f you were to highlight the biggest problem in English club rugby at the moment you would have plenty to choose from. From the arbitrary deadline given to players to sign new contracts with their clubs to the jostling by unions over who has priority in the autumn, it is fair to say that 15 August – the Premiership’s provisional restart date – feels a long way away. In every instance, however, there has been the common problem of communication – or lack of it. Initially the narrative over wage cuts was that the players were rejecting them, that they were not willing to help or that they did not understand the gravity of the situation the clubs were in. Perhaps that was the case at the start, but the reason was that it was not properly explained to them. And it is certainly not the case now. It’s different for every single player – if you’re retiring then do you have the same sense of obligation to the sport you are leaving versus someone who has got the security of a three-year deal? The players’ biggest frustration is the way in which it has been handled and where the information has been coming from. There is an argument that the cuts should have been unilateral. Personally, I disagree. I don’t understand why, say if one club needs to implement blanket 25% cuts and put all its players on furlough, another in a better financial position does too. If each organisation has their own financial planning and if they’re able to maintain a certain level of payment and pay structure, that’s great. If you’re at the other end of the scale and you’re losing money hand over fist you might operate slightly differently. From where I’m looking the whole unilateral sense of agreement is nothing more than a PR move to say that rugby is united. There are other aspects of the game where clubs and all stakeholders need to put self-interest aside and act in a united way but I don’t think this is one of them. I’ve spoken to players who have been told by Premiership Rugby they need to take a 25% pay cut. I’ve suggested asking the club’s owners who have then said, “no, we’re not looking to do that”. It’s bizarre and all it has created is unrest and uncertainty. The dynamics within rugby have felt more fractured than they have ever felt. That’s not to say you can’t resolve some of the issues but once you start to lose trust it is a very slow process to rebuild it, especially when the communication throughout has been poor. That’s not just my opinion, that’s what I’ve been told from many players all in different positions across the league. There have been lots of players hugely affected, guys who aren’t earning huge money have been put in positions where they are totally compromised. We have to understand the current financial climate, that companies are folding, businesses have been shut for months, people have been made redundant. The players have got that now, but it took them a little while. All this has gone on against the backdrop of the clubs’ staggered return to training. It’s another difficult situation for the players, who are delighted to be back, but there is plenty of confusion about exactly what they can and can’t do. They can be supervised but they cannot be told exactly what to do with the gym equipment, or by the strength and conditioning coaches because that’s not permitted under the furlough scheme. They can be guided but they cannot be told. There was a reluctance to bring them back off furlough when they are effectively doing things in the early days that they can do at home or in their local park. You can come in, you can be supervised but you can’t go into the normal workings of rugby week. It’s a holding pattern. It’s almost a pilot in the workings and the runnings of a training ground – the screenings when you come in, the thermometer to make sure you don’t have a temperature and then how you can coordinate guys within changing rooms. They shower at home, after training they shower back at home, they are really trying to minimise the amount of time they spend interacting with each other and that takes time. It’s a balancing act because it is hard for the clubs to have to take that extra financial hit of taking players off furlough without being able to train properly. Once we get into the next process, with rugby coaches a bit more hands on, then we’ll really get excited and hopefully the stories of salary cuts and loopholes will be a thing of the past. At least we have a restart date and at the time it was announced it satisfied people’s appetites in the short term. However as every week goes by I think we need a little bit more information. I totally understand the challenges which PRL and the clubs face in terms of making sure everything is set as stone as much as possible. And I totally understand the added complications of fitting the rest of the season in around the revised international calendar. But we don’t know at this stage how many games will be played: is it just weekends, or midweek matches as well? Will they be at one or two stadiums or home and away? It feels like every other sport, practically every other rugby competition has a schedule in place now except for the Premiership, which still doesn’t even have a Covid-19 testing programme in place. Super Rugby came back in New Zealand last weekend and with the matches taking place in front of crowds it was such an uplifting sight. The eerie atmosphere of the Premier League’s return is probably closer to what the Premiership will be like. It won’t be perfect but it will be a significant step in the right direction.