PLAYER welfare is high on the list of priorities in both rugby codes.

At least it is if you are a rugby player, perhaps not quite so much if you have a seat at the top table where all the big decisions are made.

In rugby union, the international scene is the peak of the sport. In league, it is rarely more than an afterthought fitted in when there is not much else of the agenda.

The Six Nations is the highlight of the season in our neck of the woods while down in the Southern Hemisphere there is Super Rugby.

On top of that, there is a regular autumn programme plus tours, a World Cup every four years – more than enough to keep the players fully employed and the fans happy. It is a wonder that their club supporters see them at all during the season.

Now plans are under way for a 12-nation World Trophy – half a dozen from the north (currently the Six Nations) and six from the south.

The teams will play each other and there will be promotion and relegation. Presumably it will all end in a Global Domination Final or something similar.

Sounds like a good idea – unless you are a player. Owen Farrell, Johnny Sexton and Ben Youngs are just some of those who will be called on to fulfil this glut of new fixtures when, in fairness, they already put their bodies through the grinder more than enough.

And they are not happy.

Injuries are far more frequent for the simple reason that most forwards are now about 20 stone and the game is rarely more than a battle of strength.

The season is too long, recovery time too short and the hunger for even more will be enough to shorten the careers of some outstanding sportsmen.

In the meantime, rugby league dithers over everything international. The 2025 World Cup, planned for the USA, won’t be held there after all. Any takers? Not New Zealand, because they cannot afford to stage it.

How about a Lions tour Down Under? Well one was planned, but now we are not so sure.

There is a body called the RLIF who are supposed to run the international game, but it seems they have to ask the Australians if it is okay to go ahead with any plans?

It is clearly not only the Laws of the games that separate the two codes.

* LOOKING for a cushy job? Then keep your eyes on the small-ad sections for the following.

Coming Soon: Several Vacancies for eagle eyed TV watchers. You will be well paid to view Premier League football without having to actually go to any matches and your duties will comprise of (A) making decisions on whether Harry Kane’s left knee was off-side and (B) telling the match referee that he’s a total clown for giving a penalty when that number nine was sent sprawling by a stiff breeze.

Once you have mastered those there will no doubt be further duties still to be decided by who shouts the loudest – such is the future of the game now made for TV – and you will also be given a executive post with the title of Chief VAR Examination Officer and in time you will be allowed to have an assistant to cover comfort breaks in the event of three-hour matches and a consultant to help you decide whether the assistant referee really needs another assistant.

“Bring it on” has been the almost unanimous vote for VAR but there is a slight snag. How long will it be before football is played in front of empty stands and watched only by TV views, and those armies of stat gatherers who can tell you how many passes Jones made to Smith and back again or explain the bizarre figure that now accompanies every match summary: Expected Goals: 0.83 or 2.42.

* WINNING seven trophies in three years is a pretty good legacy to leave behind when a manager moves on to another job.

Unless your name is Brendan Rodgers, of course, and the club you are leaving is Scottish giants Celtic.

In that case you will never be invited back to the club – ever.

“Never a Celt – Always a Fraud” was one banner hoisted by an unforgiving group after Rodgers had packed his bags and headed for Leicester City, apparently without a word of farewell to playing staff or supporters.

“He left like he was sneaking away under the cover of darkness,” one supporter phoned in to complain, while another suggested he should at least have stayed until the end of the season to complete a third successive treble.

It is fair to assume that Celtic fans would not have been too unhappy to learn that his career back in the Premier League ended in a first-day defeat at Watford.

Even some Leicester fans were underwhelmed by his arrival and, in the light of recent events down at the King Power Stadium one did offer the following warning at what might be in store.

He wrote: “As soon as the players have someone to impress like Brendan Rodgers they try hard again. Wait until he gets them to do something they don’t like – we will be back to a team full of moaners again.”

Another new boss who also suffered an opening day defeat though without a hint of – ill-will from anywhere – was Scott Parker, put in temporary charge of strong relegation candidates Fulham.

He has 10 games to save them from the drop, but even if that happens nobody will blame Scotty.

Meanwhile up at Old Trafford, the Will-He-Won’t He-Get-Job Guessing Game goes on around the future of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer goes on.

The stand-in boss thinks it would be strange if he didn’t, but he also knows that a lot of strange things have happened around the club since one Sir Alex Ferguson left office.

PS: Even VAR could not have helped our friends up at Fort William FC.

Fort William 1Wick Academy 0 – their first win at last after nearly two years.

Then I saw it – a large A against the score. The match had been abandoned because of a flooded pitch.

There is no justice.