Monday 27 June 2016 11:08, UK
As the northern hemisphere's Test rugby warriors embarked on long haul flights home for their first break in a year, coaches lined up to decry the international playing calendar.
England, Wales and Ireland players have been touring Australia, New Zealand and South Africa at the end of almost 12 months of continuous rugby going back to the start of training camps for their World Cup campaigns.
While such a gruelling schedule made England's sweep of Australia all the more impressive, their coach Eddie Jones said the demands on players were unacceptable and he had encouraged RFU chief Ian Ritchie to take up the matter with World Rugby.
"These players should be sitting on a beach in Barbados now," the Australian said as England prepared to fly home on Monday having wrapped up their 3-0 series triumph with a 44-40 victory over the Wallabies on Saturday.
"I don't think it's right. I've spoken to Ian Ritchie about it and we are in agreement. Ian is going to try to push that forward to World Rugby."
The negotiations over a global season will be top of Bill Beaumont's in-tray when he takes over as the new chairman of global governing body World Rugby on Friday.
"I will address the challenge of the global calendar immediately on taking office," Beaumont said in his election manifesto for the post.
"World Rugby cannot be silent on this matter. This complex and important issue must have a solution designed to benefit the entire rugby community."
The former England captain will struggle to put something in place for the season following the 2019 World Cup, however, given the array of conflicting interests that have stymied previous efforts to bring order to the calendar.
While players in the southern hemisphere had a lengthy period off after the World Cup, many Wales players went straight back to club rugby, played the Six Nations and a warm-up match against England before facing New Zealand in three Tests.
"Talking to Steve Hansen, a lot of those All Blacks had four months off after the World Cup to rest and recuperate," Wales coach Warren Gatland said after his side went down 46-6 in Dunedin on Saturday to lose the series 3-0.
"Ours have three to four weeks off - national dual contracted players get six to eight weeks."
The All Blacks may have a central contracting system that helps manage players' game time, but coach Hansen still described the current situation as "ridiculous".
"It's a great advertisement, I think, for having a global season," he said after the world champions overcame an obdurate Wales in the first Test.
"It's our first game of the year since the World Cup. How many have they played since then? Six. They've also played a lot of club rugby and haven't had a breather."
Ireland, who took their series against the Springboks down to the wire before succumbing 2-1, also manage players' game time but coach Joe Schmidt still admitted a 17-Test, 52-week World Cup season was too long.
"By the time you take the pre-season, the four warm-up Test matches, and as soon as you're playing matches at a high level, they're more attritional mentally as well as physically," he said on arriving in South Africa.
Australia coach Michael Cheika, who allowed key Europe-based players like Matt Giteau and Will Genia to skip the June series, said: "We gave those guys a break, you can't play rugby for 12 months of the year."
