Players in Wales face 50% pay cuts

Welsh rugby's cure to its financial crisis will include pay cuts of up to 50 per cent for some players employed by the ailing regional quartet.

Union negotiators finalising a six-year agreement believe too many players are being paid too much. “The regions are paying mediocre players excessive amounts,'' a source told The Rugby Paper yesterday. “Some squad players who cannot command regular firstteam places are being paid £100,000-a-year and more in some cases. They have been living beyond their means for years. It is simply not sustainable any longer.”

The players' union, the Welsh Rugby Players Association, are understood to be supporting the overall agreement announced almost immediately after the WRPA made an unprecedented intervention.

Huge 50% pay cuts on cards

They did so amid concern over a freeze on players' contracts and the furore of lock Will Rowlands signing for Racing.

“For the sanity and health of our members the delay cannot go on any longer,'' the WRPA said. “An agreement needs to be concluded by the Union and the four regions immediately.''

Rowlands' decision to leave the Dragons at the end of the season puts Wales in the strange position of going to the World Cup without their current Player of the Year because he falls foul of the 60-cap rule. Only those with 60 or more playing for English, French or Japanese clubs are eligible for Wales. The joint-Unions/regions body, the Professional Rugby Board, are to reconsider their rule amid criticism that 60 is too high.

Even if they halve the number, Rowlands will still be short of 30 caps even if he recovers from injury to play a full part in the Six Nations starting against Ireland in Cardiff on February 4.

There is no indication that Rowlands will be considered a special case, surprisingly so given that his ineligibility for the World Cup would leave Wales with two second row forwards of proven international calibre, Adam Beard and Alun Wyn Jones.