Call me old fashioned, but I preferred rugby before all the rumours

If you take a moment to stop and think when was the last time we had a rugby season in which potential transfers were only rumoured towards the back end of the season, starting in around March and April?

Over the last five seasons, more players are singing contacts sooner or rumours are appearing quicker. There are always going to be rumoured transfers in any sport, but I feel that rugby is at risk of turning into January transfer market all year round.  

Just this week, Wasps and Joe Launchbury released a statement confirming the England international was staying at the Coventry club after a 24-hour period of Twitter speculating his next move, supposedly to Sale. All this hype and energy for nothing.

The clubs are the ones keeping it professional still, with players not being announced to have signed until the ink dries on the paper. This leaves the media industry and the world of social media to take the fall of so many rumours. 

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I completely understand the excitement around potential reports of a player signing for a new club, Launchbury was supposedly moving to Sale and that would have been a prosperous signing for them but surely the clubs should be the ones to first announce rather than anyone else. The anticipation within club singings is slowly slipping away. 

I can remember a time as a young fan where I would be so exciting near the end of the season to see who had signed for my club. But now, there is little excitement around the big names in rugby because everyone seems to know where they will be playing rugby next season before they do. Take Elliot Daly as an example. Everything that has come out of transfer rumours is that he has pretty much put pen to paper on a contact that sees him move to Saracens next season. If it’s true, great. But why not let Saracens break the news. If not, why go to all this time and effort for nothing. Neither Wasps, Saracens or Daly have said anything, so why not assume he is still going to be playing rugby with Wasps next season. 

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Why put the pressure on a player to say where he is playing rugby before he is ready or before the deal is done? I recall a pre-match interview with Dai Youngs earlier this season, not one question was asked about the match in hand the questions were all about the Daly situation and as someone watching a pre-match interview, I would quite like to know what the DOR is thinking about that match.

By no means am I suggest club transfer rumours stop. The rumours add something to social media and add another aspect for supporters to talk about, but my point is why go to the extent that the excitement is taken away when clubs sign a big named player. 

Maybe it is my nostalgia taking over, but I miss the days where rugby had more player secrets.