Peter Bills: Professional rugby doesn't add up

So Jonny Wilkinson, darling of the British tabloids, is back on the treatment table and not to be seen on a rugby field again perhaps for two months or more.

A crunching tackle by a Perpignan player last weekend inflicted knee ligament damage and probably knocked Wilkinson out of the entire Six Nations Championship which starts next month.

Ye Gods, the stock market slumped upon the news, medical bulletins were being issued on the hour.

But alas, Wilkinson has some "previous" here. Injuries to his neck, shoulder and arm mean he's played only a handful of games since the World Cup final in November 2003. He was named the new England captain but has never been fit to don the mantle.

And, wouldn't you know it, no sooner had precious Jonny got injured yet again, than the age-old debate was restarted about too much rugby. In response to the crisis, the Professional Rugby Players Association this week announced the commission of a three-year research project on player burnout, involving players in the 12 Zurich Premiership clubs, jointly funded by the PRA, the Rugby Football Union and Premier Rugby.

The PRA recently invited Scott Cresswell from Unitec in New Zealand, who has done a three-year project into player burnout for the New Zealand Rugby Union, to present his findings to players, directors of rugby, conditioning staff and members of the England fitness team at a player-welfare seminar.

Meanwhile, outraged English scribes were lambasting the manic playing schedule, blaming it for everything from Wilkinson's crop of injuries to the hiked price of tomatoes. Please guys, do me a favour. Wake up and stop being so naive about rugby's harsh new world.

One suggestion was that the playoff matches in the premiership and the English domestic cup should be dropped at once. Far too many matches are sending our best players into the intensive-care ward was the emotive language. Honestly, these guys have closed their eyes to reality.

No-one would argue with the theory that it's ridiculous to have a playoff system after a season-long league programme. I've said so myself. Like telling Chelsea, after they've finished top of the football premiership this coming May, that they now have to face a playoff with Arsenal or Manchester United to decide who is really champion. Daft.

But you have to ask yourself why. The answer is supplied by one word. Money. What some people apparently cannot see is that professional rugby in this part of the world is still a flawed product at all but international level. They don't understand that the reason why the authorities and clubs themselves keep on stuffing more and more fixtures into the schedule is that they desperately need the revenue to try to somehow get the financial figures somewhere near to adding up. Drop a stack of games and suddenly professional rugby won't work in England.

Injuries are wrecking the top players in this part of the world. That much is undeniable. Granted, the leading Irish internationals such as Brian O'Driscoll, Paul O'Connell and Gordon D'Arcy are getting an easier ride in the Celtic League, because their provinces refused to select them at the start of this season and they are often rested.

There is just less rugby in Ireland for the top players. That factor, compared with the manic schedule operating within English rugby, was almost certainly a factor in persuading O'Driscoll to remain in Ireland last northern summer, when his contract was up for renewal. More money was available in England or France, but the burn-out factor was inevitable. In time, flanker Johnny O'Connor will prove the point if he stays with London Wasps, as opposed to playing in Ireland.

Of the likely first-choice England side to play Wales in the first match of the Six Nations Championship next month, key personnel such as Will Greenwood, Martin Corry, Richard Hill, Mike Tindall, Wilkinson, Ian Balshaw and Trevor Woodman will be missing through injury. Others, such as Stuart Abbott and Phil Vickery, both members of the World Cup squad, have only just returned to their clubs after serious injuries.

So there is plenty of evidence of player burnout. But that's the price they must pay for professional rugby and the way it is structured in England. The top premiership clubs are paid £1.8 million ($4.8 million) each by the Rugby Football Union every season. To find those sums, the RFU has had to increase its autumn international programme to three games and embark upon a summer tour every year. It also badly needs the revenue companies such as Powergen, which sponsors the English domestic cup, provide for the RFU's coffers.

Simple business understanding shows that the players cannot have it both ways. They want handsome salaries, and anything between £150,000 and £200,000 a season is now the going rate for the best at the English premiership clubs. Martin Johnson is said to earn £250,000 a year at Leicester. Then there are the England salaries paid by the RFU on top of that.

But how could the clubs afford those sums without the backing of the RFU? They tried originally, and saw club owners walk away when asked to go on funding such excesses. But the RFU, in turn, could not find the sums to support the clubs without a substantial earning potential based on, yes, you guessed it, the players. It is like one vast wheel which keeps coming around.

This mess has never been solved in England since professionalism arrived 10 years ago. Players are being increasingly flogged in a physical sense, but they have to be to keep turning the wheels of the gravy train.

Nor is it any use England's top players looking towards the Southern Hemisphere and the lighter playing schedule of the best players in New Zealand, South Africa and Australia. Manifestly, they play less. But they earn far less. Why on earth do people think that so many top Southern Hemisphere players join the gravy train of the English game near the end of their careers? Only last week, All Black halfback Justin Marshall confirmed he is joining Leeds at the end of the Lions tour this year.

Gravy train, bees around the pot, whichever analogy you wish to use, the facts are undeniable. The only way English rugby can work is by squeezing more and more competitions and fixtures into the playing schedule. There is no other way because professionalism doesn't add up financially in England without it.

Now if the players union seeks talks with the RFU based on a drastic reduction in salaries, then all scenarios become possible. Feewer fixtures, a reduced number of competitions, fewer matches at club and international level. Almost certainly, that would lead to a reduction in injuries and fitter, healthier players enjoying extended careers. But, and here's the rub, players who are poorer financially.

Now, let's see which player's agent is the first to put his hand up for talks?

* Peter Bills is a rugby writer with Independent News & Media in London