As Tommy Freeman fast approaches the 30-game involvement limit for the season, Northampton director of rugby, Phil Dowson, is seeking clarification on the details behind this facet of the new Professional Game Partnership (PGP).
The new limit came into effect last September, with the Rugby Football Union (RFU), Premiership Rugby Limited (PRL), and the Rugby Players’ Association (RPA) working together to avoid player burnout and reduce the risk of injury.
Under the previous deal between the RFU and PRL, players were meant to feature in fewer than 35 matches a season and play fewer than 30 sets of 80 minutes, whereas now, any appearances off the bench count, regardless of how long a player is on the pitch.
Freeman has played 15 games for his club and nine internationals this season, and with at least six games of the club season to go – five in the league and the Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster – the free-scoring winger/centre will be up to his limit by the time the British and Irish Lions leave for Australia if he plays in every game.
The 24-year-old has clocked up more minutes than any other Premiership player (1,826) and has featured in 24 games for club and country, only one fewer than industrious Wales and Leicester prop, Nicky Smith, who tops the lot.
When asked in Monday’s session if the Lions count towards this season or next season’s totals, Dowson replied: “It depends who you ask – at the moment, it’s not entirely clear.
“Tommy Freeman seems to be the guy that everyone goes to with regards to somebody who has played loads of rugby, played really well, scored lots of tries, and is on the cusp. If he plays every game, he is not going to be under the limit, so we are still trying to figure out how that works, particularly with the knock-on effect to next season. We’re going through that at the moment.”
Any players involved in the Lions tour will benefit from a mandatory 10-week rest period, which would preclude them from playing in the first two rounds of next season’s Premiership. The consequences of a player going over 30 games have not been spelled out yet, but it’s been suggested that any excess games might be deducted from next season’s total. “That’s the sort of thing they are talking about,” confirmed Dowson.
As the club most affected by England call-ups in 2024/25, it is obviously in Dowson’s interest for the system to work fairly and for Saints not to be disproportionately penalised for producing so many English-qualified internationals.
The former England flanker is fully on board with the limit and the desire to manage player workload, but he says resting players must be a shared responsibility.
“I’m picking a number out of my head here, but let’s say a player plays 32 games this season, the one thing you don’t want to do next season is playing him in 32 games again because otherwise it makes a mockery of it. I am all on board, I am fine with it, we have all been there, and we understand what the game needs, but at the same time, it can’t always be Northampton that is resting him,” he said.
“To be honest I haven’t spoken to Steve (Borthwick) about it, and I haven’t really sat down with Phil Winstanley (PRL) and flagged it, but I have chatted to Christian Day (RPA) a little bit about it and how it is going to work, so it will all come out in the wash.
“The PGP is new, we are working through all the teething issues, which are fairly minor to be honest, and this is one of them where we are making sure we are looking after Tommy as best we can and making sure it is done in such a way that he doesn’t miss any of the games that are really important. But also, it’s not just Northampton games he misses because otherwise, that’s not a relationship, that’s Northampton carrying the can.
“I have to say England have been really open to everything we have spoken about so far; they understand it, and they have not treated it any other way. We haven’t chatted about this, but Steve has been on board about player management and IDPs (Individual Development Plans), and his communication has been excellent.”
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While still uncertain about certain aspects of the game-limit arrangement, Dowson is in no doubt that the Lions tour won’t be adversely impacted.
“The one thing the PGP doesn’t want to do is restrict anyone from being available, so I am certain that at no point are you going to turn around to Tommy Freeman and say you can’t play in a Lions test.”
Dowson’s selection policy for Saints’ next two league games, away to Newcastle and at home to Bristol, before the Investec Champions Cup semi-final against Leinster in Dublin, will take some working out. He is hoping captain George Furbank will be okay after receiving a bang to his arm against Castres, while the man he replaced at full-back, George Hendy, is having a scan on his shoulder injury.
As well as managing injuries and the minutes of his top stars, Dowson recognises that maintaining the momentum of the Champions Cup wins over Clermont and Castres is crucial if they are going to finish the season with a flourish and give themselves the best chance of upsetting the odds at the Aviva Stadium.
Defending Premiership champions Saints go into Friday’s match against Dowson’s former club, Newcastle, in eighth place and 13 points from the playoff zone with five games remaining.
“We’re clearly unhappy and frustrated at where we are in the league, and we have got to make sure we deal with that moving forward. But also, we have got to make sure we use our squad and balance that up with minutes played and injuries and other pieces like that. It’s a tricky balance, and we have got to make sure we are fighting on all fronts. We’ve got to take it all in context and do it on a game-by-game and a player-by-player basis.
“We’ve also got to maintain our momentum into that semi-final; we have got to qualify for Europe; we have got to make sure that we are as high up the table as we can be. I appreciate it might be out of reach, but it is still a mathematical possibility that we can make the top four, so we are going to throw everything at it and see how we get on.”
*Data provided by Opta
