No club rugby for England’s 7s stars
Twenty of England’s leading players will miss the entire English Premiership season after the RFU decided that its centrally contracted group will focus only on sevens.
Published by Alison Donnelly, July 22nd, 2015
3 minute read
Wasps' Michaela Staniford is one of the players who will miss the club season: Image thanks to Scrumpix
The RFU contracted 20 players to its sevens programme in the lead up to next year’s Olympics. With qualification for Rio now secured, the decision has been made for those players to play no club rugby and focus only on sevens.
The decision, just over six weeks from the start of the league season, has infuriated some clubs who have little time to plan without their star players, though others accept that the RFU, as employers, are within their right to manage player welfare over what is set to be a gruelling year leading into Rio.
It will hit some clubs hard – Richmond for example have seven contracted players in the sevens squad while Championship side Thurrock have four.
The RFU said:“With nearly a year of having 20 players on central contracts, we now have a better understanding of how to manage the players’ physical and mental welfare needs. Going into the new season, which is an Olympic year, we know that the season is going to be longer and even more intense. Also, the volume of training and level of playing intensity is very different in Sevens and XVs rugby which means we need to manage players’ workloads consistently and even more carefully throughout the season to maximise their potential as we strive for Olympic success on behalf of Team GB.”
The RFU are also thought to be reviewing the top league set up in England and are potentially considering replacing the Premiership with a six-team regional league, similar to how netball is run in England with a “Super League” franchise system replacing the elite club level, though thinking is thought to be at a very early stage.
When asked, the RFU said:
“We are constantly reviewing our performance and playing programmes as we look to take the Game to the next level. The Premiership season will be the same this season, with the only change being the addition of a play-off game as requested by the Premiership clubs.”