Australian rugby pay agreement reached, Super Rugby comp to proceed
It’s small steps, but in the new world of coronavirus sport, rugby will take any win. Australia’s domestic Super Rugby competition will proceed as planned this weekend. Now for the international schedule.
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Australia’s domestic Super Rugby competition will kick-off as planned on Friday night after the players’ union and Rugby Australia reached an 11th hour interim pay deal agreement.
Averting the fear of strike action, the deal will see all Australian Super Rugby players receive a flat 70 per cent of their contracted pay as well as 70 per cent of their eligible match payments and bonuses.
The agreement will only cover the revamped Super Rugby AU competition – which starts Friday and ends September 19 – so a new deal will have to be negotiated from September 30, before the international season starts at the back end of 2020.
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The makeup of the Test season remains a work in progress with most of the rugby playing world still in lockdown and a broadcast deal yet to be struck.
However, it will almost certainly be a heavily reduced series, possibly involving only matches against New Zealand unless the Rugby Championship and the end of year tour to Europe can be salvaged.
After weeks of talks, the deal was only finalised on Wednesday afternoon, with Rugby Australia Chief Executive Rob Clarke welcoming the agreement.
“Australians all around the country are currently facing an incredibly difficult economic environment and Rugby is certainly no different,” he said.
“The professional players have acknowledged the important role they play in ensuring the future health of Rugby in Australia and I thank them for their co-operation throughout this negotiation, to ensure the competition starts this coming Friday night.”
The deal only relates to contracted Super Rugby players so excludes the Western Force and Australia’s sevens players, whose competitions this year have now ended after World Rugby cancelled the rest of the global series.
The agreement is a big win for Australia’s highest paid players because under the previous interim deal, they were paid on a sliding scale, with the top earners losing up to two-thirds of their pay with the average cut at 60 per cent. Under the new deal, all players lose 30 per cent.
Rugby Australia had originally proposed to dock players 40 per cent but that was rejected by RUPA.
While this deal ensures that the domestic Super Rugby competition will proceed, more negotiations are on the horizon with some of Australia’s top players possibly seeking early releases from their contracts after September 30 so they can take up more lucrative offers overseas.
RA is desperate to keep its best biggest names locked in for next year because a mass exodus could scupper hopes of a broadcast deal for 2021.
A number of players who were already leaving have been given early releases, including Kurtley Beale, while administrators have been pounded, with 77 redundancies at RA and NSW Rugby cutting 27 per cent of its workforce.