The top players in world rugby on Thursday expressed concern about a proposed new global competition, saying it is “out of touch” and could damage the integrity of the sport.
Captains of nine of the world’s top 10 nations were among the players speaking on a conference call set up by the International Rugby Players (IRP) council to discuss the likely impact of the planned World Rugby Nations Championship.
The competition would see 12 leading countries play each other once per year toward a playoff series that leads to the top northern and southern hemisphere sides meeting in a final.
Concerns raised by members of the council surrounded player welfare, conflicts between clubs and countries, the lack of opportunities for Tier Two nations and the impact on quality.
Ireland flyhalf Jonathan Sexton, last year’s world player of the year, said that there had been “little consideration” by World Rugby about issues previously raised by players.
“The issue of player load has never been so topical, however needs to be properly understood,” said Sexton, who is president of the IRP. “To suggest that players can play five incredibly high-level Test matches in consecutive weeks in November is out of touch and shows little understanding of the physical strain this brings.”
New Zealand captain Kieran Read described the upcoming period as a “crucial moment for rugby” that players are “generally excited about,” but said that there needs to be a balance between commercial needs, player welfare and the integrity of matches.
“Fans want to see meaningful games,” Read said. “They don’t want to see fatigued players playing a reduced quality of rugby as part of a money-driven, weakened competition that doesn’t work for the players or lubs.”
World Rugby said that its commitment to player welfare is “unwavering.”
The IRP council said it understands that promotion and relegation would not form part of the new proposal, which prevents “Tier Two and emerging nations from accessing top-level competitive matches and creating a ceiling on their aspirations to advance and improve.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier