£2m on wages? That’s not us, says Cattle

By LUKE JARMYN

Cornish Pirates’ Gavin Cattle has called it “dangerous” for the Championship after a government minister quoted unsubstantiated figures around player salaries at five clubs – including the Penzance side.

Pirates’ joint-head coach has rebutted suggestions they spend £2 million a season on wages, and pointed to his own squad in highlighting how they’ve “cut their cloth accordingly”.

Question marks remain over whether Pirates will be fully professional next season, as benefactor Dickie Evans continues his ‘Sunset Plan’, which will see his 28 years of investment in the club wind down and end by 2025.

Cattle feels it all hinges on the RFU’s new Professional Game Agreement, and whether it narrows investment streams between the top two leagues, at least by reverting central funding for tier two back to pre-2020 levels.

The ex-Scarlets and Barbarians scrum-half told TRP: “What has been touted around, on what clubs have been spending, I’d be surprised if any of us are at the levels suggested, and we’re categorically not at that level either.

“We meet regularly with our owner and the senior team at Pirates, periodically, and discuss what the spend is. We’ve cut our cloth this season, so you just have to look at our squad, and the players we lost last year, that shows we’ve had to cut our cloth.

“The turnover of players illustrates that more than anything else. Every club has its own parameters, and you’re responsible to stay within those perimeters.

Reality: Gavin Cattle

“It’s more important that we do that, and survive as a club for years to come, rather than go for boom and bust.”

Lyndon Farnham, a former Jersey government minister, published a Jersey Reds ‘Business Model Review’ earlier this month, with inaccurate information about Pirates, Coventry, Ealing and Doncaster.

Coventry Rugby Ltd released a statement slamming the claims as “entirely untrue” and called it “irresponsible and potentially damaging” – saying the £2.5m figure overstates their player salary budget by more than 200 per cent.

The reality is most tier two clubs “are operating prudently and carefully, and it would be wrong to suggest otherwise, especially when there seems to finally be some positive dialogue in the game between the RFU and the clubs, which we didn’t have 15 to 18 months ago,” adds Cattle.

A crowd funding campaign by Kernow Sports – who own Pirates, and Truro City FC – has attracted more than £413,000 from almost 500 investors, as they look at various ways to fill funding gaps.

Cattle, 43, also confirmed Robin Wedlake’s been back training with Pirates, after the winger’s summer move to Jersey fell victim of Reds’ liquidation, but finances indicate he’s more likely to sign elsewhere.

He said: “You know we’re waiting on the RFU to see what’s the future. Until we know the future, it’s pretty foolish to spend any money.

“The reality is we plan our player budgets at the start of the year, so its not as simple as now Robin’s available we can just sign him back – we’ve done our recruitment.

“I don’t know enough about other clubs and behind the scenes, I just know what we do at Pirates, we’ve cut our cloth to where we are at the moment, and have got loan arrangements with Exeter and Ealing

“And it’s going to continue being a testing time, until we get a clearer picture from the RFU.”