The new man at the helm of the Rugby Football Union has admitted averting a possible player strike is among his most pressing priorities. Steve Brown, who has taken over from the retired Ian Ritchie, says player welfare is at the top of his bulging in-tray and wants to see a swift resolution to the dispute over the future length of the domestic season.
Brown has been at Twickenham long enough as chief financial officer to know precisely how costly it would be if leading players took industrial action in protest against plans to extend the Premiership season to the end of June from 2020. “If we have no players we have no England team,” Brown said. “Our core business is seven big games a year ... that would be a very challenging time for us. It is a concern and we can’t ignore it. The players have a voice and we need to listen to them. It’s not just the physical concerns but also the mental and psychological pressures players are under.”
The RFU is keen to see a solution by the end of this year, with Brown stressing that Premiership Rugby’s contentious proposal still needs ratification from the Professional Game Board, the joint body that also features a players’ union representative. If the matter is not satisfactorily sorted, the relationship between the players and the game’s administrators could become seriously messy and disrupt England’s preparations for the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan.
“I don’t want it to go into the next season or become a distraction for too long as we go into the World Cup,” Brown said, hinting a ‘less-is-more’ commercial approach might be rugby’s better way forward. “We find there is potentially more commercial value by having a bit of scarcity so that could be a factor.”
Also high on Brown’s to-do list is to identify a successor to Eddie Jones, who remains adamant he will be leaving the job as England head coach in 2019. Brown, one of 60 applicants for his own new role, has a meeting with Jones every week and suggested the Australian will have a say in identifying his replacement: “Eddie is very keen to play a part in that. Some consideration has been going on for a while around what could be but it is not locked down or set in stone yet.”
The RFU, however, would happily plump for another southern hemisphere coach if required, rather than necessarily turning to a well-qualified Premiership contender such as Exeter’s Rob Baxter or Saracens’ Mark McCall. “It’ll be the best person for the job,” Brown said. “My opinion would be the bar has been set very high by Eddie. There is a standard that has been set that shows what we need next time around. Ultimately it is all measured on winning.”
On that theme, Brown has also pledged the RFU will not be shy about its ambition to elevate English rugby above all its competitors, on and off the field. “We want to be the strongest rugby union and the strongest country for rugby across the globe,” he said. “I don’t think there’s an excuse not to be. Perhaps in 2011 we were slightly reticent about being bold about winning. We won’t be, going forward. We want to win everything we’re involved in. Not just the men’s team but the women too and every team we have.”
That mission statement is unlikely to endear the RFU to its rivals, already unimpressed by England’s failed attempt to condense future Six Nations tournaments into six weeks. Not every union has the RFU’s hefty financial muscle and Brown did acknowledge that selling out an 82,000 stadium is partly dependent on visiting Test teams remaining competitive in uncertain economic times.
A broader range of Twickenham ticket prices is to be introduced but those hoping England will decide to stage a senior international in the north should not hold their breath. “In the short to medium term moving games away from here would be commercially quite a challenge for us,” Brown said, showing more enthusiasm for hosting another World Cup in England in 2027 or, more realistically, 2031.
