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Rugby Pod verdict on rumoured hefty Maro Itoje pay cut at Saracens

(Photo by Peter Nicholls/Getty Images)

Former Scotland lock Jim Hamilton and England out-half Andy Goode have weighed in on the speculation surrounding the future of Maro Itoje at Saracens.

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Clubs in the Gallagher Premiership are now restricted to having just one marquee player wage outside the salary cap and with the current deals for Owen Farrell and Itoje set to expire at the end of the 2023/24 season, something has got to give at the London outfit.

It has been reported that England skipper Farrell will be offered a fresh marquee status deal, meaning Itoje would have to leave Saracens to keep earning a similar wage or else take a hefty pay cut.

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Itoje has in the past been linked with a switch to the Top 14 but Hamilton, his ex-second row teammate at Saracens, believes he won’t cross the Channel at the end of this season and will instead agree to reduced terms to play on at the StoneX in order to remain eligible for England selection.

The topic came up for discussion on the latest episode of The Rugby Pod, the weekly show hosted by the World Rugby Content Studios presenter and Goode, his former Leicester Tigers colleague.

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Here is how their conversation about Itoje unfolded:

Hamilton: That is because of the marquee. So the marquee, they are still sticking with one marquee and Maro and Owen are the marquees, so Owen will stick as the marquee and I thought Maro Itoje would leave Saracens. That would be my thought process around that. Highly sought after, but hasn’t kind of been on the form that he was.

Goode: He has over the last few games.

Hamilton: Well, there you go, he is out of contract, he knows what he is doing. Does he have the gravitas of someone like Siya Kolisi? No. Was he on that kind of trajectory of having that? I felt he was and he has dropped off slightly, but would someone in France want him for a million pounds? Probably. Or Japan. But France probably more so. The Top 14 would look to bend over backwards to take Maro Itoje for their team, but everything is pointing towards him is now going to take a 50 per cent pay cut.

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Goode: Are you announcing that he has signed, Jim? He’s staying?

Hamilton: No. I have got no idea. This is what I am reading. The rumours, if we can talk about rumours.

Goode: I thought you mentored him?

Hamilton: I mentored him and then he didn’t like me after we started. I don’t know. He unfollowed me on social media and we will come onto people unfollowing and blocking; Joe Marler who looks like he has already retired at the weekend, but we will come onto that. Yeah, I don’t know. I respect Maro, I like him, I thought he would have left Saracens. It seemed to me like he needed a freshen-up but everything is pointing towards him staying at a 50 per cent pay cut, whatever that is.

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4 Comments
B
BigMaul 365 days ago

Saracens benefitting from their cheating again. Pay Maro loads up front, beyond the means of the cap. Then he takes a massive pay cut when Sarries need to stay in the cap. Convenient.

C
Colin 365 days ago

Having watched OF play for club and captain country, I have no idea why he is rated so highly. So many better 10s in Premiership.

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JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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