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Internal chaos in the Premiership as numerous clubs ask players to take drastic pay cuts

(Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)

Internal chaos has descended on the Gallagher Premiership as numerous clubs asked players to consider drastic pay cuts to enable them to survive the COVID-19 suspension.

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On Monday Premiership Rugby Ltd took the decision to suspend the competition for five weeks, although it is looking increasingly likely that the season will be scrapped completely.

WATCH: Bath and England player, Freddie Burns talks us through his fitness regime during lockdown due to the coronavirus. 

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In clubs across England, management teams broke the news to players of the need for pay cuts. With a hugely decreased attendance revenue, already cash strapped sides could sink further into the red and now many have taken the unprecedented step of turning to the players to tighten their belts.

The massive drop in revenue could even present an existential threat to some of the English top flight’s most prestigious clubs.

At least seven clubs have asked players to take pay cuts ranging from 25 per cent, 50 per cent; and in one instance, RugbyPass understands, right up to a full pay suspension.

The Rugby Player Association (RPA) are advising players to hold fire before agreeing to any cuts. A player’s board meeting was held today between the representatives of Premier Rugby Ltd and the RPA, in which details of a 25 per cent cut were tabled to the players’ body.

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A spokesperson for the RPA told RugbyPass: “We understand that this is an incredibly fast-paced and unprecedented situation that is effecting every strata of society.

“Firstly, as an organisation we have to understand how a 25 per cent cut was arrived at and what the implications of those cuts have on lower-paid players within the league.

“Against that, we understand that for some clubs, the significant disruption of revenue could possibly see sides go to the wall and that players might not have a place of work next season as a result, a situation nobody clearly wants.

“We obviously want a situation where we have 13 clubs who can thrive.”

The matter of the Gallagher Premiership’s CVC windfall and where those monies have gone was also discussed at the meeting in the context of pay cuts being asked of the players.  Just over a year ago the clubs received a £13 million windfall each following the sale of a 27 per cent stake to private equity firm CVC.

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Other than Exeter Chiefs, it is estimated that Premiership clubs each season run at a collective loss of over £40million, which works out at an average of approximately £3million per club.

Around the globe, the economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak on rugby union are starting to take hold.

In the Top 14 players have all been on half-unemployment but will seemingly get the opportunity make back the differences with future earnings.

The players association in New Zealand says it hasn’t ruled out pay cuts for players in their jurisdiction due to the shutdown of Super Rugby.

New Zealand Rugby Players’ Association boss Rob Nichol told Stuff  this week that: “We know there is going to be a commercial impact, we know we will have to sit around the table and work with the other stakeholders and be a part of the solution.”

 

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Tom 2 hours ago
Borthwick, it's time to own up – Andy Goode

The problem for me isn't the pragmatic playstyle, it's that there is no attacking gameplan whatsoever.


I've got no issue with a methodical, kick heavy, defense centric gameplan. That playstyle won England our only world cup and it's won SA 4 of them. However! You can play in a pragmatic manner but you have to still play heads-up rugby and have the ability to turn it on when you manufacture prime attacking situations. England work very hard to get in the right areas of the pitch and have no idea how to convert when they get there, hence we tried and missed 3 drop goals as we were completely impotent in the 22. I've not seen any improvement in our attack in the last 4-5 years. The only time we got close to the tryline was from an interception, it's embarrassing. I don't know what Richard Wigglesworth is getting paid for.


I agree that England should have found a way to close out that game. Being able to grind out tough games is critical but I'd argue that being unable to string more than a couple of passes together without dropping it and finding a way to get over the gainline is even more important... But frustratingly, they don't seem interested. All you hear is about how close we are to bring a great team, we just need to execute a bit better. I don't see it. I see a team who are very physical, very pragmatic who do some stuff really well and are useless with the ball in hand which adds up to a very average side. They need to stop focusing on getting 5% better at the stuff we're already at an 8/10 level and focus on getting a lot better at the stuff we're doing at a 2/10 level. We have the worst attack of pretty much any side in the world... Argentina, Scotland, Fiji are way more threatening.

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