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Fresh Premiership fears: 'Salaries won't be going back up'
Fresh battles lines are set to be drawn in the Gallagher Premiership as clubs are believed to be ready to insist that the across the board 25 per cent wage cuts for players are here to stay and salaries won’t be going back up to the levels they were at at the start of 2020 before the coronavirus pandemic.
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With the sport in England indefinitely suspended and no confirmation yet of an official restart date for the 2019/20 season, top-flight rugby has been plunged into a chaotic state of flux where the inability to cover costs has been starkly laid bare.
Last week’s Lord Myners salary cap recommendations highlighted how the Premiership just doesn’t make ends meet as a business, the report outlining that Companies House recorded a staggering £88.7million collective loss among the 13 stakeholder clubs in the years ending 2017 and 2018. Only Exeter turned a profit, whereas others such as Wasps lost in excess of £14m.
Even though CVC Capital Partners have since provided a windfall to those stakeholders with its purchase of a 27 per cent stake in the tournament, the financial situation has remained generally dire and ex-England skipper Lawrence Dallaglio has predicted long-lasting consequences for players.
Speaking on BT Sport, the Wasps legend said: “The reality of the Covid crisis is that the salary cap is going to come down, there is no doubt about that. The game, the sport of rugby, particularly at the highest level, has been living way beyond its means.
Bleak bottom line… https://t.co/JQxMKNZfLy
— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) May 15, 2020
“None of those clubs have made a profit in the last few years (except Exeter). Just to give you some idea, five years ago about five players in the Premiership were earning a salary of £300,000 or more. In the five years since then, it’s somewhere around about 100 players are earning that sort of level.
“What we have seen since the introduction of the Covid crisis is a 25 per cent reduction in salaries which all the clubs have agreed. Some clubs, I won’t name them, were pushing for a 50 per cent reduction in these salaries.
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“The new normal for players will be that their salaries won’t be going back up again. Those reductions are here to stay for the foreseeable future. The reality is the game is starting to recognise that it has to live within its means.”
Sportsmail have since claimed that Gloucester and Wasps have been to the fore in informing players that their pay cuts will continue for the ‘foreseeable future’. It reported: “Multiple sources indicated on Tuesday night that Wasps have informed staff and players that the cuts will become permanent, while players at Gloucester and other clubs have already been warned that reductions are likely to extend for the duration of current contracts.”
That will prompt fears of a player exodus from the English league, but Dallaglio wasn’t alone in believing that the new reality will be good for the Premiership. Claiming the Myners salary cap recommendations were positive for a sport that has struggled to best account for its £7m per club limit in the pre-Covid era, Austin Healy said: “They [the recommendations] are long overdue. You read through that, it all makes common sense, it all adds up, it’s something that a world-class sport and a world-class league should have had delivered and been in place from the start.
“The one thing I would disagree with it – and I have said for a long time – is that you should publish the wage of all the players, whether that is internally at least. That should be done because it has a huge benefit in the NFL and huge benefit in the NBA in terms of clubs managing their financial positions and it stops the secondary industry driving traffic and value.
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“That is the only thing I would change in that report. It looked very good to me and if Clive Woodward thinks it’s good it must be because he never agrees with anything that comes out new in rugby.”
Comments on RugbyPass
Proctor Definitely inform again this year had a hell of a season last year and this year is looking even better. Still mixed feelings about Ioane tho.
4 Go to commentsDagg is still trying to get enough headlines to make himself relevant enough to get a job. The Crusaders went back to square one at all levels. Shelve this season and nail the next one.
4 Go to commentsHe was in such great form. Sad for him but only a short term injury and it will be great to see him back for the finals.
1 Go to commentsAfter their 5/0 start, I had the Crusaders to finish Top 4 only…they lost the plot in Perth but will reload and back themselves vs 4th placed Rebels…
4 Go to commentsBoth nations missed a great opportunity to book a game that would have had a lot of interest from around the world. I understand these games can’t be organised in 5 minutes but they should have found a way to make it happen. I don’t think Wales are ducking anyone but it’s a bad look haha.
3 Go to commentsIt will be fascinating to see the effect that Jo Yapp has. If they can compete with Canada and give BFs a run for their money that will be progress
1 Go to commentsFollowing his dream and putting in the work. Go well young fella!
3 Go to commentsPerhaps filling Twickenham is one of Mitchell’s KPIs. I doubt whether both September matches will be at Twickenham on consecutive weekends. I would take the BF one to a large provincial stadium so as not to give them the advantage and experience of playing at Twickenham before a large crowd prior to the RWC.
3 Go to commentsvery unfortunate for Kitshoff, but big opportunity potentially for Nché to prove he is genuinely the best loosehead in the world, rather than just a specialist finisher. Presuming that if Kitshoff is out, it will also give Steenekamp a chance to come into the 23? Or are others likely to be ahead of him?
1 Go to commentsA long held question in popular culture asks if art imitates life or does the latter influence the former? Over this 6 nations I can ask the same question of the media influencing the thoughts of its audience or vice versa. Nobody wants to see cricket scores in rugby, as a spectacle it is not sustainable. With so many articles about England’s procession and lack of competition it feeds the epicaricacy of many looking for an opportunity to pounce. England are not the first team to dominate nor does it happen only in rugby, think Federer, Nadal, Red Bull or Mercedes, Manchester Utd, Australia in tests and World Cups. Instead of celebrating the achievements why find reasons to falsify it pointing towards larger playing pool, professional for a longer period or mitigate with the lack of growth in other nations. Can we not enjoy it while it is here and know that it won’t last for ever, others coveting what England have will soon take the crown, ask the aforementioned?
6 Go to commentsShame he won’t turn out for the Netherlands now they’re improving. U20s are Euro champs and in the U20 Trophy this year. The senior sides gets better every year too.
3 Go to commentsWill rugbypass tv be showing these games?
1 Go to commentsWell where do you start, the fact that England have a professional domestic league and Ireland’s is fully amatuer, that they have fully seperated professional squads at Fifteens and Sevens (7’s thinly disguised as GB), and Ireland have fully pro Sevens squad who loan some players back to the Semi-Professional Fifteens squad (moved from amateur for only a year or so) for a few games at 6N & RWC’s. The Women’s games is a shambles, and is at risk of killing itself by pushing for professionalism when the market isn’t really there to support it outside one or two countnries..
6 Go to commentsWayne Smith's input didn't have as much impact on the last final as Davison's red card for Thompson. England were 14 points up and flying when that happened.
6 Go to commentsBilly's been playing consistently well for 2 - 3 seasons now and deserves a look in at the top level. Ioane and ALB are still first choice but there needs to be injury cover and succession. His partnership with Jordie gives him first dibs you'd think. Go the Hurricanes.
4 Go to commentsIt’s not up to Wales to support Georgian Rugby. That’s up to International Rugby and Georgia. I sympathise with Georgia’s decent attempt to create this fixture. But for Wales the proposed match up is just a potential stick to beat them with and a potential big psychological blow that young Welsh team doesn’t need. (I’m Irish BTW.)
3 Go to commentsCale certainly looks great in space, but as you say, he has struggled in contact. At 23 years old, turning 24 this year, he should be close to full physical maturity and yet there exists a considerable gap in the power and physicality required for international rugby. Weight doesn’t automatically equate to power and physicality either. Can he go from a player who’s being physically dominated in Super rugby to physically dominating in international rugby in 1 or 2 years? That’s a big ask but he may end up being a late bloomer.
38 Go to commentsIf rugby wants to remain interesting in the AI era then it will need to work on changing the rules. AI will reduce the tactical advantage of smart game plans, will neutralize primary attacking weapons, and will move rugby from a being a game of inches to a game of millimetres. It will be about sheer athleticism and technique,about avoiding mistakes, and about referees. Many fans will find that boring. The answer is to add creative degrees of freedom to the game. The 50-22 is an example. But we can have fun inventing others, like the right to add more players for X minutes per game, or the equivalent of the 2-point conversion in American football, the ability to call a 12-player scrum, etc. Not saying these are great ideas, but making the point that the more of these alternatives you allow, the less AI will be able to lock down high-probability strategies. This is not because AI does not have the compute power, but because it has more choices and has less data, or less-specific data. That will take time and debate, but big, positive and immediate impact could be in the area of ref/TMO assistance. The technology is easily good enough today to detect forward passes, not-straight lineouts, offside at breakdown/scrum/lineout, obstruction, early/late tackles, and a lot of other things. WR should be ultra aggressive in doing this, as it will really help in an area in which the game is really struggling. In the long run there needs to be substantial creativity applied to the rules. Without that AI (along with all of the pro innovations) will turn rugby into a bash fest.
24 Go to commentsSouth Africa rarely play Ireland and France on these tours. Mostly, England, Scotland and Wales. I wonder why
2 Go to commentsIt was a let’s-see-what-you're-made-of type of a game. The Bulls do look good when the opposition allows them to, but Munster shut them down, and they could not find a way through. Jake should be very worried about their chances in the competition.
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