The RFU cannot introduce central contracts for England players

EXCLUSIVE: The RFU cannot introduce central contracts for England players because they are deemed unaffordable and impractical at Twickenham… with a 36-man England squad expected to cost more than £25m each year

  • The RFU can’t introduce central contracts for players as they are unaffordable  
  • Cost of contracting England squad would be more than £25million each year 
  • Chief executive, Bill Sweeney, called central contracts the ‘nuclear option’

The RFU cannot introduce central contracts for England players because they are deemed unaffordable and impractical at Twickenham.

The union’s chief executive, Bill Sweeney, referred to the ‘nuclear option’ of central contracts when discussing the fall-out from the collapse of Wasps and Worcester last weekend, but with England stars such as Owen Farrell and Maro Itoje earning around £800,000 a year before international appearance fees and win bonuses, there is no appetite at the RFU to take on responsibility for player wages.

Industry insiders have told Sportsmail that the cost of centrally-contracting a 36-man England squad would be more than £25million each year, and the number of players used by coach Eddie Jones is in reality far higher.

England stars such as Owen Farrell earn around £800,000 a year before international fees

The RFU cannot introduce central contracts for England players because they are unaffordable

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That would lead to figures which are beyond the finances of a union grappling with the impact of the pandemic and facing a challenge to sell tickets for the autumn internationals amid the cost of living crisis.

In their last financial report, published last November, the RFU announced a revenue shortfall of £120m compared to previous forecasts, and an underlying loss to reserves of £21.3m, £30m worse than pre-pandemic predictions.

Having presided over a brutal cost-cutting exercise that resulted in 119 job losses at Twickenham and cuts in funding to the Championship and grassroots game, Sweeney is also acutely aware of the optics of handing out lavish contracts to England internationals.

With England players earning between £200,000 and £800,000 a year at their clubs, basic wages alone would cost the RFU between £10m and £14m, depending on who was awarded a contract, and appearance fees of £25,000 a match would cost a further £6.6m over the course of the season.

Maro Itoje is another England star who’s earnings make the central-contracts too expensive

Win bonuses are negotiated separately with the Rugby Players’ Association for each competition, but would be an additional expense running into millions — England’s players earned £41,000 each for reaching the final of the 2019 World Cup, for example.

In addition to the cost, there are practical considerations that make the RFU reluctant to explore central contracts, not least England coach Eddie Jones’s penchant for selecting large numbers of players and a rapid turnover of personnel.

Although Jones restricts himself to 36 players in each squad, such as the party for the autumn internationals he named on Monday, there is often a high turnover between squads. The Australian has called up 76 players in the last 12 months, although not all of them have ended up playing.

The central contract system in cricket has been widely touted as a model for English rugby to follow, but the number of players involved is very different.

The ECB last week announced that they had awarded 18 central contracts covering all three formats of the game for the next 12 months, with another six players given smaller incremental contracts, numbers which would barely cover a single match-day squad in rugby.

Eddie Jones has called up 76 players to the England squad within the last 12 months




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