The Wallabies will not adopt Graham Henry’s New Zealand method of forcing players to rest during next year’s expanded Super rugby season. Instead, they will put the onus on the players to use their common sense and not continue appearing for their Australian provinces when they are injured.
Wallabies team management will liaise with the five Australian provinces to ensure that the leading players’ workload before the World Cup is not overwhelming.
Wallabies coach Robbie Deans said the expanded Super rugby season would be ”good for the team, as long as we manage it well, and as long as the players manage themselves well to arrive in the right state”.
”We won’t be intervening at all,” he said. ”There will obviously be a bit of dialogue. We have systems in place now that we didn’t have before … Ultimately it is about the players.”
Deans said it was not ideal for players to play injured.
”Players sometimes believe they have that incentive but what they need to understand is ultimately it is a lose-lose situation, for both parties,” he said. ”That’s where the management is critical. You look at Will Genia last night. He would have loved to have played [against Italy] but it wasn’t in his best interests.
”It’s all about best practice … And not only will they be better for it, their franchises will be better for it and ultimately the nation will be better for it.”
The Australian provinces next season will also have access to GPS systems which help monitor the players’ work-rate, and give indicators if rest is required.
”It is about managing your work, so monitoring [is required],” Deans said.
”And our systems at the Australian Rugby Union are so far advanced from the purely instinctive-based response. But the players have to respond to their own cues, if you like.”