central contracting and a global season are two aspects of the professional game that are increasingly being pushed on to rugby policymakers’ agendas by player unions in an effort to alleviate the strain on players — but changes are taking place at a glacial pace.
“The amount and the intensity of rugby players are being forced to endure is not sustainable,” says former Wallaby and current Japan coach Eddie Jones.
“That’s why top international stars are flocking to Japan — to prolong their careers. The attraction is not only about money; it’s about experiencing a new culture and enjoying a short rugby season. We only play 13 games a season over here.”
Patricios says strides have been made in terms of training, which focuses more on recovery, but the only way to manage it is to have a proper off-season of at least two months.
“Until we have a global season that won’t happen and until then players who participate into their 30s will become an anomaly,” Patricios says. “Rugby careers are getting shorter and it’s actually not much of a career option anymore.”