England and Wales stars being  ‘shot to bits’

England and Wales have been warned that their players will be ‘shot to pieces' before their three-Test series in Australasia at the end of the coming season.
The cumulative effect of the World Cup, Six Nations, European Champions' Cup, Aviva Premiership, Pro12 and Top14 will leave the international squads in no fit state for their summer tours according to the senior member of England's 2003 world-beating coaching team, Phil Larder.
England play three Tests in New Zealand next June, Wales three in New Zealand. Ireland play three in South Africa but the Six Nations' champions control their appearances for the provincial teams because the players are employed by the IRFU.
If England, Ireland and-or Wales reach the last four of the World Cup, they will play 18 Test matches in ten months. Larder, whose nine years as England defence coach spanned their finest hours, calls that ‘an impossible ask'.
“I think the governing bodies have to protect the players from themselves,'' he tells The Rugby Paper. “Every professional player wants to play in every match and whenever injury prevents them, they are really disappointed.
“The game is getting far more physical with every passing season. That means the players are thrown into a rising cauldron and their bodies simply cannot withstand playing too many games.
“You have to ask yourself this: What will happen if a team from the four home countries gets through to the final of the World Cup?   If a Southern Hemisphere team also gets through, their players will go home to their close-season.
“The players in England or Wales will go straight into the Champions' Cup and then their national club championships. Then, before they know it, they're knocking seven bells out of each other in the Six Nations.
“There's no time to rest because they're straight into the climax to the European and domestic seasons. After that they go to the Southern Hemisphere for three of the toughest Test matches imaginable.
“That is asking the impossible. But we keep on asking it. If you keep asking them to play extra matches you are putting their careers in jeopardy.
“I speak from first-hand experience of what our guys went through before and after they won the World Cup in 2003. We played two Tests in New Zealand and one in Australia.
“I remember chatting to Ben Cohen in Auckland after the second All Blacks match and he was shot to pieces.
‘'We spoke about the number of matches he had played and it was frightening. New Zealand and Australia were totally refreshed. We were on our benders.
“That will happen again, players shot to pieces because it can only be avoided by ensuring the players have a proper break. By that I mean three months – three weeks away from the game, six weeks conditioning and another three for pre-season games.
“The physical and conditioning work England did before the '03 World Cup under Dave Reddin was the toughest I have ever seen. Players were being physically sick on a daily basis.
“It was one of the main reasons why we won the World Cup. We didn't miss a tackle in extra time during the final. But this time the preparation for teams like England and Wales is even more intensive.
‘'In a perfect world, they'd take a break after the World Cup and come back for the Six Nations three months later. That won't happen because the clubs will be clamouring to have them back as soon as possible.”
PETER JACKSON