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Northampton boss Phil Dowson has hinted that the identity of an appointed arbitrator will be important to resolving any conflict between club and country that arises under the new Professional Game Partnership.
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The landmark agreement between the Rugby Football Union and Gallagher Premiership, expected to be announced next week, will enshrine how the elite game is run over the next eight years.
It will include the creation of up to 25 ‘hybrid contracts’ that will give England greater control over medical decisions and the strength and conditioning programme of contracted players when they are on club duty.
Premiership champions Northampton supplied seven players for the recent summer tour to Japan and New Zealand and Dowson is due to meet with England head coach Steve Borthwick next week to discuss their development plans ahead of the autumn, stating that they “are generally pretty aligned”.
However, the Saints director of rugby also sees the potential for disagreements between club and country.
“How it works out when it becomes a conflict and who the independent person is to arbitrate if it gets to that point – I don’t think it will happen very often – will be interesting,” he said.
“(Exeter director of rugby) Rob Baxter made the example of when you sometimes get guys who need an injection on a joint and that might need a week, two weeks or five days off their feet.
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“If that is just before the Six Nations starts, does he miss the last Premiership game for Saints in order to be available for England? My job is to put the best team on the pitch and to give them the best opportunity to perform.
“If you start taking players out of that because you are saving them, effectively, to play for England, then that becomes an issue.
“I think that conflict will be very small and that’s why it is interesting to see who they appoint in that space to arbitrate how that goes.”
Sounds like it’s beginning to get a bit real now that the rubber is ready to hit the road for the PGP! If they haven’t ironed out all of the detail on those type of scenarios as part of the agreement then there is real scope for this to quickly turn into an almighty sheet show…!!