Tigers planning to keep players if relegated

[Fats]

Star players like Manu Tuilagi will not be allowed to leave if Leicester Tigers are relegated from Gallagher Premiership
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Alex Lowe, Deputy Rugby Correspondent
March 26 2019, 12:00pm, The Times
Leicester Tigers will not allow any of their star players to leave the club in event of relegation from the Gallagher Premiership. The standard contracts at Welford Road contain a two-stage relegation release clause, which permit a player to leave if they do not accept a 20 per cent pay cut.
However, that process can only be triggered by the club and Leicester have no plans to enforce the pay cut on its players, including Manu Tuilagi, whose new two-year £1.1 million contract comes into force in the summer.
The Premiership parachute payment is worth about £1.7 million to the relegated club, which would not cover the wages of Leicester’s England contingent of Tuilagi, George Ford, Ben Youngs, Jonny May, Dan Cole and Ellis Genge for one season in the Greene King IPA Championship.
Leicester will, however, have more than £10 million from CVC in the bank by the end of the season, with the private equity firm’s investment in the league due to be finalised this month.
The Tigers were dragged deeper into the relegation scrap over the weekend and are now just five points ahead of Newcastle Falcons, who are bottom of the table, with five games remaining.
Leicester face league-leaders Exeter Chiefs in their next Premiership game, on April 6, followed by a trip to play Newcastle at Kingston Park the following Friday in one of the biggest games of the season.
It would be the biggest shock in English rugby if Leicester were to get relegated but also, in some ways, strengthen the Premiership’s argument for ring-fencing the league.
Leicester’s playing budget would be £7.5 million, which is the Premiership salary cap. Ealing Trailfinders, who have threatened legal action to maintain promotion and relegation, operate with a budget of about £1 million. Their best-paid player is believed to be on £75,000 a year.
There are factions inside Premiership Rugby who still hope to ring-fence the Premiership this summer, turning it into a 13-team league including London Irish, who are the 13th shareholder and top of the Championship.
The RFU would have to sign off an end to promotion and relegation. Nigel Melville, the interim chief executive, is open to a discussion because of the financial disparity between the two leagues.
The RFU council loom as a major stumbling block. The representatives of the amateur game insisted on promotion and relegation being introduced into the Tyrrells Premier 15s, the women’s league. That decision was widely interpreted as a warning shot to the Premiership.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

Do England players have to be playing in the Premiership, or can they be playing in the Championship?

[Raggs]

Do England players have to be playing in the Premiership, or can they be playing in the Championship?

Have to be in the Prem.

Interesting times ahead.

We're far from safe too unfortunately.

[NellyWellyWaspy]

We're far from safe too unfortunately.

I think if we can pick up 5 more points, or better still 6, we should be OK.

[jamestaylor002]

I wonder what the England contingent at Tigers will make of playing in the Championship. I'm sure there will be some "special dispensation" for those players at Tigers if that were to happen.

[AKWasp]

I wonder what the England contingent at Tigers will make of playing in the Championship. I'm sure there will be some "special dispensation" for those players at Tigers if that were to happen.

I think we’ll see a lot of loan signings for a year, maybe seeing some swaps in return (younger players getting first XV rugby in return for their parent clubs getting an England international)

[BG]

Do England players have to be playing in the Premiership, or can they be playing in the Championship?

Have to be in the Prem.

Interesting times ahead.

We're far from safe too unfortunately.

Are you sure?

The RFU have a contract with PRL and the 13 clubs.. so the 13 th club despite being in the Championship would still be part of that contract?

[Raggs]

Do England players have to be playing in the Premiership, or can they be playing in the Championship?

Have to be in the Prem.

Interesting times ahead.

We're far from safe too unfortunately.

Are you sure?

The RFU have a contract with PRL and the 13 clubs.. so the 13 th club despite being in the Championship would still be part of that contract?

It was done when Pennell chose to go down with Wuss, just as he was breaking through with England.

[jamestaylor002]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/47717882

FWIW

[Raggs]

Could well be I'm wrong, just thought that the reason pennell dropped out was sticking with wuss.

[Rossm]

RFU can do exactly what they want. Precedent is meaningless.

[baldpaul101]

I would guess that if the RFU want to keep relegation they have to be flexible on England selection for players in teams going down.
Wonder if there will be further cash settlements for whoever goes down as well....

[wasps]

RFU can do exactly what they want. Precedent is meaningless.

Exactly this.

The rules on national selection are made for "the greater good"
If at some point, the greater good is to select someone from the Championship, or France, then I expect the RFU to do it.
I don't mean selecting a player who might be marginally better than the other options available - i mean selecting someone who is head and shoulders better (in the eyes of the national coach)


It's the same for all countries in my opinion.
New Zealand won't select anyone who isn't playing down there.... but if they felt that it served a greater good, they would (i.e. the Dan Carter clause)

Wales are the same. Gatland's law is in reality the WRFU law, but if they really need to select someone playing overseas, I'm sure they'd do it.

[BG]

Could well be I'm wrong, just thought that the reason pennell dropped out was sticking with wuss.

I think Pennell was dropped (or not picked) not because of a contractual issue.. just the belief that he wouldn't be playing in a high quality enough environment.

In theory if any PRL team were relegated they would still have the same contract with the RFU (seeing as they are still in the PRL, as LI are at the moment) they would in theory still receive EPS payments if one or more of their players were selected for the EPS as well I guess.

[baldpaul101]

"greater good is to select someone from the Championship, or France, then I expect the RFU to do it."


The reason they can't select players from French clubs is their deal with PRL. They would have to re-negotiate that for it to change.

I would suspect that PRL didn't feel they needed a clause in their deal to exclude players from the Championship though....