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NRL salary cap outstrips Gallagher Premiership for first time

(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

The Rugby League Players Association claim they were blindsided by the NRL’s decision to release new salary cap figures for 2023, lashing out at the game’s powerbrokers for “disrespecting” the players.

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League Central unveiled next season’s salary cap on Friday amid stalling talks between the NRL and the RLPA over the next collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

Clubs will be able to spend up to $12.1 million (£6.7 million) on players next season – a record figure and an increase from the 2022 figure of $9.6 million – with a rise in the minimum salary for a top 30-squad to $120,000.

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NRLW sides have been given a beefed-up salary cap of $884,000 for next year, although no season start date or length has yet been determined.

The Gallagher Premiership is currently set at a reduced £5 million, a figure that will increase to £6.4 million in 2024, which excludes one marquee player per team and other player credits.

The figures unveiled on Friday only apply to the 2023 season.

But the RLPA say they only were informed of the new rise in the hours before the announcement.

Clubs had, until Friday, been operating on the basis of the 2022 cap, a fter the previous CBA lapsed at the start of the NRL’s contractual year on November 1.

Many chief executives had voiced concerns that the protracted CBA talks between head office and the RLPA was making it difficult for them to make decisions around the recruitment and retention.

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While clubs finally have financial certainty, they will not suddenly be flush with cash given many contracts signed in recent months had ratchet clauses inserted which ensured pay rose in line with the cap.

It sets the scene for a tense meeting between the NRL and RLPA when they are expected to resume talks in the new year, with the players’ union accusing head office of undermining their attempts to strike agreement on the CBA.

“To announce new salary caps for players without their agreement and bypassing their association is unprecedented,” RLPA chair Deidre Anderson said.

“To the best of our knowledge, clubs were also not provided with the details of the new salary caps and player payment structure until approximatel y five minutes before the ARLC’s public announcement.

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“For a governing body to set its own salary cap disrespects the entire player representation movement and the importance of collective bargaining.

“Today’s announcement goes against negotiating in good faith and only damages the trust between the players and the governing body.”

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The RLPA say they only received an “185-word financial proposal” on Wednesday which related to all player payments and benefits with a deadline to respond on Thursday.

This included representative fees, wellbeing, education and injury funds – but did not specifically focus on the cap.

“It is not appropriate for the players to be rushed into agreeing to a financial proposal two days before Christmas,” Anderson added.

“Agreeing to this week’s financial proposal, even in principle, would have created even more uncertainty for the industry and players because we would be working backwards and re-engineeri ng terms and conditions to a figure that has already been set.”

Additional reporting RugbyPass

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Flankly 1 hour ago
'Absolute madness': Clive Woodward rips into Borthwick in wake of NZ loss

Borthwick is supposed to be the archetypical conservative coach, the guy that might not deliver a sparkling, high-risk attacking style, but whose teams execute the basics flawlessly. And that's OK, because it can be really hard to beat teams that are rock solid and consistent in the rugby equivalent of "blocking and tackling".


But this is why the performance against NZ is hard to defend. You can forgive a conservative, back-to-basics team for failing to score tons of tries, because teams like that make up for it with reliability in the simple things. They can defend well, apply territorial pressure, win the set piece battles, and take their scoring chances with metronomic goal kicking, maul tries and pick-and-go goal line attacks.


The reason why the English rugby administrators should be on high alert is not that the English team looked unable to score tries, but that they were repeatedly unable to close out a game by executing basic, coachable skills. Regardless of how they got to the point of being in control of their destiny, they did get to that point. All that was needed was to be world class at things that require more training than talent. But that training was apparently missing, and the finger has to point at the coach.


Borthwick has been in the job for nearly two years, a period that includes two 6N programs and an RWC campaign. So where are the solid foundations that he has been building?

4 Go to comments
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Nickers 1 hour ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Very poor understanding of what's going on and 0 ability to read. When I say playing behind the gain line you take this to mean all off-loads and site times we are playing in front of the gain line???


Every time we play a lot of rugby behind the gain line (for clarity, meaning trying to build an attack and use width without front foot ball 5m+ behind the most recent breakdown) we go backwards and turn the ball over in some way. Every time a player is tackled behind the most recent breakdown you need more and more people to clear out because your forwards have to go back around the corner, whereas opposition players can keep moving forward. Eventually you run out of either players to clear out or players to pass to and the result in a big net loss of territory and often a turnover. You may have witnessed that 20+ times in the game against England. This is a particularly dumb idea inside your own 40m which is where, for some reason, we are most likely to employ it.


The very best ABs teams never built an identity around attacking from poor positions. The DC era team was known for being the team that kicked the most. To engineer field position and apply pressure, and create broken play to counter attack. This current team is not differentiating between when a defence has lost it's structure and there are opportunities, and when they are completely set and there is nothing on. The reason they are going for 30 minute + periods in every game without scoring a single point, even against Japan and a poor Australian team, is because they are playing most of their rugby on the back foot in the wrong half.

43 Go to comments
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