Neil Back

Backy: Less games, less injuries

Thu Oct 22 11:49AM

Injuries have become the hot topic in rugby recently, especially after the experiences of England and Wales ahead of next month's internationals.

Martin Johnson will be without 12 players for England's opener with Australia, while Warren Gatland is missing a handful of key starters for their clash with the All Blacks.

It is by no means an ideal situation for either coach and begs the question as to whether top flight rugby has become too dangerous for players.

What is not in doubt is that the power and strength of the players today is very different from the amateur era - even from when I was playing five years ago. The impact really is full on, and the force going through certain joints - knees, shoulders, ankles - is massive.

As a result there is much more emphasis on the management of player welfare, in terms of the numbers of games they play and their rehabilitation.

Coaches and conditioning staff now need to be able to almost second guess the likelihood of a player picking up an injury, knowing that injuries often occur after a run of six or seven games - which is the stage we are at this season.

It is important to remember the sport has only been professional for 13 years and that huge gains have been made in that time in terms of fitness and conditioning.

But that steep curve has flattened out now and the difference in physicality between teams today is marginal, and as a result emphasis is starting to return to skills.

There will be no more massive leaps in player fitness and power, and clubs will get better at managing the levels of power in the game.

So for me it comes down to player workload, which is a tricky issue to manage. Already there are restrictions on the number of games a player can play in any one season, and further guidelines for internationals, but much also depends on the ambition of clubs.

When I was at Leicester, for example, we were competing on three fronts - Premiership, Heineken, Anglo-Welsh - which required a lot of courage and stamina, but also a fair amount of luck in terms of not picking up injuries.

At Leeds our priorities are very much on staying in the top flight and not the cup competitions, so our players are therefore likely to play less games than some of their contemporaries.

Less games leads to less injuries, so perhaps a way to reduce the pressure on leading players is by making the Anglo-Welsh Cup a tournament for A teams.

At the moment, A matches are used primarily for developing academy players and for first-team players coming back from injury, who might be given a 20-30 minutes run out. The games are important but the results less so.

If the Anglo-Welsh Cup became an A team competition, that would reduce the workload on leading players and also reduce the pressure on clubs to compete on three fronts, which can be a logistical nightmare.

Yes, today's players are fitter, stronger more powerful, but they are also better managed and better able to take the big hits.

For me the problem lies in the number of games they are being made to play.

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