Robshaw shows rugby’s heavy toll

CHRIS Robshaw, who is leaving English rugby to join San Diego Legion, predicts more senior players could follow him to the United States to finish their careers, citing the physcial demands of Premiership rugby.

This has been caused by the RFU’s failure to put England’s leading players onto central contracts, which was in turn caused by the big clubs adapting to professionalism quicker than the governing body 25 years ago. English rugby has been dogged by that failure ever since; and that situation will continue until the RFU stand up to the Premiership clubs.

For a recent England captain to say ‘I’m pretty pleased I’m going Stateside’ is a damning indictment of English rugby’s domestic structure.

Last week Eddie Jones and Ben Youngs referred to how the Covid hiatus was inadvertently giving England’s leading players a much-needed ‘sabbatical’. The contrast with how the NZRFU looks after their leading players, by granting some of them similar breaks, shows the RFU in a poor light.

The reasons for Robshaw’s exit show again how the Premiership-dominated structure, besides side-lining the rest of England’s clubs, acts against the national interest.

Meanwhile, it is hard to imagine the England stars committing next season to Saracens unless there has been a secret agreement between Premiership Rugby and the RFU allowing them to still play for England, as it is in contravention of the rule that England players must be at Premiership clubs.

If there has, the rest of English rugby need to know about it.

Jeff Gage