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The endless Zoom calls that one Wales player doesn't ever want to repeat

(Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

Wales international Josh Turnbull has revealed how much his life was taken over during the lockdown by the salary cut talks concerning the four Guinness PRO14 regions which ended in stalemate.

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The Cardiff Blues flanker, who won the last of his ten Test caps in Argentina in 2018, was a Welsh Rugby Players’ Association player representative on behalf of his club during the talks along with teammate Ellis Jenkins, an experience that consisted of endless Zoom calls.

No agreement was ultimately reached in the lengthy deliberations between the WRPA and the professional game board which takes care of the elite levels of the game for the Welsh Rugby Union. 

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Clubs are now negotiating with players on an individual basis after the expiry of a temporary three-month 25 per cent cut at the start of the rugby lockdown due to the coronavirus outbreak. 

Now, with rugby in Wales set to restart this weekend with a pair of PRO14 derbies in Llanelli and Swansea, Turnbull, who captains Cardiff at Scarlets on Saturday, has reflected how salary cut talk took up so much of his time.  

In an interview with walesonline.co.uk, the 32-year-old said: “I’ve never experienced anything like this before. You could spend the first four hours of the day on it on a Zoom call and then another couple of hours in the afternoon. It’s literally going from talking with the WRPA and the WRU about where we are financially and then, in the afternoon, you may be speaking to a few of the players. They will ring you up to see what’s going on.

“At times, it felt like I was the one taking the pay cut from the players. For some of the boys, it didn’t sink in quite as it did with some of the others. At times, you just have to be brutally honest and say ‘look, the money is not there anymore, it’s not available and the reality is we are going to have to take cuts’.

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“It’s hard to come to terms with. I took it personally as well. Having that 25 per cent cut can be quite a lot to some players and it’s hard to take. Just getting that message across to the players has been a tough thing to have to do. If you ask Ellis as well, he will say he doesn’t ever want to see a Zoom call again talking about pay cuts.”

 

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JW 36 minutes ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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