A major change in mindset is required that the competition structures need to be geared towards helping the national team win. However, the RFL may need to offer significant financial incentives to the clubs to produce players for the national team, and to compensate the clubs for giving them up for test duty.

[url=http://www.buzzle.com/articles/161576.htmlRugby union: A complex 8 year deal between clubs and the RFU covering the country's top players[/url

The French team is on a hiding to nothing in this mid-season fixture - Super League based players are worked into the grounds by the cumulative effects of a gruelling Super League schedule, season after season, as [url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby/2010/02/14/super-12-row-115875-22041251/senior figures like Jamie Peacock identified[/url: Quote ="Jamie Peacock""If an outsider looked into our league and wondered why we get beaten by the Aussies he'd think we were stupid playing the number of matches we do. <snipped> "The modern game is played at collision speed and injuries are inevitable. "Rest is important to our ">athletes."'" The logic is the same for the French trying to compete with England. French test players (as well as England and Wales test players) should only be playing 16 Super League fixtures (rather than 27), with a maximum of 30 games over the course of a season, 32 at the absolute most. Unfortunately, in recent seasons, leading senior players are overworked and the effect on them is being blunted, ineffective and eventually breaking down with injury, e.g. these are the game workloads for leading French players, not including pre-season games: * 2008 - Raguin and Bosc played in at least 35 games, Mounis in at least 34 games, Casty in 32 games. * 2007 - Ferriol, Gossard and Rinaldi played in at least 33 games, probably in 35. * 2006 - Jamal Fakir played in at least 35 games and unsurprisingly suffered a major knee injury in his last. Fellous played in at least 34 games, Guisset in at least 33 games, Mounis played in at least 32 games. The lack of attention to manage player welfare and workload leads to players breaking down, and the huge injury list before this match exemplifies that fact. Super League's international players receive a more gruelling schedule and workload than any other nation in Rugby League OR Rugby Union, largely due to an excessive schedule of club games. Leading South African Sports Scientist Tim Noakes the studied the issue of workload in detail, consulted with the SA cricket and Rugby Union national teams, and his advice to the Springboks helped them win the Rugby World Cup. He has constantly championed the need for easing the burden on players to avoid burnout and injury, such as [url=http://www.keo.co.za/2006/05/23/noakes-burnout-will-sink-boks/all-comments/#commentsBurnout will sink Boks[/url: Quote ="Leading Sports Scientist Tim Noakes"Some of our top players have been playing rugby continuously for nearly three years,” <snipped> “No player’s body can take so much punishment week in and week out. “It’s no surprise that Bakkies Botha and Bryan Habana were injured in the Super 14 semi-final. They are two of the players who have been totally over-utilised the past three seasons. “It is inevitable that they would be injured at some time or other. These were not freak injuries. Your brain tells you to continue, but your body will rebel at some stage. “My advice is that key players like Matfield and Burger must forget about rugby for two months. They must not go near a rugby field, because it’s just as important that they get a mental ">break.”'" The precise recommendation for workload is at [url=http://www.keo.co.za/2009/05/26/noakes-rotation-will-be-key/Noakes - Rotation will be key[/url Quote The new Super Rugby format will see teams playing a minimum of 16 games and a maximum of 19. Add that to the June Tests, six Tri-Nations clashes, the November Tests and four or five rounds of the Currie Cup and some Boks could be playing well in excess of 30 competitive games in a season – far too many in Noakes’s opinion. ‘Our research has shown that once players start playing more then 20 games a year they are in trouble. The peak seems to be around 23 or 24 games. That is what you can sustain year on year. Not one player has played 30 games a year without getting injured. ‘Once these players get up to 30 games a year, the next year is a disaster. If you ask players to play a minimum of 16 Super Rugby games and all those Test matches they are going to last one season efore getting injured. <snipped> ‘We’ll be looking at the data we have from our studies with Peter, but it can clearly be seen that the players who play more then 24 games will eventually get injured. As a result of the lack of rest, Noakes believes players are subconsciously starting to take matters into their own hands. ‘What I believe is starting to happen is that players now regulate themselves and get injured when it’s convenient. It might sound strange but it is not inconceivable to me that the brain says that’s it and they get ">injured.’'" Furthermore, the FFR based players are also asked to play this game at the end of a long season, and these players would also be tired and jaded.

The French team is on a hiding to nothing in this mid-season fixture - Super League based players are worked into the grounds by the cumulative effects of a gruelling Super League schedule, season after season, as [url=http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby/2010/02/14/super-12-row-115875-22041251/senior figures like Jamie Peacock identified[/url: Quote ="Jamie Peacock""If an outsider looked into our league and wondered why we get beaten by the Aussies he'd think we were stupid playing the number of matches we do. <snipped> "The modern game is played at collision speed and injuries are inevitable. "Rest is important to our ">athletes."'" The logic is the same for the French trying to compete with England. French test players (as well as England and Wales test players) should only be playing 16 Super League fixtures (rather than 27), with a maximum of 30 games over the course of a season, 32 at the absolute most. Unfortunately, in recent seasons, leading senior players are overworked and the effect on them is being blunted, ineffective and eventually breaking down with injury, e.g. these are the game workloads for leading French players, not including pre-season games: * 2008 - Raguin and Bosc played in at least 35 games, Mounis in at least 34 games, Casty in 32 games. * 2007 - Ferriol, Gossard and Rinaldi played in at least 33 games, probably in 35. * 2006 - Jamal Fakir played in at least 35 games and unsurprisingly suffered a major knee injury in his last. Fellous played in at least 34 games, Guisset in at least 33 games, Mounis played in at least 32 games. The lack of attention to manage player welfare and workload leads to players breaking down, and the huge injury list before this match exemplifies that fact. Super League's international players receive a more gruelling schedule and workload than any other nation in Rugby League OR Rugby Union, largely due to an excessive schedule of club games. Leading South African Sports Scientist Tim Noakes the studied the issue of workload in detail, consulted with the SA cricket and Rugby Union national teams, and his advice to the Springboks helped them win the Rugby World Cup. He has constantly championed the need for easing the burden on players to avoid burnout and injury, such as [url=http://www.keo.co.za/2006/05/23/noakes-burnout-will-sink-boks/all-comments/#commentsBurnout will sink Boks[/url: Quote ="Leading Sports Scientist Tim Noakes"Some of our top players have been playing rugby continuously for nearly three years,” <snipped> “No player’s body can take so much punishment week in and week out. “It’s no surprise that Bakkies Botha and Bryan Habana were injured in the Super 14 semi-final. They are two of the players who have been totally over-utilised the past three seasons. “It is inevitable that they would be injured at some time or other. These were not freak injuries. Your brain tells you to continue, but your body will rebel at some stage. “My advice is that key players like Matfield and Burger must forget about rugby for two months. They must not go near a rugby field, because it’s just as important that they get a mental ">break.”'" The precise recommendation for workload is at [url=http://www.keo.co.za/2009/05/26/noakes-rotation-will-be-key/Noakes - Rotation will be key[/url Quote The new Super Rugby format will see teams playing a minimum of 16 games and a maximum of 19. Add that to the June Tests, six Tri-Nations clashes, the November Tests and four or five rounds of the Currie Cup and some Boks could be playing well in excess of 30 competitive games in a season – far too many in Noakes’s opinion. ‘Our research has shown that once players start playing more then 20 games a year they are in trouble. The peak seems to be around 23 or 24 games. That is what you can sustain year on year. Not one player has played 30 games a year without getting injured. ‘Once these players get up to 30 games a year, the next year is a disaster. If you ask players to play a minimum of 16 Super Rugby games and all those Test matches they are going to last one season efore getting injured. <snipped> ‘We’ll be looking at the data we have from our studies with Peter, but it can clearly be seen that the players who play more then 24 games will eventually get injured. As a result of the lack of rest, Noakes believes players are subconsciously starting to take matters into their own hands. ‘What I believe is starting to happen is that players now regulate themselves and get injured when it’s convenient. It might sound strange but it is not inconceivable to me that the brain says that’s it and they get ">injured.’'" Furthermore, the FFR based players are also asked to play this game at the end of a long season, and these players would also be tired and jaded.

Agreed, a proper debrief would have been helpful, as would a proper rest, and not having to back up that weekend.

Don't change the season, just require that no player should play more than 90% of the League fixtures, pre playoffs. This would mean that all coaches would know that they have to rest all their players at least three times through the season, which means rotation and greater use of academy players - which is good for burnout and good for developing talent.

Quote ="belgianxiii"Don't change the season, just require that no player should play more than 90% of the League fixtures, pre playoffs. This would mean that all coaches would know that they have to rest all their players at least three times through the season, which means rotation and greater use of academy players - which is good for burnout and good for developing ">talent.'" The problem is that clubs will either not agree to rotate players, or they might initially agree but backtrack from the agreement. Why would clubs want to? Resting international players from SL games might mean the difference between winning and losing games, making the finals or not, securing a home final or not, and ultimately a coach, coaching staff, players or administrators keeping their job or losing it. IMO the only time a club will consider resting players (if they are uninjured) is if they lead the competition and have no risk of losing the lead. So, as long as SL clubs are scheduled to play so many times against other SL clubs, they will want their stars on deck. Their other options would be to sign more overseas players to fill the gaps, and ask them to not play test matches, and to refuse release for international teams that aren't England. Neither option is good for RL. They may consider resting star players against semi professional opposition.

Quote ="belgianxiii"Don't change the season, just require that no player should play more than 90% of the League fixtures, pre playoffs. This would mean that all coaches would know that they have to rest all their players at least three times through the season, which means rotation and greater use of academy players - which is good for burnout and good for developing ">talent.'" The problem is that clubs will either not agree to rotate players, or they might initially agree but backtrack from the agreement. Why would clubs want to? Resting international players from SL games might mean the difference between winning and losing games, making the finals or not, securing a home final or not, and ultimately a coach, coaching staff, players or administrators keeping their job or losing it. IMO the only time a club will consider resting players (if they are uninjured) is if they lead the competition and have no risk of losing the lead. So, as long as SL clubs are scheduled to play so many times against other SL clubs, they will want their stars on deck. Their other options would be to sign more overseas players to fill the gaps, and ask them to not play test matches, and to refuse release for international teams that aren't England. Neither option is good for RL. They may consider resting star players against semi professional opposition.

I wasn't limiting this rule to internationals, make it a rule for all players. If you make this the rule, same for all, from pre-season, then coaches know that they have to play their academy players a minimum of 60 times through the season (based on a 20 man squad), more if there are injuries. This means the coach has to focus on bringing through talent and developing the academy players. It means that (say) Leeds would play more academy players against (say) Salford meaning closer games, as well as less player burnout and more time for developing academy players. The only difficulty is getting the clubs to agree, which is easy - just make it a condition of the next license agreement.

Oh, and this would only count for SL matches. Yes, International players would play more matches than non-internationals, such is life. You can't field your academy side in a CC match against a C1 side, drat. Yes, if your club do well in the Cup you play more matches. I bet most SOO players complain about the extra matches and ask for time off?