Club v Country Row hits Rugby Union.


By Barney 25/6/03
June 26 2003

Barney Burnham looked in on the England U21s playing at Henley this week and has taken time out to give us his personal view and insights to the club versus country row! Club v Country Row

Club v Country Row!

 

The club versus country row!  So familiar in the world of football now seems to have reared its ugly head in the world of the oval ball.
 
When England named their squad for the Under-21 World Cup, there were eight Leicester Tigers included, the most from any club. Fast forward to the final week of the tournament, with England  doomed to finish no higher than seventh  and the Tigers contingent was down to just one.
 
The official line was that the club had requested their players be  withdrawn, as they were nursing niggling injuries. The truth could be less palatable.
 
A conversation with two ex-England internationals - one of them a very distinguished Tiger - and the England U-21 coaches, Ollie Redman and Jon Callard allegedly claimed that Leicester's Director of Rugby Dean Richards may well have applied his not inconsiderable weight to his young stars.
 
Messrs. Redman and Callard who were allegedly, convinced that Deano had given them the choice of withdrawing, or jeopardising their first team chances during the  senior World Cup this autumn. The distinguished ex-Tiger - Dusty Hare, looking as young as he did in his playing days (which could mean he aged prematurely ) - appeared to concur. The coaches were understandably unhappy,  Dusty was rather embarrassed. All felt that it was not fair to bully young players into turning down the chance to play for their country.
 
If true, this raises a number of serious issues.
 
At the moment, a similar situation - thankfully - could not happen at full international level, thanks to the agreement between the clubs and the RFU. Since there's no such agreement to cover lower levels of representative rugby, what's to stop other clubs acting just like Leicester? After all, they pay the players' wages - they'll suffer if those players are unavailable because of injuries sustained playing for their country. Take it to its logical conclusion and all clubs will withdraw their players from all levels below full internationals - then we're left with almost nothing.
 
You may question the value of the Under-21s. England came to the party relatively late. Their first ever U-21 match was in 1989, when a certain Neil Back scored three tries in a 55-8 win in Romania another famous name in that party was Tim Rodber.
 
Four years later, an Under-21 team coached by Tony Lanaway went to Australia for a six-match tour. Their four victories included a 22-11 triumph over an Australian side boasting the likes of  George Gregan, Owen  Finegan, Daniel  Herbert and Peter Jorgensen .The tour party included Kyran Bracken, Mike Catt, Lawrence Dallaglio, Tony Diprose, Will Greenwood, Austin Healey, Richard Hill, Mark Mapletoft, Mark Regan, Simon Shaw, Jon Sleightolme and Tim Stimpson. A vintage crop of future internationals.
 
Those 12 hero's of 1993 all benefited hugely from the experience. In the professional era, could such a talented collection of youngsters ever  tour again?
 
Next season there'll be no domestic under-21 competition. What will the young players be doing, other than holding tackle bags? They might play the odd second team friendly - unless the opposition calls it off. The best of them will get serious Zurich Premiership experience, while the established stars are away for the World Cup - the rest might get splinters in the bum. After November, what lies in store for them?
 
You could argue that the very best of the youngsters would be stepping down a level to play Under-21 internationals. Players like Gloucester's Marcel Garvey are reported to have found it difficult to motivate themselves for the current tournament. Hardly surprising if you've already established yourself as a Zurich Premier star, and played well for England A. If your last club game was in front of 40,000 at Twickenham, lifting  yourself to turn it on for a few hundred - on a sunny afternoon in Henley - could be a tall order.
 
So the key questions are: 

1)  Is it right for Club Coaches to allegedly lean on young players to put Club before Country as is claimed here.

2)  Should the same rules governing the release of players for internationals apply all the way down the representative ladder? 

3) What's the best way for clubs to handle young players.

4) Is there any point in holding an Under-21 World Cup every year?

5) Is rugby now experiencing the top-level club versus country rows, which make a certain Swede's job so challenging?

 

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