RFL Fights to Plug Talent Drain to NRL and Union

The Rugby Football League (RFL), the administrators of the English Super League, is considering central contracts in a bid to plug the talent drain to the NRL and union.

Roger Draper, the former Lawn Tennis Association chief executive who joined the RFL as chief commercial officer in December as part of a significant shake-up of the administrative side of the sport, admitted there had for some time been a disconnect between top-flight clubs and the RFL. He said this was something he was working to correct, highlighted by the cancellation of a planned England training camp in Dubai amid a club-versus-country row has not helped the situation at the start of a World Cup year.

“There’s more peace and harmony now than a few months ago,” he insisted to The Guardian at the launch of the 2017 Betfred Super League in Leigh Sport Village, home of English top-flight rugby league’s new boys Leigh Centurions.

He said that the idea of central contracts – routinely used in a number of sports, including England cricket – has again been floated with Super League clubs, along with salary cap changes and marquee players.

“We recognise over the last few years we’ve been losing talent to the NRL and to Premiership rugby so we’ve got to do something about that,” he said, while admitting central contracts were not a magic bullet solution to the talent drain.

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Dan Sarginson is the latest England player to move to the NRL. The 23-year-old announced in March 2016 that he would leave Wigan Warriors at the end of the season for a two-year contract with Gold Coast Titans.

Meanwhile, Denny Solomona controversially switched from Super League side Castleford Tigers to Aviva Premiership outfit Sale Sharks. The leading Super League try-scorer last season walked out on the last two years of a three-year deal at The Jungle, then signed a new three-year contract at the AJ Bell Stadium.

The 23-year-old Samoan had reportedly failed to turn up for pre-season training with Castleford, telling his former employers that he had retired from rugby league after they had rejected bids from three clubs – including Sale.

He has scored five tries in five appearances for the union side since making his debut in December, after scoring a Super League record 42 times for Castleford in 2016.

The league side have filed papers with the High Court in Leeds, demanding £500,000 in compensation, and, in court papers seen by the BBC, claim Sale had been pushing for Solomona to move since last summer, and that they acted with the player and agent Andy Clarke.

Sale’s director of rugby Steve Diamond has insisted that his club have done nothing wrong.

Sports lawyers have suggested the case could have a ‘Bosman’ effect on rugby league. In December 1995, former soccer star Jean-Marc Bosman set a precedent allowing footballers to leave their club for no transfer fee once their contract had expired.