In premiership rugby in the Autumn Internationals, it looks like it could be the end of non-English players because of a disagreement over insurance.
In next year’s Rugby World Cup, it could affect some players participation.
Once the insurance of injury has been secured, players that are released from their clubs to play internationally will only do so. If a player is injured overseas, the international side should pay for loss of earnings and medical costs footing the entire bill and not the club, from which they came, the argument in fuelled by this fact.
The players that are away on International duty with any union to a degree that they are fully covered in the event of any major injury; the IRB is aiming to protect them. Without adequate insurance in place, with some major matches coming up time is running out as clubs are under no obligation to release their players for training.
When nine years ago Samoa had to use a reserve squad because the majority of players didn’t have enough insurance in place to cover them in the event of injury, insurance problems have disrupted international matches before. Because England is self-insure, there are still a lot of problems to be ironed out with other clubs, it is not affected. To ensure that players will receive the proper insurance coverage to play international matches and hopefully the problem will be resolved soon, the IRB is working hard.
