Super League players need a say in how the sport is run post-Covid-19 - Peter Smith delves Inside Rugby League

Watching Betfred Super League matches played behind closed doors, one thing is immediately apparent - the power of the collisions.

Normally masked by crowd noise, the impact of each hit reverberates around an empty stadium.

The experience of taking and making tackles at the elite level has been likened to being involved in a series of low-speed car crashes and observing in the raw, that analogy seems appropriate.

It is a tough, unforgiving sport and this season is taking that to an extreme. In rugby league, two games in a short space of time is known as an ‘Easter weekend’ - because of the tradition of playing on Good Friday and Easter Monday.

Ironically, this year one Super League round was due to be spread over five days so, after years of grumbling from players and coaches, nobody would be expected to back up.

But Easter fell by the wayside during lockdown and clubs are now facing a series of ‘Easter weekends’ as the sport plays catch-up.

The first was last week when Castleford Tigers and Hull each played a Super League game on Thursday and faced off three days later in the Coral Challenge Cup.

Both coaches rotated their squad to an extent - Tigers made five changes for the Sunday game and Hull eight - but it was a very tall order and that showed. Five players - Tigers’ Sosaia Feki and Grant Millington and Hull’s Jamie Shaul, Ratu Naulago and Albert Kelly - suffered a game-ending injury and, at the final whistle, the two teams were clearly running on empty.

The tie was marred by errors in the second half, but the fact the sides were able to produce a compelling encounter, which went right to the wire, is credit to them.

Injured players hate to be carried off, but the number of times that has happened since the sport resumed - Leeds Rhinos’ James Donaldson, James Clare of Castleford Tigers and Huddersfield Giants’ Adam O’Brien are three examples - is concerning and things are about to get even tougher, with five Super League rounds on next month’s calendar, plus two in the Challenge Cup.

A full schedule of matches is planned for Wednesday, September 30 - which is three days before the Cup semi-finals and there’s also a midweek round in Cup final week.

Assuming they play all their 22 rounds, Rhinos have 13 league matches to fit in between now and mid-November and there could be up to two Cup ties on top of that.

Last week, as had been urged in this column, the RFL and Super League put a contingency plan in place so final placings in the table will be determined by win percentage, rather than competition points.

That takes off some of the pressure to fit in postponed games, for which there is no obvious space in the calendar but, even if they finish the season having played fewer than 22 league matches, teams are still facing an exhausting time over the next two months.

Yes, these are well-paid - though not as much as before coronavirus - full-time athletes and rugby league is what they do for a living, but the modern game isn’t designed to be played three times in a week.

Under the recent rule changes, the game has become faster and there are fewer stoppages, which only adds to the pressure.

One suggestion is either to increase the number of substitutes (players on the bench) or substitutions (changes made), but coaches are apparently split on that.

The willingness of players to put themselves through this is admirable. Teams including Leeds and Warrington Wolves have agreed to go ahead with recent matches which they could have postponed for coronavirus reasons and should be applauded for that.

Unfortunately, in this season’s unique circumstances, there is probably no way around the looming pile-up but, hopefully, the players’ efforts will be recognised when this is all over.

A greater say in the running of the game would be a good start.

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