Rugby's rich list: The world's highest-paid players in 2021
A former All Blacks star and a World Cup-winning Springbok have jointly topped an updated list of rugby’s highest-played players.
A year-and-a-half after WalesOnline published a list of the sport’s 15 top earners, ruck.co.uk has released its own top 10 rich list.
The website outlined that estimations had been made based on “figures on reports from Forbes, reputable news outlets and a variety of official sources to get us as close to the mark as possible”.
“All figures mentioned are before tax and do not include the array of bonuses and extra fees stashed away in the fine print of every contract. Players’ various sponsorship deals are also not included but, in some cases, add zeroes to the end of their pay cheques.”
The list released by ruck.co.uk shows some movers and shakers from last year’s list from WalesOnline.
Springboks halfback Faf de Klerk, Ireland first-five Johnny Sexton, England midfielder Manu Tuilagi, Scotland fullback Stuart Hogg, France halfback Morgan Parra, Los Pumas first-five Nicolas Sanchez, Wales first-five Dan Biggar and ex-All Blacks loose forward Steven Luatua don’t feature on the updated list.
Conversely, three players who didn’t make last year’s WalesOnline list have made the cut by ruck.co.uk‘s estimates.
All in all, the updated list features three Springboks, two All Blacks, two Englishmen, one Wallaby, one Frenchman and one Scot, all of whom – bar two players, who both featured in the Top League this year – play their club rugby in Europe.
With all of that in mind, here is ruck.co.uk‘s list of the 10 highest-paid players in 2021:
9 = Owen Farrell (England/Saracens) – £750,000
Owen Farrell is among the Premiership’s top-earners heading into the final year of his Saracens contract after helping guide the London-based club back to England’s top-flight this season following their their relegation into the RFU Championship due to salary cap breaches.
9 = Michael Hooper (Australia/Toyota Verblitz) – £750,000 (A$1.38m/¥117.54m)
Michael Hooper’s decision to skip this year’s Super Rugby with the Waratahs and take sabbatical in the Top League with Toyota Verblitz proved a lucrative one that made the Wallabies captain the highest-paid Australian player this year.
7 = Beauden Barrett (New Zealand/Suntory Sungoliath) – £780,000 (NZ$1.5m/¥122.24m)
Like Hooper, Beauden Barrett missed this year’s Super Rugby campaign with the Blues to take up a sabbatical deal with Suntory Sungoliath in the Top League in a move that makes him the top-paid current All Black and the Top League’s highest-earner.
7 = Virimi Vakatawa (France/Racing 92) – £780,000 (€921,924)
A new name on this list after missing out on WalesOnline’s selection last year, New Zealand-born, Fijian-raised French star Virimi Vakatawa is reportedly rugby’s seventh-equal best-paid player at Top 14 outfit Racing 92.
6. Maro Itoje (England/Saracens) – £800,000
Farrell’s England and Saracens teammate Maro Itoje has been ranked as the highest-paid English player, but he would have added an extra £200,000 to his salary had Racing 92 ceded to his demands when the Parisian club sought his signature last year.
4 = Cheslin Kolbe (South Africa/Toulon) – £850,000 (R17.32m/€1m)
The star of the 2019 World Cup, Cheslin Kolbe broke his way onto rugby’s rich list when earned himself a fortune with his off-season move from French and European champions Toulouse to domestic rivals Toulon.
4 = Finn Russell (Scotland/Racing 92) – £850,000 (€1m)
In a £315,000 mark-up from last year’s estimations by WalesOnline, exciting Scotland playmaker Finn Russell has been ranked as Britain’s highest-paid player with Racing 92.
3. Eben Etzebeth (South Africa/Toulon) – £900,000 (R18.34m/€1.06m)
Into his second season of his three-year deal with Toulon, giant Springboks lock Eben Etzebeth – another newbie on this list – sits as the highest-paid forward in professional rugby.
1 = Charles Piutau (New Zealand/Bristol Bears) – £1m (NZ$1.92m)
Retaining his place as rugby’s joint-equal top-earner, former All Blacks utility back Charles Piutau – who remains on the radar of Tonga in a what would be a massive international eligibility switch – became the sport’s first million-pound player when he joined the Bristol Bears in 2017.
1 = Handre Pollard (South Africa/Montpellier) – £1m (R20.38m/€1.18m)
Like Piutau, Springboks pivot Handre Pollard remains at the summit of rugby’s highest-earners following his move from the Bulls to Montpellier following the 2019 World Cup.
Comments on RugbyPass
Wasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
3 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
3 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
30 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
3 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
30 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
30 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
30 Go to commentsHow is 7’s played there? I’m surprised 10 or 11 man rugby hasn’t taken off. 7 just doesn’t fit the 15s dynamics (rules n field etc) but these other versions do.
9 Go to commentsPick Swinton at your peril A liability just like JWH from the Roosters Skelton ??? went missing at RWC
14 Go to commentsLike tennis, who have a ranking system, and I believe rugby too, just measure over each period preceding a world cup event who was the longest number one and that would be it. In tennis the number one player frequently is not the grand slam winner. I love and adore the All Blacks since the days of Ian Kirkpatrick when I was a kid in SA. And still do because they are the masters of running rugby and are gentleman on and off the field - in general. And in my opinion they have been the majority of the time the best rugby team in the world.
30 Go to comments