Wales against England goes ahead on Saturday – disaster has been averted and tools will not be downed – but rest assured that each and every union and league around the world will be paying close attention to recent events. Player power has never been stronger, the penny is dropping over the importance of having a voice and administrators around the world must recognise and welcome that or face similar problems of their own.
That is not to sound overly militant but let’s take English rugby as an example, play devil’s advocate and imagine what might have happened had the remaining 11 Premiership clubs all gone on strike over the governance of Worcester and Wasps. The danger is to blame the current problems facing the sport on the pandemic – when they actually pre-date it – but Covid did lead to greater transparency and gave a better view of all those issues. They had been papered over for too long but Covid exposed them.
Players agreed to take pay cuts in the early days of the pandemic but dealing with things like that led to a collectivism among playing squads. There was a recognition of the importance of uniting and making their voices heard because, as much as playing rugby for a living is an enormous privilege and something I consider myself incredibly fortunate to have been able to do, it is still a job and there are always going to be problems that go with it. Add in greater awareness of player welfare, a recognition that careers are short – around eight years on average in the Premiership – and the cost of living crisis and there’s somewhat of a perfect storm at the moment.
As a result, unions and leagues have to adapt and give players more representation and increased voting powers. At the end of the day, the players, along with the fans, are the game’s greatest asset. The key is finding a sense of equilibrium with all the stakeholders to make it as fair as possible and if you don’t have that as a foundation then you’ll get this sense of friction.
I have the utmost respect for the Wales squad. They weren’t just standing up for themselves, they were standing up for every player in Wales, putting themselves on the line, and I’m glad they’ve found a resolution. The timing felt deliberate because Wales v England is the biggest ticket in the Six Nations but the fact that an agreement could not be reached in the fallow week, that it bled into the Test week, just goes to show how disconnected things between the players, the WRU and the Professional Rugby Board have been.
On the face of it, and perhaps for people looking from the outside without an intimate knowledge of the situation, the players’ demands were reasonable. It should not have taken so long to resolve but then to unpick more than a decade’s worth of poor governance is not easy, not least given the scrutiny and the pressure of the last couple of weeks.
It is impossible to know how it will impact on Wales. I was never in a similar situation myself. I was a representative on an England player board at one point but by comparison those negotiations were straightforward. The players wanted one thing, the RFU wanted another and we met in the middle. It was never something that would force us to miss training.
If Wales lose on Saturday then inevitably the suggestion will be that the distractions, the instability of Welsh rugby is to blame. By the same token, if Wales pull off a victory then you can easily picture the squad praising the unity showed in adversity, pointing the way for things to be conducted on the field.
Speak to any elite sportsperson, however, and they will tell you of the importance of being prepared. If you are feeling good physically and mentally then you are far more likely to prosper on the field. I’ve no doubt that Wales will be ready physically but there is no way they can be in the frame of mind they would want to be. Ultimately that could prove decisive.
For England, I’ve been asked a lot how what has been happening in Wales will affect them. The honest answer, without painting them as heartless, is that it won’t have entered their thoughts at all. Or, at least, it should not have done. It’s just not their problem and they cannot allow it to occupy their head space. Instead, they need to go and be ruthless this weekend. They will have friends in the Wales squad, so there will be that human side to it, but England have to be professional. And they have to realise that this is a Wales team that can be got at.
Forget the goings on off the field for a moment, Wales have been poor in their opening two matches. They’ve conceded nine tries and scored two. The Principality Stadium can act as a bit of a leveller but you can take that away, just as Ireland did so effectively, by making a fast start. If you begin at an intensity that Wales cannot live with, keep up the physical and scoreboard pressure, then this Wales team could disintegrate. You’ve got to try to splinter this team and it comes down to gainline, set-piece and winning the aerial battle. It’s unlikely to be pretty but England need to show a merciless streak.
And they need to do so in the final quarter of the match because they have been found wanting in their previous two games against Scotland and Italy. For whatever reason they have dropped off in the last 20 minutes but having Courtney Lawes on the bench should be key in avoiding a repeat.
