IT’S official: the props are revolting. As the coronavirus- driven realities of wage restraint and salary cap reduction kick in, it is the men at the coalface who are landing haymakers on the sport’s ruling class. What fool said Scargillism was dead? Ellis Genge, Greg Bateman and Mark Lambert have all been on “workers’ rights” duty in recent days, although it cannot be said that the front row union is united. When push comes to shove internal division will not help the cause.
Genge is the architect of the new Rugby Players Epoch, a breakaway organisation determined to give its members the independent voice not always provided by the Rugby Players Association, which is part-funded by Twickenham.
Bateman, his clubmate at Leicester, ramped it up by stating that Premiership players were being “shafted” on their finances, while Lambert, the Harlequins forward and chairman of the RPA, warned the clubs that a “significant legal dispute” was possible.
Yet for the purists, the most burning issue has yet to be addressed. There may be two unions, but where are the apostrophes in their titles? We demand an answer.
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