Fields of Fortnite
THE Rugby Players’ Association was formed at very near the advent of professional rugby union in the England. Its lofty aims are:
■■To safeguard the rights of players past, present and future;
■■To establish and maintain better conditions of employment;
■■To provide members with representation at the highest level of the game;
■■To provide financial or other assistance to members suffering from serious injury, illness or hardship;
■■To assist with career and educational training for members;
■■To promote the sport of rugby union in England.
Its only public action during the current crisis has been to issue a press release effectively denying that it has encouraged its members to resist pay cuts in the current lockdown.
The press release ends with the statement “we will be making no further comment on this matter”.
It should be noted that a large proportion, if not the majority, of the RPA’s revenue comes from the RFU and from Premiership Rugby.
In all honesty, if your union is funded by your employer, you might expect the representation you deserve.
Whilst there is absolutely no suggestion that the RPA is influenced by its funding model, one can understand players wondering whether there should be alternatives. Step forward one Ellis Genge!
The Leicester prop, below, has always shown a degree of charisma perhaps unusual for rugby at the top level.
His honesty in interviews has made him much sought after (and much gagged by employers). Who can forget the infamous ‘sausage’ interview after the Welsh Six Nations game this year? He makes the point that players may not have been best advised when considering acceptance of pay cuts, not least because such acceptance without at least formal protest could be considered to be tacit acceptance of such pay cuts continuing to the end of the contracts.
Frankly, this is the sort of point which should have been made to players at the outset when cuts were first mooted. Everyone, certainly in Leicester (although I wonder about Twickenham) wants rugby clubs to be in good health when this crisis ends.
But, at the same time, we have to appreciate that even at the very top end rugby players are not on the sort of contracts that rival even journeymen Premiership footballers.
Pay cuts will bite and they will bite during the course of a short career. For most players there may be a need for independent representation – and they may well have to pay for it.