Players need rest too!

Tuesday June 01 2004

Give players time off, and you'd get better quality of play, says Stephen Jones. No doubt this'll annoy the treasurers of the game, but here's his theory anyway...

Yet another preposterously long season is about to end in Britain, with only the IRB Sevens at Twickenham this weekend remaining. The (pointless) Zurich Final has been played, the Barbarians have ended their tour - and their drinkathon - and have dispersed.

Over in France, where they take their season to nut-case lengths, there are still another three weeks to go before the end of the domestic action - I wonder if the French players will be reporting back to begin preparation for the new season before the old season ends?

However, the season up in the North is over only for those lucky people not involved with their national squad. All the home nations now face ferocious tours, and the dear old Scots are already bashing their way around Australia. England have three national teams in action shortly - the first team will soon be leaving for New Zealand and Australia; the shadow squad are competing in the Churchill Cup in Canada; and the Under-21 team are preparing for the World Championships in Scotland.

In the southern hemisphere, even though there is a short pause as the national teams get together, I would imagine that the players are hardly feeling fresh. The Super 12 tournament may not be so long or so demanding as the combination of the Heineken Cup and the Zurich Premiership, but I would imagine that the travelling alone is exhausting. The national coaches of New Zealand, South Africa and Australia are no doubt spending as much time fussing over injury niggles as they are over preparation.

So here is a question for rugby's officialdom. For around three decades, the game has been crying out for pressure on its top players to be decreased - when are you going to do something about it? When are you even going to make the smallest gesture? The truth is that I can never remember a single game being called off simply to protect the welfare of leading players. Was there not some parable about geese and golden eggs?

But take the last week alone. We have heard in Britain and Ireland that the organisers of the Zurich Premiership and the Celtic League have their heads together and are trying to set up a play-off between the two event winners - Wasps and Llanelli - at the start of next season. Presumably, this would have to be staged before the Middlesex Sevens, already inserted too early and with orders to the top clubs that they must field their strongest players.

What else? Over the weekend, Sir Clive Woodward expressed his frustration that he could not field his strongest team against the Barbarians and declared that he was "not excited" by the future prospect of fielding a weakened team against the tourists. Here was a clear demand for another full-on Test match to be chucked into the interminable international programme.

Amongst the SANZAR nations, there is a similar potential for more demands. Reports that News Corporation's injection of cash for a new SANZAR deal would be slashed by as much as 50 percent when compared to the initial deal done in 1995, have been denied. However, the broadcaster clearly wishes to pay less this time around, and the upshot is inevitable - there will be demands for more internationals and conceivably, an expanded Super 12 event.

There will also be demands that kick-off times are changed to suit television and to annoy the hell out of real, rugby-going, paying spectators. The kick-off lunacy is in full swing in Europe.

All in all, the concept of a close season is now almost forgotten. The situation is not quite as bad in the southern hemisphere, where the domestic competitions are not so drawn out. But all over the world, the season hardly ever ends and when domestic action is over, you can be absolutely sure that every serious professional rugby player of any note whatsoever will be dragged off thousands of miles to bash his brains out a little more.

You have to hand it to some of these officials. Their creativity in trying to explain away their own greed is absolutely marvellous. It was announced two years ago that the right of every top English player to have a proper 10-week close season was to be enshrined in rugby laws. This would enable him to rest and recuperate, and then to do the necessary personal heavy work to build up his physique in time for pre-season team training.

It was pointed out to one of the Premier Rugby officials that a forthcoming fixture list did not allow for a full 10-week break. Quick as a flash, our man was ready with the answer. He agreed that the 10-week break was not on the schedule, but pointed out that a couple of shorter breaks in playing action after the season was over actually gave the players an aggregate of 10 weeks off. Ingenious, of course. And absolutely nonsensical.

It is my firm opinion that at least one summer in every four-year cycle should be left completely fallow, and that the senior national squads of every major rugby country should be allowed to put their feet up for a whole three months. Yes, that would mean no autumn internationals for one season in four in the European nations, and it would mean no major incoming tours for one season in four in the Deep South.

No doubt this would cause apoplexy amongst the various treasurers. Yet the true success or otherwise of the professional rugby revolution will only be decided on that day when the game no longer has to prostitute itself to the gathering of income streams, and no longer has to hammer its own prime assets into oblivion.

This time next year, the British and Irish Lions will be preparing to tour. They are not the only major touring team who will arrive on their tour exhausted. They will be the Battered Lions. I wonder if a 3-0 Test whitewash in favour of the All Blacks will concentrate just a few closed minds.