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Premiership Rugby issues statement criticising World Rugby's 2020 Test match window

By PA
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

Premiership Rugby bosses have criticised World Rugby’s “unilateral decision” to stage extra Test matches in December and called on the game’s global governing body to come back to the negotiating table over the sport’s rescheduling in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

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English top-flight chiefs are taking exception to World Rugby plans to stage the southern hemisphere Rugby Championship between November 7 and December 12.

English teams would lose their southern hemisphere Test talents for one week of club fixtures and the first weekend of the Heineken Champions Cup, with next season’s Gallagher Premiership campaign slated to start on November 20. It has left the domestic English governing body, Premiership Rugby, urging global bosses to think again.

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“In response to Wednesday’s statement from World Rugby in which a temporary international calendar for 2020 has been recommended, Premiership Rugby urges further discussion to find a calendar solution for the global game as a whole to allow the 2020 season to be played out,” read a Premiership Rugby statement.

“Exceptional circumstances have been created for sport by the Covid-19 pandemic, and discussions between the Premiership and the RFU on how to accommodate the needs of the international and club game in England during the global pandemic have been progressing positively.

“Premiership Rugby now urges World Rugby to restart the global discussions to unify the unions and professional leagues and agree to a temporary plan that works for all. We regret World Rugby’s unilateral decision to impose changes in the international calendar on our clubs through a temporary amendment to regulation nine when progress is being made with the RFU to reach a compromise for the benefit of all.

“The confirmation from World Rugby that any change to regulation nine is a temporary measure for this year only, and will not be used as a precedent for future calendar changes on a similar basis, is welcome.”

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World Rugby on Wednesday confirmed plans for an extended autumn Test schedule to run from October 24 until December 12. This set of fixtures would allow for the completion of the postponed Six Nations, and also a number of autumn Test matches.

Premiership bosses have reacted with frustration, however, insisting their own talks with the Rugby Football Union (RFU) have been constructive on how best to complete the complex fixture puzzle. The delayed 2019/20 season will restart on August 14, with top-flight clubs able to complete the campaign blighted by the pandemic.

The 2020/21 Premiership season will then start on November 20 in a bid to be completed ahead of the British and Irish Lions’ July 2021 tour to South Africa. Premiership Rugby chiefs have now moved to assert some authority, insisting the organisation has reached the limit of its flexibility when it comes to scheduling revisions.

“Premiership Rugby and its clubs have already offered compromises and agreed to stretch the current international window from four weekends to six, offering a solution that would allow the completion of the Six Nations tournament, accommodate an extra game with England vs Barbarians, and allow for the four international matches in the November window,” continued the Premiership Rugby statement.

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“The Premiership has also agreed to start the 2020/21 Gallagher Premiership Rugby season during the 2020 international window, on 20 November, to allow the campaign to be completed before next summer’s Lions tour. So a further temporary amendment to regulation nine, which governs player release for Test matches, for weekends in December, would have a further impact on the Premiership and needs to be avoided.”

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J
Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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