PappjeShark wrote: ↑Sat Jan 25, 2025 9:06 pm
There’s various angles to it, one being as mentioned that Scottish and Welsh players are available but English aren’t.
And while I get the point about playoffs and also about taking advantage (I remember always seeing a home game against Sarries during the 6N as a chance to sneak a win), we’ve seen 3 clubs go bust in the last couple of years. There are 4 fewer game weeks required and I don’t see why a schedule can’t be worked out to avoid these kind of clashes. English rugby is in a shambles at the moment, with loss-making businesses trying to solve their financial woes by spending more money on players. Personally, I don’t think the best way to grow the game and make it successful includes stripping clubs of the best players like this. It might have used to be like this but that doesn’t mean it should stay the same way.
Bit of an unintended rant against the administration of the game I admit! Tomorrow’s game just feels to me symptomatic of where the game is going wrong.
It's not beyond the wit of man to avoid clashes with training weeks; but you have to choose your poison; what do you sacrifice to find those extra 2 weeks?
2 clashes where the clubs lose their England players
2 clashes where the clubs lose their England players AND their Welsh/Scottish/Italian players
Lose the play-offs, and the money they draw in (avoiding clashes also removes the original justification for these)
Shorter rest period between the end of one season, and the pre-season - which is already shorter than it ought to be for player welfare
Shorter pre-season - which is unacceptable to club coaches
Refuse to release EPS players for training weeks, which would be a breach of contract, and lose the clubs ~£3.5M per club per year that the RFU pay for that release
Find a year with 54 weeks instead of 52
SSR wrote: ↑Sun Jan 26, 2025 6:30 am
Make the AIs into SIs and alternate every year between them and Summer tours. Simples!
So bankrupt the RFU, and lose their ability to pay the clubs ~£3.5M each per year, and their ability to pay anything at all to the championship clubs, and their ability to administer and assist the community game?
And we think that Bill Sweeney's mis-managed things!