The Quad-Lemma: how the Rugby Players Association Benevolent Fund was establish to address the welfare needs in the professional format of rugby union

Abstract

This article looks at the evolution of retirement preparation for male professional rugby union athletes in the English Premiership. Rugby union became a professional sport in 1995 allowing rugby to become a stand-alone career. This alteration in employment structure resulted in stronger athletes, thus resulting in an increase of injury making a career in sports more uncertain. In an effort to address the growing concern of injury-induced retirement, the Rugby Players' Association's created the Benevolent Fund 1 in 2001. The Foundation was to provide assistance to players during times of injury and provide educational opportunities to assist in career transition. This article highlights how the transition to a professional game created the 'Quad-Lemma' of rugby injury and how the Rugby Players Association was created to address the welfare concerns of the new professional format of rugby union. Kanemasu and Molnar (2013) highlighted the lack of formal support mechanisms that 'ex' professional rugby union players have available to assist in career transition. While there are factual accounts for the need of such mechanisms (Mortimer 2016;FitzSimons 2003), there is a significant lack of academic research on the design and delivery of formal programs to assist in the career transition for the professional athlete. This lack of literature is directly linked to the limited amount of programmes that assist professional athletes during times of career transition. Anderson and Morris (2000) identify that the programmes that provide assistance are designed to assist the elite amateur athlete, while only a few are designed to address the needs of the professional athlete (Alfermann, 2000;Wylleman et al. 2001;Anderson and Morris 2000).Sports federations, national governing bodies, or independent groups who have a connection to the sport manage a majority of these programmes. The focus is to provide opportunities that establish life after sport by providing access to education, expand social networks and developing transferable skills. This article hopes to provide greater insight into the underdeveloped area of career transition research from an organizational perspective.Within the existing literature on career transition of the professional athlete, two dominant themes emerge. The 'voluntariness' of the athlete's retirement (Erpič, Wylleman, and Zupančič 2004;Anderson

Development of expertise in elite and sub‐elite British rugby league players: A comparison of practice experiences

“…In the United Kingdom, for example, TDEs are now firmly established through the academy system in many team sports. Although common place, the coaching practice within these TDEs has been criticised for adopting traditional teaching and coaching methods, where an overemphasis on direct instruction of athletes, through a technique‐focused linear coaching style is common (Partington & Cushion, 2011; Ryan, 2016). Typically, a linear coaching style is highly structured and advocates the rehearsal of optimal movement templates through task decomposition and drill‐based practices.…”