World Rugby chief executive Alan Gilpin has admitted that there is a player welfare issue when it comes to a number of Springboks stars due to the current schedule.<\/p>\n
When South Africa\u2019s franchises were ousted from Super Rugby and joined the United Rugby Championship, that effectively resulted in a fair few of their internationals playing the whole year round.<\/p>\n
The likes of Malcolm Marx, Pieter-Steph du Toit and Cheslin Kolbe, who are all in Japan, are not affected, but for those in Europe and South Africa, it is demanding on the body.<\/p>\n
With them aligned to the northern hemisphere club season but the Boks<\/a> still involved in the south\u2019s Rugby Championship, the players have to be managed carefully.<\/p>\n Moving the Rugby Championship<\/p>\n There has been talk of moving the annual southern hemisphere Test tournament to run alongside the Six Nations in February and March, but there is a reluctance from New Zealand<\/a> to do that.<\/p>\n Should it happen, a significant step would have been taken to create the much desired global calendar, but currently nothing is close to being agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we haven\u2019t been able to do in the men\u2019s global calendar discussion for as long as I\u2019ve been involved in the game, which is more than 20 years, is get to full alignment where the international windows are aligned across the globe,\u201d Gilpin told the Rugby Unity<\/a> podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s challenging because there are conditions in different parts of the world. There are different professional domestic competitions being played and they\u2019ve built their economic models around the calendar as it is.<\/p>\n \u201cMoving one piece requires compromise in other areas and that\u2019s the challenging debate.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat I can say about that, which is really positive, is there is real alignment on, firstly, what alignment is needed to create a better player welfare outcome.<\/p>\n \u201cPlayers are at the heart of that. If you\u2019re a South African player playing your domestic rugby in Europe and playing for the Springboks in their international competitions, including the Rugby Championship, that\u2019s an 11-month season and it\u2019s not sustainable at the level the game\u2019s being played.\u201d<\/p>\n New Zealand hold firm on global calendar debate that \u2018doesn\u2019t work\u2019 as South Africa don\u2019t have a \u2018compelling case\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n