Simon Massie-Taylor, the chief executive of Premiership Rugby, believes that the game needs to work better together to create more superstar players if it wants to grow.
Massie-Taylor’s background is in marketing at the RFU and, speaking on Lawrence Dallaglio’s Evening Standard Rugby Podcast, he said the sport needs to do more to promote itself, with a “change in mindset” required.
“The players are the stars,” he said. “On social media, our top five players aggregate more than all the clubs and Premiership Rugby [channels] combined. Player power is super important [for growing the game] when they have a voice.
“But those top five players are 75 per cent of a Ben Stokes or a Joe Root in cricket, which is a comparable team sport with about the same distribution.
“I think it is a change in mindset, and that is part of the challenge. Within rugby’s culture there is tall poppy syndrome, sticking your head above the parapet and everything.
“I think that is changing, and people are showing they have a voice. I think there is a change in mindset within the clubs as well. We have talked a lot about this with the Premiership clubs, getting that access that the media needs or the player wants to have.”
Massie-Taylor said he hoped that later this year a more aligned calendar would be negotiated in the European and global game, but warned it would not be a “silver bullet”.
“That is the billion pound question really,” he said. “As the season is constructed, with 28 weekends of Gallagher Premiership, eight weekends of Europe, 12 international games and trying to give the players a rest, that equation doesn’t add up to 52.
“You either deal with the cards laid, or do something radical. I think the challenge for rugby is that frankly there is no silver bullet. The positive is that throughout the Covid period a lot of good progress was made round considering things like this, from all angles.
“There are various exercises that are happening that will hopefully come together later this year and we will be able to stand hand in hand and say this is the future of rugby. It won’t be a silver bullet, but it will hopefully be a progressive step towards better alignment globally.”
Massie-Taylor also revealed that next month’s Premiership final at Twickenham, the first with a full crowd since 2019, will feature a Super Bowl-style half-time show for the first time, featuring performances from Sophie Ellis-Bextor and The Feeling.
