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'Everyone needs to be a little careful' - Double-winning Exeter's response to latest Esportif Premiership player salary report
The annual Esportif Intelligence report comparing the rugby player salaries by position across the three European leagues – the Gallagher Premiership, Top 14 and Guinness PRO14 – has in recent years become a major talking point when it is issued at this time every year, but double-winning Exeter boss Rob Baxter isn’t losing any sleep over its latest contents.
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Esportif’s salary report for 2020/21 claims that No10 is the best-paid player by position in this season’s Premiership, openside the worst. In between, you have lock as second-best paid, outside centre as third best and next comes full-back and tighthead.
The list between sixth and twelfth is then respectively filled by No8, blindside, wing, loosehead, scrum-half, inside centre and hooker. Exeter boss Baxter, though, doesn’t see a crossover between this list of best and worst-paid positions and the way salaries are spread around his squad, a team who are reigning Premiership and European champions after wins in last October’s finals.
Ahead of the Exeter trip on Saturday to Wasps, the opposition they defeated in the Premiership final at Twickenham ten weeks ago, Baxter said about the Esportif Intelligence salary report: “That report comes out every year and it’s driven by one management company and so everyone needs to be a little careful.
“I’m not saying take it with a pinch of salt but that is how they report on their clients. That won’t necessarily be the same across every client at every other club, and also especially if you have had players at clubs for long periods because how their salaries grow over a period of time is different to where you are going out to target say a marquee player.
IT'S HERE! A comparison of positions commanding the highest pay this season across @premrugby, @PRO14Official and @top14rugby. #ForRugbyByRugby pic.twitter.com/3gYSkSyUSj
— Esportif Intelligence (@EsportifIntel) December 29, 2020
“If that management company have a particularly high percentage of marquee type players it’s going to be quite skewed compared to how another agent might have their client base based around the importance of players. It’s not going to come as any surprise to you.
“You want a big, tough pack of forwards who can scrummage and catch lineouts and you want a set of backs that can defence first and you can go from there. If you do that you can win a few games and you build on that and if you can build on that you can build some success. We keep our basic level of recruitment very simple and then we try and build on that.
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“We don’t go out there looking for finished articles everywhere we can because it is impossible to do with the salary cap and it’s unrealistic. With a good squad and a good group of people, you can cover your odd weakness as long as that weakness is not a weakness in one of your fundamentals if you see what I mean. We’ll go for the fundamentals first and we’ll work from there. That always seems to have given us a very solid foundation.”
Baxter added that his job at Exeter now feels different after becoming a double-winning coach less than three months ago. “It does feel different and I’m very happy to talk about this… It’s not like that it’s now, I don’t want to go back to work because it almost feels better to come into work now.
“But it does feel different because you feel kind of justified you got the job in the first place because you actually have done the ultimate, you go ‘there is not much more I could have done. You gave the right guy the job and we got there’, so it does feel different.
“What I really feel is important now is I have got a focus on where the squad can go over the next few years because we have got some huge challenges that way. The salary cap changes after this season, down to £5million, and there are some challenges there for three years.
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“That means there has to be a real focus on the quality of your academy, the quality of the recruit into your academy, how they are coached, how we create a pathway for those guys to come through, how you change the focus of your squad slightly if you have to, where you replace players, how you keep some depth around your international period – there are some real challenges there.
“They are things that have always hugely motivated me and been of huge interest to me and those things are now even more important than they have ever been. There is still a lot of exciting work to be done here definitely.”
4?? bonus-point wins for Chiefs from four games this term has sparked a conversation about the competitiveness of the 2020/21 Premiership minus the Londoners
#GallagherPrem
https://t.co/ImHjnSGSrr— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) December 30, 2020
Comments on RugbyPass
Oh wow… “But as La Rochelle proved in winning in Cape Town this season, a cross-continental away assignment need not spell the end of days.” La Rochelle actually proved quite the opposite. After traveling to Cape town and back they (back-to-back and current champs) got mercilessly thumped the next week. If travel is not the reason, why else would a full-strength powerhouse like La Rochelle get dumped on the @r$e$ one week later?
26 Go to commentsYou know he can land a winning conversion after the full time siren is up. (Even if it takes two attempts.)
5 Go to commentsA very insightful article from Jake. I would love to know how South African’s feel about their move to Europe. Do you prefer playing in Europe or want to go back to Super Rugby?
2 Go to commentspure fire
1 Go to commentsA very well thought out summary of all the relevant complications…agree with your ”refer the Cricket Test versus 20/20 comparison”. More also definitely doesn't necessarily mean better!
2 Go to commentsMust be something when you are only 19 y.o and both NZ and France want you. Btw he wasn’t the only new caledonian in french U20 as Robin Couly also lived in Noumea until 17. Hope he’s successful wherever he chooses to play.
7 Go to comments“Several key players in the Stade Rochelais squad are in their thirties” South Africans are going to hate the implications of that comment!
5 Go to commentsI know Leinster did a job on La Roche but shortly after HT Leinster were 30-13 ahead of them and at a similar time Toulouse were trailing Exeter. At 60 mins Leinster were 27 ahead but after 67 mins Toulouse were only 19 ahead before Exeter collapsed. That’s heavier scoring by Leinster against the Champions. I think people are looking at Toulouses total a little too much. I also think Northhampton are in with a real chance, albeit I’d put Leinster as favourites. If Leinster make the final I expect them to win by more than ten and with control.
5 Go to commentsHey Nick, your match analysis is decent but the top and tail not so much, a bit more random. For a start there’s a seismic difference in regenerating any club side over a test team. EJ pretty much had to urinate with the appendage he’d been given at test level whereas club success is impacted hugely by the budget. Look no further than Boudjellal’s Toulon project for a perfect example. The set ups at La Rochelle and Leinster are like chalk and cheese and you are correct that Leinster are ahead. Leinster are not just slightly ahead though, they are light years ahead on their plans, with the next gen champions cup team already blooded, seasoned and developing at speed from their time manning the fort in the URC while the cream play CC and tests. They have engineered a strong talent conveyor belt into their system, supported by private money funnelled into a couple of Leinster private schools. The really smart move from Leinster and the IRFU however is maximising the Irish Revenue tax breaks (tax relief on the best 10 years earnings refunded at retirement) to help keep all of their stars in Ireland and happy, while simultaneously funding marquee players consistently. And of course Barrett is the latest example. But in no way is he a “replacement for Henshaw”, he’s only there for one season!!! As for Rob Baxter, the best advice you can give him is to start lobbying Parliament and HMRC for a similar state subsidy, but don’t hold your breath… One thing Cullen has been very smart with is his coaching team. Very quickly he realised his need to supplement his skills, there was talk of him exiting after his first couple of years but he was extremely shrewd bringing in Lancaster and now Nienaber. That has worked superbly and added a layer that really has made a tangible difference. Apart from that you were bang on the money… 😉😂
5 Go to commentsNot sure exactly what went wrong for him at Glasgow but it’s pretty clear he ain’t Franco’s cup of tea. Suspect he would have been better served heading out of Scotland around the same time as Finn, Hoggy and Jonny!
1 Go to commentsBulls disrespected the Northampton supporters and the competition. Decide quickly, fully in or out.
26 Go to commentsI wonder if Parling was ever on England’s radar as a coach? Obviously Borthwick is a great lineout coach, but I do worry he might be taking on too much as both head coach and forwards coach.
1 Go to commentsJason Jenkins has one cap. When Etzebeth was his age he had over 80 caps. Experience matters. He will never amount to what Etzebeth has because he hasn’t been developed as an international player.
2 Go to commentsSays much about the player picking this gig over the easier and bigger rewards offered to him in Japan. Also says a lot about the state sanctioned tax benefits the Irish Revenue offers pro rugby players, with their ten highest earning years subject to an additional 40% tax relief and paid as a lump sum, in cash, at retirement. Certainly helps Leinster line up the financial ducks in a row to fund marquee signings like this!!! No other union anywhere in world rugby benefits from this kind of lucrative financial sponsorship from their government…
5 Go to commentsTrue Jordie could earn a lot more in Japan. But by choosing Leinster he’ll be playing with 1 of the best clubs in the world and can win a champions cup and URC…..
6 Go to commentsThanks for that Marshy, noticed you didn't say who is gonna win it. We know who ain't gonna win it - your Crusaders outfit. They've gone from having arguably the best Super Rugby first five ever, to having a clutch of rookies. Hurricanes all the way!
1 Go to commentsGeez you really have to question the NRLs ability to produce players of quality. Its pathetic. Dont the 25mil in Aus produce enough quality womens players. Sad.
1 Go to commentsBulls fan here, and agree 100% with the conclusion (and little else) of this article. SA sides should absolutely f-off from the champs cup until we get fair scheduling, equal support for travel arrangements and home semis. You know, like all the european teams get.
26 Go to commentsI’m yet to see why Grace would be an ABs contender. He’s pedestrian and lacks the dominance required of a top flight 8.
11 Go to commentsGee my Highlanders were terrible. They have gone backwards since the start of the season. The trouble began when we left Millar behind to prep as the 10 against the Brumbies and he was disconnected from the team that came back from Aussie. We rested Patchell for that game and we blew an avalanche of ball in good attacking positions in the 1st half. Against the Rebels we seem to of gone into a pod system with forwards hanging off from the breakdown leaving Fakatava to secure our ball!
80 Go to comments