Steve Hansen has called for a mandatory 16-week off-season, days after an 11-month campaign was announced in England. The New Zealand head coach said England were still counting the cost of having 15 players on the British & Irish Lions tour of his country last year, amid escalating concerns over player-workload.
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Hansen was speaking before New Zealand face Japan in Tokyo on Saturday, with matches against England, Ireland and Italy set to complete a 14-Test campaign for the All Blacks, less than three months before the 2019 Super Rugby season begins.
“They don’t get enough of a break,” Hansen said. “You can’t keep going round and round and round and round and round without running out of petrol – at some stage you’ve got to recharge the tank. I don’t know how you’d structure it, but the one thing I’d really want is that everyone gets 16 weeks’ break between their last game and their next one.”
Last week the powerbrokers of the English game announced a remodelled domestic season which will begin in September and finish in late June, with summer international tours pushed back until August. As part of that agreement, senior England players will have a mandatory 10-week break after a summer tour, meaning they will miss the start of the season, while Lions tours will be reduced to five weeks, starting in 2021.
Following the drawn Lions series against the All Blacks last year, England have won all three of their autumn matches but only three of their subsequent eight Tests. They would welcome New Zealand to Twickenham next month for the first time in 14 years on a run of six Test defeats from seven if they lose their first November fixture against South Africa.
“You can rest assured we’ve got a lot of respect for England, we think they’re a good side,” Hansen said. “They’ve got one or two people that are injured at the moment but so does everybody – that’s the nature of the beast at the moment. That’s why I keep harping on about the need for a global season that looks after the welfare of the players.
“The England boys I think have suffered a bit from the Lions tour and it’s not only one season, it kicks on. It’s a worldwide problem and probably the team that’s managing it best at the moment’s Ireland. They’re pretty dictatorial about what they do. They go ‘you can’t play’ because they own the players and the franchises completely. They’ve got a good model.”
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Meanwhile, the former England wing Christian Wade has admitted he has “a huge mountain to climb” following his decision to quit rugby and pursue a career in the NFL.
The 27-year-old announced his surprise departure from Wasps this month and will now join the NFL’s Player Pathway program.
“It’s been a very difficult decision for me, giving up my career in rugby,” Wade told Sky Sports. “It’s something that I don’t take lightly. I’m going to be starting my training regime literally next week and it’s a huge mountain to climb.
“There’s so much to learn in such a small space of time but for me I’ve always been someone who’s always given it 100% and my aim is to give it the best I can and hopefully I can try and compete with these guys in the NFL. There’s some phenomenal athletes but I believe in my skills and hopefully I’m good enough.”