World Rugby sets new elite player limits - includes 30 matches maximum per season

byTom Sansom

World Rugby have put player welfare front and centre for the 2025/26 season, with a new set of player load guidelines for elite men’s and women’s rugby. The rules, agreed by the Executive Board, aim to protect players from burnout, injury, and overwork across club and international competitions.

The new guidelines, recommended by a global panel of experts representing players, unions, competitions, and regions, include:

No more than 30 games per season or six consecutive match weeks.

Minimum rest periods after international duty, including at least a week off.

Five-week mandatory off-season break.

12 weeks of non-contact time spread throughout the year.

Clear club-country communication to manage workload.

England, Saracens and British & Irish Lions captain Maro Itoje, is one such player who often surpasses the newly minted 30-match limit. Itoje racked up 33 matches in the 2023/24 and 2024/25 campaign, as the 2023 Rugby World Cup and 2025 British & Irish Lions tour tallied up the locks on-field minutes.

“These guidelines are the result of much intense negotiation over many years, I’d like to congratulate all involved on achieving this agreement,” said World Rugby Chairman Dr Brett Robinson.

“Our hope, over time, is that unions and competitions reach local agreements to best serve the individual circumstances of players. In the meantime, these guidelines provide a solid backstop. As we grow our sport, players can be sure that they are being well supported by their clubs, unions and at the very top of the game by World Rugby.”

The guidelines take a precautionary approach, relying on the latest science where available and expert opinion where data is lacking. The guidelines act as a backstop where local agreements on player load don’t exist, to give players and unions a clear baseline for managing the demands of modern rugby.

World Rugby has also made adherence to these guidelines a condition for the new Nations Championship, scheduled to kick off in summer 2026. The move underscores a growing focus on protecting players as the game expands globally across the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.

The Player Load Project Group behind the rules, brought together heavy hitters from across the rugby world, including former players Conrad Smith, Rachel Burford, Danielle Salmon.

The ex-players were joined by coaches Johann van Graan (Bath), Stuart Lancaster (Connacht, Ex-England) and John Dobson (Bulls), as well as high-performance managers such as Lesley McKenzie and Nick Gill and World Rugby officials Mark Harrington and Kevin Bouwer.