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Gregor Townsend angry at English rugby bosses over ruling which questions Six Nations ‘integrity’

Story by Colin Newboult

Gregor Townsend has hit out at Premiership Rugby who have denied Scotland access to his English-based players during the Six Nations fallow weeks.

The Scots did not have a full complement to choose from in training in the week after their Round Two clash against France due to World Rugby regulations and how the Test calendar is scheduled.

Premiership teams are not obliged to release their non-England players for international duty during the weeks which do not have any Six Nations games.

In most years, that would have been more understandable for Townsend, given that the English league season has run alongside the northern hemisphere’s flagship international tournament.

However, that is not the case in 2024, with the Premiership shutting down for seven weeks and not opening back up until the conclusion of the Six Nations.
That has drawn the ire of the Scotland head coach, who is frustrated that those players will miss valuable training sessions during the competition.

Continues- https://www.msn.com/en-au/sport/othe...4776255d&ei=16

They're obliged to release English players but not other British players? That's some good old Twickers' chicanery.

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Originally Posted by chibi

They're obliged to release English players but not other British players? That's some good old Twickers' chicanery.

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It's because Premier Rugby Limited & RFU have entered into an agreement where the RFU compensates the English Premier League Clubs for additional access to EPS players outside of the mandatory International periods, effectively buying that right to players on fallow weekends.

On the flip side, the Scottish Rugby Union doesn't have any such compensatory agreement, and therefore only gets access to players in the designated international windows.
I'm sure if they wanted additional access to players they could pay for it, but they don't...and then cry foul when they don't get something for free that another Union has paid extra for.



Gregor likes referring to "the integrity of the competition" when it suits him.
See this article in 2021 when the Scottish Rugby Union was able to negotiate additional access to their players outside of the International window: https://www.rugbypass.com/news/engli...rs-for-france/

That time, SRU compensated clubs for the additional access their English-based players, rather than moaning to the media about it.

Why should the clubs who pay the players' wages give up access to their "assets" during the season when they don't have to, without receiving reasonable compensation from the requesting Union?

That's a reasonable argument if you don't think official international matches should always have priority and a level playing field. I'd see that as a flaw.

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Originally Posted by shasta

That's a reasonable argument if you don't think official international matches should always have priority and a level playing field. I'd see that as a flaw.

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But he who pays the piper calls the tune.

Why should clubs, who, in England, aren't centrally funded (unlike clubs in Wales, Scotland & Ireland for example) give up access to their players for longer than they are required to?

Players are rightly released for International matches, but they aren't released for weekends where there is no international match scheduled and unions only want them for further training/rest ahead of the next fixture.

Yep, chicanery

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Originally Posted by tjs10

But he who pays the piper calls the tune.

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Yes, I understand all of that. Doesn't mean I have agree. It sounds similar to the arguments that club interests ran to torch the AFL State of Origin Series which started the same year as the NRL. That worked out really well for them.

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Originally Posted by shasta

Yes, I understand all of that. Doesn't mean I have agree. It sounds similar to the arguments that club interests ran to torch the AFL State of Origin Series which started the same year as the NRL. That worked out really well for them.

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Imagine if Argentina expected Force to release Medrano (without compensation) during the Super Rugby season for an Argentina training camp (not for a test match), meaning he wasn't available for this week's game vs Rebels, and could potentially also be injured while in a different training environment to the one he is normally used to?

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Originally Posted by tjs10

Imagine if Argentina expected Force to release Medrano (without compensation) during the Super Rugby season for an Argentina training camp

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If SR Pacific were in a hiatus, as is the situation in England AFAIK, I'd hope he would be released for national squad training camp. Or is this not the situation?

Yeah, that's the main point, Premiership is on a seven week break during (and for) 6 Nations.
As an armchair expert Coach (uhuh...) I'm not sure I'd want my best Internationals missing that much match fitness if there was an option.