Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter remains hopeful that plans being drawn up as part of the new Professional Game Partnership between the RFU and Premiership Rugby will ultimately prove fruitful for all sides.
In a frank and honest assessment, Baxter explained how he envisages the new PGP deal, worth more than £260 million to England’s leading clubs over the next eight years, will pan out.
“It’s a funny one, the new agreement,” he said. “We are all in a bit of a catch-22, that is the reality. We want the game to be successful, we want the game to look from the outside like it’s aligned. If the England international team is successful that will aid the Premiership. If the Premiership is successful and thriving that will aid the RFU.”
As part of the new agreement which, it is said, is close to being rubber-stamped, it will see the introduction of hybrid contracts offered to up to 25 elite players within the squad, as well as the establishment of long-term strength and conditioning and skill development programmes for players in conjunction with their club sides. England will also have a greater, but not necessarily final, say when it comes to medical decisions concerning a player.
“This is the scenario we are in,” continued Baxter. “It’s our job now to get on with it as clubs, make the relationship work, which is obviously going to be slightly different, and make sure we have a thriving product in the Premiership and there is a thriving English product across the board.
“Both the Premiership and the RFU need the game to grow. We need a supporter base to grow, more TV companies interested, so that is going to be a huge part of what we all need to achieve. It’s going to be like anything, until we start doing it and we do the process, we don’t have all the answers.
“I think we are in the end-stage of knowing pretty much how it is going to work. I’d like to think it’s been sold to us that most of what we feel as Premiership clubs, sticking points or areas of conflict, will be dealt with by individual development plans and good levels of communication between England and the clubs.
“I hope that is the case. If that is the case it could be great for everybody. But the proof of that will be down the line.
“I said to Conor O’Shea (RFU executive director of performance rugby) the other day the proof of this will be two, three years when you look statistically and you go, ‘Well, this is working really well because it means England internationals are available for most of the Premiership clubs they play for, the big games, and they are also playing for England’ because that ticks a lot of boxes. tioning welfare really well and they stay available and play lots of games. That’s the big tick box for everybody. If the flip of it is it is not like that, we’ll see. That is why the proof of the pudding will be down that line.”
Although there is still a little uncertainty over just how the new agreement will ultimately work in practice, Baxter says initial dialogue and communication has not thrown up too many issues from his perspective.
“I’ll be honest with you, from what I have been sent through, there is not going to be many huge areas of us disagreeing with what England are looking at and what we are looking at in the development of the players,” continued Baxter.
“I have got a phone call lined up with Steve [Borthwick], we are going to have a good chat. I have got the players’ IDP’s that we are going to talk about, we’ll have a discussion around any area of debate, and then we are going to meet with the players.
“At the moment, the process looks like there is no reason for me to sit here and go, ‘There is going to be a problem’. I don’t want to put a dampener on it and say, ‘This is going to cause absolute mayhem’ because we won’t know until it comes down the line. I think what will happen is we won’t really find out how it is going to work until that decision gets made, a run-in where you have got Champions Cup games very close to internationals.
“It will be that, ‘Oh actually, this guy needs an injection on his ankle, that means he will be off feet for three weeks but actually he is still fit to play’… If you look at it at club level, if you have got your two biggest games of the season coming up, you’ll go we will probably do that in the next two weeks and if that player has got two big games for his club going into an international period, that is what you are going to start seeing friction. I don’t want to pre-empt it.”
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