Hartley wants longer school holidays

“I have always said that I don’t think the off-season is long enough,” he says, adding his voice to the increasing list of protesters about rugby union’s masochistic schedules. “Before you know it we are back into 10 months of rugby. You are back on the line and the whistle is going.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/rugbyunion/club/11052996/Give-us-a-longer-break-pleads-England-hooker-Dylan-Hartley-as-new-season-and-World-Cup-loom.html

Pro baseball season - End of March to End of October. (7 months)

Pro American football season - Regular season is September to December (4 months) Playoffs in January with the Super Bowl right afterwards.

If rugby seasons were as short as the American football set-up then North would never play South.

Doesn't he realise that most players season finishes early May & I would bet the majority of them would love to be involved in playoffs/finals & internationals. He should think about the Argentinian Internationals who play in the Northern hemisphere leagues

broadlandboy wrote:Doesn't he realise that most players season finishes early May & I would bet the majority of them would love to be involved in playoffs/finals & internationals. He should think about the Argentinian Internationals who play in the Northern hemisphere leagues

That is true, but at the same time we want a schedule that is good for everybody including the very best players who tend to be involved in playoffs and tours as a matter of course.

It's for this reason that you didn't see any Irish internationals in this weekends pre-season friendlies for the Irish provinces and you likely won't see any next week either.

Dylan Hartley usually only plays half a season anyway after stamping, gouging, swearing at the ref etc... I guess last season was his first full one in a while so is having a little cry. Maybe time to bite a mascot or something and get his standard rest.

broadlandboy wrote:Doesn't he realise that most players season finishes early May & I would bet the majority of them would love to be involved in playoffs/finals & internationals. He should think about the Argentinian Internationals who play in the Northern hemisphere leagues

I am sure Hartley knows exactly what other players are going through.  Doesn't change anything.  I believe Hartley is absolutely right.  The season is far too long - regardless of where a player is from or where he plays.  For UK/Ire/Italy non-internationals their season ends in May and pre-season starts in July.  Far too short to recover from a season of Rugby.  It's just common sense.  And the season in France is even longer.  

We are killing the golden goose.  If we keep at it like this the average career will be 3 seasons, just like American Football - and they have a rational season, from a player health point of view.    

We all know the money drives this and it probably won't change in the near future.  Shame.

Completely agree, the season is ridiculously long. We base it on the football season (which is also too long anyway), even though football is a lower impact game.

This is why I much prefer the Southern Hemisphere model, where the best players play Super Rugby and Internationals and the next rung down play Super Rugby and Domestic, as opposed to up here where players play Domestic, Continental and International tournaments. Even now the Southern Hemisphere are expanding their season and going the wrong way with it, to the extent the key All Black players (e.g Carter, McCaw) are being given sabbaticals to help manage their workload.

I think cricket also has a good model, in that club, county and country all play at the same time. Country takes priority over county and county takes priority over club. Then they ruin that by playing 12 months a year all round the globe in various different formats (imagine top rugby players playing union, league and sevens).

I definitely think the season is too long and we are going to either have to manage workloads or players will break down.

The season is only too long if you over-commit to a core XV and don't rotate your squad sufficiently over the course of the season. There should be an allowance for making squads larger and using academy players more but quite often coaches take the short-term view of playing their best XV from the start and only changing line-ups as injuries occur. Because teams don't seem to adopt this from the start of a season, most then fail to 'peak' for key fixtures in the season and also fail to keep their core XV fresh at the end of the season with sudden rotation in the final rounds disrupting the team dynamics.

sirtidychris wrote:Dylan Hartley usually only plays half a season anyway after stamping, gouging, swearing at the ref etc... I guess last season was his first full one in a while so is having a little cry. Maybe time to bite a mascot or something and get his standard rest.

Agreed. He raises a genuine issue, but for him personally he seems to have found a way of managing his own work load.

thebandwagonsociety wrote:The season is only too long if you over-commit to a core XV and don't rotate your squad sufficiently over the course of the season.  There should be an allowance for making squads larger and using academy players more but quite often coaches take the short-term view of playing their best XV from the start and only changing line-ups as injuries occur.  Because teams don't seem to adopt this from the start of a season, most then fail to 'peak' for key fixtures in the season and also fail to keep their core XV fresh at the end of the season with sudden rotation in the final rounds disrupting the team dynamics.

OK I am definately going to be shot for this comment, but wasn't this the basis of the PRL's argument for european rugby being unfare? That the Irish teams looked after their players too well?

Neutralee wrote:

thebandwagonsociety wrote:The season is only too long if you over-commit to a core XV and don't rotate your squad sufficiently over the course of the season.  There should be an allowance for making squads larger and using academy players more but quite often coaches take the short-term view of playing their best XV from the start and only changing line-ups as injuries occur.  Because teams don't seem to adopt this from the start of a season, most then fail to 'peak' for key fixtures in the season and also fail to keep their core XV fresh at the end of the season with sudden rotation in the final rounds disrupting the team dynamics.

OK I am definately going to be shot for this comment, but wasn't this the basis of the PRL's argument for european rugby being unfare? That the Irish teams looked after their players too well?

Not quite. It was not that they choose to look after their players but they are able to do so with no real cost. They were able to sacrifice some matches knowing that they cannot be relegated (and still can't) and would automatically qualify for the Heineken Cup.

Now they like English and French teams will still rotate their squads but they know that must play their best teams sufficiently often to qualify. I suspect it will not make that much difference in the short term given the poor standard of the Welsh, Scots and Italian teams with the honourable exception of Glasgow.

Exiledinborders wrote:

Neutralee wrote:

thebandwagonsociety wrote:The season is only too long if you over-commit to a core XV and don't rotate your squad sufficiently over the course of the season.  There should be an allowance for making squads larger and using academy players more but quite often coaches take the short-term view of playing their best XV from the start and only changing line-ups as injuries occur.  Because teams don't seem to adopt this from the start of a season, most then fail to 'peak' for key fixtures in the season and also fail to keep their core XV fresh at the end of the season with sudden rotation in the final rounds disrupting the team dynamics.

OK I am definately going to be shot for this comment, but wasn't this the basis of the PRL's argument for european rugby being unfare? That the Irish teams looked after their players too well?

Not quite. It was not that they choose to look after their players but they are able to do so with no real cost. They were able to sacrifice some matches knowing that they cannot be relegated (and still can't) and would automatically qualify for the Heineken Cup.  

Now they like English and French teams will still rotate their squads but they know that must play their best teams sufficiently often to qualify. I suspect it will not make that much difference in the short term given the poor standard of the Welsh, Scots and Italian teams with the honourable exception of Glasgow.

Well Glasgow made this years final, but Ospreys are joint record winners aren't they? Hard to call them poor standard, theyve won the league twice as many times as Scottish clubs have made finals. Disrespect thy name is Exile.

Your right though, not a lot has changed for the Irish teams, they still have more money, bigger squads, consistency and fluidity that all other club lack, and they will still utilise their best players to be as competitive in europe as possible. Whereas the Welsh regions will sacrifice europe for league position, similar to the Scot and Italians.

Interestingly didn't Leicester and Toulon rotate players more than any other teams last season? Why do they get thios advantage over the Irish clubs?

From and english perspective I can't see things changing unless the players take the lead in negotiations and will probably need to strike before hell or high water (the rfu and clubs) do anything for their good.

Alternatively there is the renegotiation of the current union/club agreement in 2016(?). This might be the opportunity for the union to outlay some serious funds and massively reduce the club commitments of a named 15/23, perhaps to maximum of 15 club games (premiership & european) with a dispensation for semi/finals.

Would need serious funds but would once and for all offer us the level playing field with the southern unions and so enable continued success and development of the national game at all levels.

Who cares what some chubby guy wants?

He's right.  The 'holiday' is a joke.  You yawn quietly just as the season ends and it's on again before you open your eyes.  And there you are again looking at the same faces toddle off their cliched comments of "yeah nos" "in all fairnesses" etc etc for a whole 10 months more.

The only reason most of you don't care is because you all have Soapiteis...ism...philia.  You can't wait for your favourite soap to come back on air with all the cast of grunting and whispering gangstas, brooding and emoting in the caf coz of what his Missus did to our Landlady over a pint of Lager, Love.

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