Rugby Players’ Association bypass Premiership in search of salary cap solution

Waste of time: Hopley told Standard Sport why the RPA bypassed Premiership Rugby
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The Rugby Players’ Association are bypassing Premiership Rugby and negotiating directly with clubs to find a solution to salary-cap cuts.

Premiership clubs have agreed to reduce the cap by £1.4million for next season and want to make permanent the temporary pay cuts that were imposed on players in March after the season was suspended.

This has led to players threatening to strike or take legal action and to solve the crisis the RPA are now communicating directly with clubs, as opposed to the league’s administrative body, the PRL.

“We have bypassed PRL because we are getting nothing from them, so we effectively don’t want to waste our time,” RPA chief executive Damian Hopley told Standard Sport on Friday.

“We are dealing with clubs directly. We have given players legal advice. There are some clubs who are actually being really engaging.

“There is a frustration that Premiership Rugby couldn’t deliver a collective approach, but now we are into this situation it is about working with the clubs and players to find a good solution.”

Key to the salary cap crisis is the fact players are feeling pressured into signing new deals in a short space of time.

It was agreed by clubs on Monday to reduce the salary cap from July 2021 and the agreement included a new rule saying that only 75 per cent of contracts signed before June 18 would count for the first season.

As a result, this has created a surge of clubs looking to sort deals before Thursday next week as the new rule means sides that can afford it will be permitted to spend 25 per cent above the cap in 2021/22 and will not be required to be under it until the 2022/23 season.

Hopley explains this has put immense pressure on players to decide their long-term future in a matter of days and he has compared the situation to when Chicago Bulls star Scottie Pippen signed a contract in the 1990s, only for a few years in to find he was being grossly underpaid due to the NBA’s success.

“We have obviously got June 18 looming like a guillotine, a sword of Damocles over every player,” Hopley added.

“If we are trying to learn anything from the experience we’ve had over the past 12 months it is that the clubs are incredibly quick to jump in and unilaterally impose 25 per cent cuts.

“Suddenly we have been given this artificially manufactured deadline of June 18. Players have effectively got four working days to decide the next three or four years of their careers.

“The question we are asking is in the interim there are going to be two significant broadcast deals on the table around the Six Nations and indeed the Gallagher Premiership.

“So I have likened it to the Last Dance, you sign a long-term deal and two years in you are looking at it thinking: ‘The game is in rude health, but I am on a terrible deal’.

“There is good practice happening out there, I think that is important to state. There are clubs who really understand that this is about the long-term culture and trust to the players.

“They are saying: ‘Let’s do temporary cuts and let’s review this in six months, 12 months 18 months’. Other clubs are rushing in saying: ‘We will give you a three-year deal’.

“Players clearly want as much security as they can have, no one would begrudge that. They’ve got young families and mortgages.”

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