Steve Hansen Suggests 16-Week Off-Seasons

“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,” writes Gerard Meagher in an article for The Guardian.

“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.”

“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,” writes Meagher.

“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,” said Meagher.

Article Source: The Guardian, Gerard Meagher, October 29, 2018

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