Money in Rugby - The Road to Wendyball

[Vieux Talonneur]

This post may contain old fartism.

Anyone else read this and weep?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-un...les-piutau-worlds-highest-paid-player-1m-per/

Billionaire owners, £1m p.a. for a good, but not exactly stellar, player........remind you of anything with a silly shaped ball?

It's bad enough that that game for all shapes and sizes is now rugby league with line outs. But silly money coming in will be a total game changer.

Savour the likes of Robshaw and Lawes while you have them. One club men will be no more.

Coaches are already being sacked with increasing impunity.

The player flow between clubs has rocketed and will only increase.

Clubs will be franchises, players guns for short term hire.

Clubs will cease to represent their local communities. For Rowntree, Cockerill and Garforth read Van der Merwe, Smirnov and Toleafoa

When will the Premiership see its first totally overseas team?

Words like loyalty, stability and continuity will go out of the window. Short termism will rule.

The players will become inaccessible to the fans.

Things change, of course they do.

The "spectacle" will keep getting bigger and, well, more spectacular as it's done in football. If that floats your boat, then great.

But there's a price in letting money dominate; fans will pay it, players will pay it and the national team may pay it. Just have a butchers over la Manche.

When I get home tonight I'm going to switch on a game with mauls, Bill McLaren and bank mangers and coppers belting cr*p out of each other before going on the lash together. And shed a small tear.

 

[die_mole]

Lol

 

[Gavin]

Piutau is worth it.

Anyway he says he is moving to Bristol so that he can play with his brother who'll soon be retiring.

 

[Chief Pete]

I don't doubt that the great player's are worth it but if your top earner is on £1 million a season then what's your average squad player on, If Itoje asks for a mil, I'd also expect Billy V and Farrell to ask for parity and then from there what do you pay Mako, George, Kruis etc and then Jackson Wray and Mike Rhodes ask to be paid in accordance with this pay structure and rightly so, and then your 3rd choice prop turns round and say's if the squad average is ex - amount I want maybe 3 - 4 times what I'd normally get. I remember reading Fergie's book and he said he had no problem giving Cristiano Ronaldo his new contract however within days average squad players were saying if he's on that much then I want more and all of a sudden a 30 grand a week player became a 70 grand a week player, rugby for me can't afford it.