Talk:List of 2017–18 Premiership Rugby transfers

Inclusion criteria

Hi all – and especially @MunsterFan2011: who made the edit – what exactly is the inclusion criteria for this article? According to the article lead, it says "This is a list of player transfers involving Premiership Rugby teams leading up to the 2017–18 season." Yesterday, the transfer of Heinrich Brüssow to Northampton Saints was announced, and this article updated, even though his contract is effective from January 2018 – clearly not "leading up to the 2017–18 season". TheMightyPeanut (talk) 23:51, 13 September 2017 (UTC)

Hi @TheMightyPeanut:, that's a good point. Perhaps the lead of the article needs modifying slightly, to something like "leading up to and including the 2017–18 season"? I guess deals such as Brüssow's fall into a bit of a grey area, where they join part-way through one season, but are still contracted before the beginning of the next i.e. it would be inaccurate to add him to a list of transfers for the 2018–19 season as, even though he doesn't join the club until January 2018, that's still part of the 2017–18 season. MunsterFan2011 (talk) 06:36, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

I think he should just not be included. I always assumed these lists were designed to be records of future transfers, as the rugby transfer market generally works in advance, such as Dan Biggar's transfer to Northampton for next season. Having said that I have no objection to modifying the article to include in-season transfers.Skeene88 (talk) 17:13, 15 September 2017 (UTC)

Hi @Skeene88:, since these lists don't actually get deleted once a new season starts (at which point it's obviously no longer a record of future transfers), they obviously also serve as a history of player transfers. A number of teams have seasonal articles that can also contain this information, but a lot of teams don't, so it's useful in that regard. A slight problem with that is that I don't think it's entirely comprehensive (I've found a large number of players not included in this list, even though they played for the team in the past and is now no longer there). But I think all player movements should be tracked on one of these lists; if not this season, then the next. Personally, I agree with MunsterFan2011, a wording change should be made to accommodate in-season transfers. TheMightyPeanut (talk) 00:53, 16 September 2017 (UTC)