Ben Earl one of England's rugby players was recently complaining about the teams latest travel schedule which saw them playing on 3 different continents over 3 weekends. 25 000 miles which included 4 long haul flights and 4 short haul flights may have seen "brutal" for the England team, but there has been far worse schedules. Actually if they had played Fiji away like they should have one could add another 18 000 miles to the 25 000 miles they were complaining about.
Rugby has changed over the years as in the past teams travelled and toured another country playing multiple matches over a few months. If we go back far enough teams travelled by boat and would be on tour for up to 6 months. Today they are expected to play on one continent and travel and play on another 7 days later which depending on where this is could be challenging. How long before we see teams own their own planes or charter?
South African rugby teams when they were still involved playing Super Rugby were travelling more than 50 000 miles during the tournament and when the teams were expanded this number increased by 60%. Those teams based in New Zealand and Australia were only affected with a small increase of less than 10%. This travel was unsustainable and no wonder the SA teams pulled out.
Travel and fatigue was the reason why the SA teams pulled the plug on Super Rugby as this was not a fair playing field and favored New Zealand and Australian teams. The problem was crossing the time zones which lead to missed practices and fatigue.
The problem with England is all down to the squad depth as if they could split their squad this would not be an issue. The days of having a team of 23 players is disappearing fast as players are expected to play 32 matches per season down from 40. 32 is still a lot of matches knowing this is a very physical contact sport and takes a huge toll on the human body.
Next week South Africa play Argentina in Buenos Aires before returning to face the All Blacks two weeks later for 4 matches in a row over consecutive weekends. Having a large squad allows the team to split up leaving 15 players behind to continue training for the All Black series. No other international team has these types of player resources and shows their fragility relying on too few players.
This luxury of having excess players was bought on by the demanding travel schedules flying to the likes of Australia and New Zealand with the idea of leaving players behind. This meant they did not have to fly home to play another match before flying back again. This only changed when the current coach had experienced this as a player and found a way to combat this flying madness.
Having more players being able to split the team and send them ahead in advance to prepare is the ideal scenario that makes other teams envious. Most international rugby unions would balk at this idea as the obvious part is the costs will double having double the players and the added expenses of travel and accommodation. At some point though they are going to have to replicate this in order to compete due to the match schedules dotted all over the world.
The introduction of the Nations Championship this year has actually been kinder to certain teams than it would normally. England complaining about their flights when they should have played Fiji in Fiji and not at home in the UK. Imagine flying from London to Johannesburg, flying to Fiji and flying home to London and 3 days later flying to Argentina and then back to London? Japan played their matches in Australia so teams would not have to fly to them and next year I am sure teams will not be so lucky.
Next year sees the 2027 Rugby World Cup hosted in Australia and already the SA team is looking at splitting their squad due to travel. Australia is a big country with time zones and on two pool games the SA team is expected to fly 5 hours with a two hour time difference. Not a long flight, but also not ideal yet most teams will face similar schedules.
Last year I was at Johannesburg airport when the Argentinian team arrived and it was like a well oiled machine. The amount of baggage the team had reflected the time away from home being 5 weeks which was rows and rows of trolleys with luggage and training equipment. This is the unglamorous side of being a modern professional rugby player and is definitely the down side.
