Strike action possible if players' needs not met

New Zealand's players are prepared to do their part to push the International Rugby Board for an "integrated" global season, and strike action remains in their armoury as a last resort.

All Blacks' coach Steve Hansen said in yesterday's Herald on Sunday that probably only player power on the international stage would force the IRB to take seriously the players' concerns about ever lengthening seasons.

Rob Nichol, the International Rugby Players' Association (IRPA) executive director, and the boss of the New Zealand Players' Association, said strike action was a possibility, but both player unions would back themselves to find a solution before taking the extreme option. He also said the players recognised that striking would be letting down supporters.

However, fixing what is seen as a broken system by the players is high on the agenda.

The IRPA will meet on Australia's Sunshine Coast after the British and Irish Lions test in Brisbane in June and what Nichol called an "integrated" season, which took into account test match windows, would be high on the agenda. The IRPA will raise the issue with the IRB in the United Kingdom in July.

Nichol said New Zealand's players wanted a later start to the rugby year and, in another departure from the status quo, no break in the Super Rugby season for the June tests. A truly global season with all tests played in the same window was unlikely as the Six Nations was played in March and April - the wrong time of year for the Southern Hemisphere.

Nichol said the earliest a new competition structure could happen was 2016 after the current broadcasting deals in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres were re-negotiated.

"We won't allow the game's administrators to follow amateur traditions that are no longer applicable," Nichol said.

"That's not only competition structure but also commercial. We have to address it. If we can't reach a resolution in July, we will go back to a blank sheet of paper.

"From an international perspective we can't rule out some sort of action [if that is the result]."

Nichol said New Zealand's top players wanted a 16-week off season, as opposed to the eight weeks they currently get. That would result in the Super Rugby competition starting in mid-March.

Finding another window for the June tests was also a priority. "We don't think it's good having the June tests in the middle of the Super Rugby competition, that's not ideal."

The disparate groups who run the game make any compromise difficult. There is the IRB, the national associations, Sanzar, the professional clubs in Europe and the Southern Hemisphere franchises.

How sevens rugby fitted into the bigger picture also had yet to be factored in.

Nichol conceded all organisations had different points of view and commercial imperatives. However, the important thing was for the IRB to give players' welfare a greater consideration.

Hansen made the comments in the wake of the news that another All Black - Tamati Ellison - is leaving for the more lucrative, but, just as significantly, less physical, world of Japanese rugby.

It was possible that next year could the last time such demands are placed on players. The 2015 World Cup will limit the number of tests played outside the global tournament.

Whether that would result in fewer sabbaticals for top players is unknown but it is likely to be a talking point. Conrad Smith is taking one at the end of the year and Dan Carter is likely to follow suit next year for his second break.

Current structure:

This year Super Rugby started on Feb 15 (for Australian teams).

Breaks in June for southern test window

Resumes July 5 for two rounds and then play-offs

Final on August 3

ITM Cup provincial competition starts Aug 15 and finishes Oct 26

Rugby Championship (NZ, Aus, SA and Arg) starts Aug 17 and finishes on Oct 5

All Blacks play three away tests against France, England and Ireland in November.