Twenty-five years of professionalism: skill levels rise but at what cost? | Robert Kitson

On-field action has come on massively but questions remain around player protection and the futures of smaller clubsTwenty-five years ago this week a group of men sat in the Ambassador Hotel on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris and acknowledged the game was finally up. Rugby union could no longer be classed as an amateur sport and payment for playing would henceforth be permitted. When the shaken officials emerged to announce the decision formally, to quote the former Wallabies’ captain Nick Farr-Jones: “It looked like they had just come out of their own funeral.”One of the English delegates was la…