The clause that allows Toronto to pay Sonny Bill 40 times the average Super League salary
Sonny Bill Williams’ paycheck at the Toronto Wolfpack will be the value of an entire Super League salary cap thanks to a dispensation allowed within their league’s salary cap regulations.
Williams has signed a two-year deal worth around £2.6 million per year with Toronto, a move that would see him stay in the game until the 2021 RL World Cup.
With the Super League salary cap set at £2 million, his bumper wage bill is worth more than an entire team’s allowance. The 34-year-old star’s reported pay packet is in fact 40 times that of the average Super League player (£65,000).
The New Zealander will almost certainly come under the ‘Marquee Player’ rule, which states: ‘Each Super League and Championship Club is permitted to have two Marquee Players whose Salary Cap Value is limited to £150,000 (or £75,000 if Club Trained).’
"He's coming to win trophies."
– Toronto Wolfpack Head Coach, Brian McDermott, on the signing of @SonnyBWilliams. #SBWTO pic.twitter.com/0upgZ7imK5
— Toronto Wolfpack (@TOwolfpack) November 7, 2019
Because of the size of his salary he won’t come under the ‘Returning Talent Pool Dispensation’, which states: “Any Player who has not previously played Rugby League in the 5 years prior to signing is given a value of 50% of his true value in the first year of his contract and 75% of his true value in the second year.”
However, this clause will likely be used should the Wolfpack come after the likes of Ben Te’o, the former NRL star who recently left Worcester Warriors to return to Australia.
Thank you everyone, you have crashed our website.
Sincerely,
Wolfpack + SBW
PS. Ticket page still works…for now -> https://t.co/rEMnYu833K pic.twitter.com/CoyfbLTRAk
— Toronto Wolfpack (@TOwolfpack) November 7, 2019
If Toronto decide – as has been widely reported – to come after more rugby union stars, they will likely use the ‘New Talent Pool Dispensation’ clause. This states: “Any Player who has not previously played Rugby League is given a value of £0 in the first year of his contract and at 50% of his true value in the second year.”
This would allow the Wolfpack to target the likes of Manu Tuilagi, who they are reported to have shown an interest in. Tuilagi signed a contract extension with Tigers just last year and would have to be bought out of it by the newly rich Canadian outfit.
Rugby Australia working group will question every Wallabies player after World Cup flop.
Comments on RugbyPass
The feelings of gratitude I feel when thinking about the Boks is difficult to describe. It really means a lot to people here. I would flat out ask Ox for a big hug if I met him in person. And then probably pass out after the squeeze. Totally worth it.
1 Go to commentsFarrell seems to be an outstanding coach and Ireland a very well prepared team. But they looked like they had no plan B against NZ. Maybe they really were looking past them, as Eben says.
6 Go to commentsMaybe if you come once in your life in France you won’t writte so much nonsense 🙃
1 Go to commentsWhy did they kill 14 people at a gaelic football match? What had happened earlier that day? Dowson sounds absolutely pathetic, believing what the Irish say about his people, rather than believing what his people say about the Irish.
4 Go to commentsI haven't really experienced the Irish as arrogant but I guess the players maybe got ahead of themselves after a big win. Just thought it being Ireland and their love afair with WC QF exits and it being the ABs maybe they would have taken it a bit more seriously. Maybe they did and just lost anyways, who knows.
6 Go to commentsNot surprising, they tend to get very carried away with themselves very quickly. I’ve never seen a team so devastated at the final whistle than those irish players in that QF, you’d think they had lost the final.
6 Go to commentsJust a roundabout way of claiming to great fun. Self -praise is no praise, frenchie.
1 Go to commentsIreland have played the ABs since the first game 1905 a total of 37 times. The ABs have won 32 and Ireland 5 times. If we look since the first WC, then they have played each other 28 times. All Ireland’s 5 wins have come since 2016. So the ABs won 23 games. Since Ireland won their first game in 2016, they have won 5 and the ABs 4 times. Fairly even. Whatever anyone says, beating ABs consistently is bloody difficult, and when you manage to win a few, show respect to them. Period.
204 Go to comments‘Mom'.
1 Go to commentsA specialist in hitting smaller guys hard and late. Serial cheap shot merchant who deserves more than the usual token sanction for such actions.
1 Go to commentsI like to see the Crusaders lose as much as the next non-Crusaders fan, but the fact that most of their best players have not been available this year is being hand waved away like it shouldn’t effect them. It’s no coincidence that their first dominant performance came when they had more of their best players back. This is not rocket science. If they can stay fit their team at the business end of the season will include Tamaiti Williams, Codie Taylor, Fletcher Newell, Scott Barrett, Quentin Strange, Ethan Blackadder and Cullen Grace in the forwards - most of whom have barely, or not played this year. That is an outstanding pack that have not played together this season. McLeod, Havili, Aumua, Reece, and Halfpenny will be a very different prospect behind their first choice pack as well. Having said all that Penney’s record is scratchy at best, but given the players that have left and their injury list I’m reserving judgement. Penney’s appointment, a bit like Foz, has a similar stench of the incumbent having too much say in his replacement. They are lacking a truly high quality and experienced 10 which will make it hard for them to go the whole way IMO, but the list of teams who would want to play them in the finals will be very short.
17 Go to commentsWhere’s this people's champion come from? Irish people yes….other people? Their arrogance has become breathtaking. Not tested? Oh dear.
204 Go to commentsIf a coach having Crusaders heritage is so sacrosanct, why did the Crusaders not pursue Vern Cotter as Scott Robertson’s replacement?
17 Go to commentsFinau is definitely operating on razor thin margins. He hasn’t done anything wrong… yet. But a player going into contact 6 inches lower than he is expecting, without him even knowing, will end in disaster. You can imagine a situation where the pass dies on Edmed and he has to bend down a little lower to catch it at the last second. Finau’s hit would have been catastrophic. The margins are just too fine. He needs to study how PSDT, at 6’7”, manages to drop his tackle height and exert just as much force with close zero danger of taking someone’s head off. Given how poorly NZ has adapted to lower their tackle height, and that this issue which has plagued the ABs for years and played a big part in them not winning the World Cup, I thought NZR and all SR coaches would be prioritising sorting this issue out. If I was Razor I would be on the phone to Clayton MacMillan and Samipeni Finau saying exactly that. Finau is a monster and shaping up to be the closest thing to Kaino since Kaino, but I wouldn’t risk selecting him for the ABs at the moment.
18 Go to commentsThe surprising stat I saw in the Blues game when showing Sotutu equaling the Blues forwards record was that Akira has not scored a try since 2019. Now my memory is pretty bad when it comes to those sorts of the things, I can remember his AB try though, but anyway I can’t see I can remember his last blues touchdown or any in recent years. Surely that still has to be a bogus stat. Maybe excludes SRA games?
3 Go to commentsDude to me looks pretty fast for a big man, nearly 2m and 130kg, in his workout vid he was signed off. Possibly a bit slow on his reads movement wise though, but I’ve not got anything to compare him to. Hope the dude nails it and finds his sport, could have been a devastating lock in rugby if he wasn’t a footballer growing up.
4 Go to commentsWell, does that make it every year Moana has lost it’s best player the following year? Normally it’s more immediate I guess, at least there best player had a follow up year this time.
1 Go to commentsFinally, an answer to Dan Carter.
1 Go to commentsNever read such tripe. He was hit just as he passed the ball which was reviewed and deemed legal by yes the Australian TMO and referee
18 Go to commentsTerrible idea…will be too hot, no one will travel, fan zones will be promised nice cold guinness and last minute will get water. Also how do you squeeze this into the already busy battle rhythm, Prem, summer series, 6 nations & world cup….if, and its a big IF you’re going to do this, do it in a rugby nation.
2 Go to comments