Jamie George says players’ voices must be heard if rugby’s drive to survive is to get out of first gear.
The England star described the death of Premiership clubs Worcester and Wasps as “absolutely horrendous”. He said those lucky enough still to have jobs in the sport had a duty to do more to get rugby motoring again.
“What has happened has opened the eyes of players, made us realise rugby isn’t in the place we thought it was,” said George. “We thought we were comfortable and that Worcester and Wasps would never go down. Now, Joe Launchbury doesn’t have a job and 166 others at Wasps don’t have one either.
“As players, we need to recognise that, think ‘What more can we do?’ and commit to do that.
“We can do more media, allow more access and be more open-minded about growing the game and reaching a wider audience. The players need to be at the forefront of change.”
Wake-up calls don’t come any ruder than this with Andrew Sheridan, the administrator who broke the news to Wasps staff of mass redundancies, revealing: “There were a lot of tears, a lot of men - international rugby players - bawling their eyes out.”
Launchbury admitted it was “impossible to take” and that he is not sure he will ever get over it.
“Joe is one of my best mates,” said George. “I want him to be okay and at the minute, while he’ll put a brave face on, he’s probably not. This is the reality of this horrific situation.”
English rugby bosses face a grilling in Parliament from the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, who have serious concerns as to the sport’s future and financial viability.
The Rugby Football Union say they are ready to explore the idea of central contracts but George says the international game cannot be allowed to detract from the importance of the club game.
“If it can enhance it in some way then absolutely that’s a conversation to be had,” said the Saracens hooker, who will miss England’s autumn Tests after breaking two bones in his foot.
“But I don’t think it should be about just taking the England players out of the club game.
“It would be very easy to look at this commercially and say ‘let’s just make England as big as we can and take away from the club game’.
“But for me, that isn’t the answer. It’s not what players want.”
Wasps' flickering hope of a quick sale to bring them back from the dead was last night dashed by Terminum Capital withdrawing its takeover bid. England star Jack Willis, unemployed as of Monday, is understood to interest both Leicester and Bristol.
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