Premiership Rugby still to reach agreement over player release for World Cup

Premier Rugby and World Rugby have yet to reach an agreement that will ensure players from Wales, Scotland and a number of other countries won’t be denied permission to take a full part in World Cup training preparations.  

Wales names their training squad as early as next Tuesday for the finals in Japan, but Warren Garland is still uncertain he will have access to the likes of Liam Williams, Dan Biggar and Taulupe Faletau are for their altitude training camp in July, and their first warm-up match against England on August 11.

The next World Rugby council meeting is due to be held on May 22 and it is hoped by then that an ongoing row with Premiership Rugby (PRL) will finally be resolved. 

It was last December when the Guardian newspaper reported that PRL issued World Rugby with a legal action threat regarding insurance. As a consequence, they insisted they would strictly enforce the release of non-English players. 

Such a restriction would mean that a raft of Welsh and Scottish players - along with others from Tonga, Samoa and Fiji who are contracted to Premiership clubs - would not be able to join their countries’ World Cup preparations until mid?August, only 35 days before the tournament begins in Japan. 

“We are continuing to have discussions with World Rugby and while we have made progress there are still some outstanding issues,” a PRL spokesperson told the Guardian.

“Positive discussions are ongoing, however there are still some details that need confirming. We cannot confirm these finer details at this stage but we look forward to further positive discussions with World Rugby.”

World Rugby’s regulation 23 states that clubs are compensated by unions for injuries picked up on international duty for players who earn £225,000 or less a year. Anything more than that is paid by the clubs.

World Rugby. agreed to increase the threshold to £350,000 but PRL wanted no limit and requested it be removed on the basis there are 60 non-English internationals in the Premiership earning £225,000 or above and 25 on £350,000 or above.

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