England MUST cancel summer tour of Japan to save Premiership clubs from going under due to coronavirus, says Ugo Monye
UGO MONYE believes England must scrap their summer tour of Japan to help save Premiership clubs from going under.
Eddie Jones is due to take his World Cup runners-up for a two Test tour against the Brave Blossoms in July.
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But with doubts over when or if the domestic season will finish after a five-week suspension, ex-England and Harlequins winger Monye reckons rugby chiefs should cancel tours to finish the final nine games.
After top-flight clubs lost a combined £44 million in the last financial year, Monye said: “We are in an uncomfortable position where everyone has to be more selfless.
“Do we need the tour to Japan – well, it depends who we are asking. If you are asking Eddie Jones, it is absolutely essential.
“But in terms of the global rugby game, if you have Premiership clubs that are on the brink of extinction, or falling apart, or folding in then I think something just has to give and we have to compromise.
“For me, that would be the first thing to give, a two or three week tout where you could potentially play four matches in that and then you have to try and shoe-horn the rest of the games in.
“There are so many different layers to all of this that makes it so difficult. Try and fulfil the nine games, it’s going to be uncomfortable, but explore that.”
Speaking on the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly podcast, Monye added: “What do you do to try and catch up with the games? Do you play behind closed doors? If you do that, then clubs can’t afford it and you have potential clubs that would fold.
“We know that it is not a financially viable business and every club in the Premiership loses money. I would postpone the league for as long as possible up until we can get full gates again.
“Can clubs survive? The answer is no one actually knows, my fear is some may not.”
Premiership players have been told to stay away from their training grounds and teammates for the time being.
But other than that, there is still little clarity in what the future holds as the coronavirus pandemic swept across the globe.
Scrum-half Danny Care added, who along with his Harlequins teammates were told late on Monday night that their training was now on hold, added: “I honestly do not know what is going to happen, everyone is so in the dark.
“Those games that you miss, do you play them? Or do you get a 0-0 draw, two points and play the last four or five games?
“I don’t know what is going to happen, but there needs to be clarity soon so everyone can get on board and can plan for it.
“Obviously for everyone this is a very hard thing to know when it will subside. As players, rugby and sport becomes massively secondary to health and safety. So we need to get on board with that.
“If you could say look, everyone has six weeks off now – go away for three have that completely off, then have a mini pre-season to finish this season and a short break to the new season, I think players would be alright with that.
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“This year has been ridiculously long because of the World Cup and we are only about halfway through and it feels like we have been going all year.
“This season feels like it is always dragging on a bit, but I don’t feel like you can just write off a season and no one comes up and no one goes down – there are too many ramifications around that.
“There are no fair ways to do it and it is all unprecedented.”