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English clubs to get cash injection at time of crisis for Worcester and Wasps

By Chris Jones
(Photo by Alex Caparros/Getty Images for EPCR)

English rugby top clubs are to receive a much needed £20m cash injection this season thanks to their eight year funding deal with Rugby Football Union but it will only be a temporary relief from mounting debt that has put Worcester Warriors on the brink of financial failure and Wasps struggling to repay a £35m bond.

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Under the current Professional Game Agreement, signed in 2016 between Premiership Rugby Limited (PRL) and the RFU, clubs are guaranteed funding from the union each season. For the first four, they received a fixed amount of £25.5m, however, the pandemic had a devastating effect on income which is largely based on RFU revenue from Twickenham matches. As a result of internationals having to be played without crowds, the clubs received less than £10m last year as the Union suffered a loss of more than £20m.

With four England test matches taking place this November – against New Zealand, South Africa Argentina and Japan- the Union’s income will be significantly increased and each Twickenham test match is estimated to generate more than £10m thanks to hospitality sales, tickets revenue and television deal income.

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As a result RugbyPass understand the clubs will share around £20m this season – double the figure received last season.

That money will be shared amongst the Premiership clubs with those supplying more players named in the England squad getting a greater slice of the income. While this is welcome news for the clubs, it comes with a warning that income is set to be halved again in 2023 thanks to the Rugby World Cup being staged in France.

The tournament means it will be an English season without four November tests and while the RFU will eventually get a share of profits from the tournament, that figure is unknown.

The RFU and PRL are understood to have started initial negotiations on a new funding agreement to come into place after 2024 when the clubs will be looking for substantial help moving forward. The current eight-year partnership between Twickenham and the Premiership clubs was expected to be worth over £200m and gave national head coach Eddie Jones greater access to players, a later deadline for selection, two additional training camps. The final figure will be well short of £200m when the deal end in two years.

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The Premiership clubs are currently operating under a £5m salary cap, designed to restrict losses following the impact of the pandemic with squad sizes being cut to meet that target. An estimated 80 players were left without a contract at the end of last season.

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Jon 9 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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