Always a Wasp

RFU and Premiership agree landmark ?264m PGP deal in principle to align English rugby

Exclusive: ?Truly historic? agreement includes new hybrid contracts for England players aimed at stemming exodus to France
Gavin Mairs, Chief Rugby Union Correspondent 29 April 2024 ? 2:29pm
 


A landmark professional game partnership (PGP) has been agreed in principle between the Rugby Football Union and Premiership Rugby, Telegraph Sport understands.

The deal, which will be worth more than ?264 million to England?s leading clubs over the next eight years, is currently going through legal procedures and checks to iron out the final details, and, without any last-minute hitches, an official announcement is expected ahead of the June deadline, when the current eight-year deal expires.

The deal will include confirmation of the introduction of new England hybrid contracts, first revealed by Telegraph Sport last October, with up to 25 enhanced elite player squad (EPS) contracts to be offered to players next season.

    Game-changing deal could solve club-v-country dispute

It had been hoped that an agreement would be in place by December of last year. England captain Jamie George and Maro Itoje have already signed contract extensions with Saracens after being offered, in principle, enhanced EPS deals, which replace the ?20,000 match fee system with a guaranteed lump sum of around ?160,000 per season.

The additional upfront salary is designed to help keep players in England ? and eligible for international selection ? with a growing number leaving the Premiership to play in France, including Owen Farrell, Manu Tuilagi and Kyle Sinckler.

The deal will also overhaul the management of the players, with England head coach Steve Borthwick and his coaching team able to lay out long-term strength and conditioning and skill development programmes for the players, and they will also have a final say in medical decisions as part of a new integrated approach.

Ellis Genge, the England prop, and former national team-mate Jonny May last week expressed doubts about the progress of the hybrid contracts, while Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall called for clarity on the situation.

However, it is understood that an agreement has been reached which will now allow for the final details of those contracts to be thrashed out between the RFU and Team England Rugby Ltd, the body that split from the Rugby Players Association, with Borthwick set to confirm the enhanced EPS contracts ahead of the autumn Tests as originally planned.

?This will be a truly historic moment,? said one source. ?The last deal was purely transactional. For the first time, this feels genuinely like a joint venture. The RFU and the Premiership clubs have never been this aligned before.?


Game-changing deal could solve English rugby?s longstanding problem

By Gavin Mairs

The negotiations began in the dark days of the financial catastrophe created by the pandemic, but it now appears that the sunlit uplands of a ?historic? solution to the club-versus-country dispute that has undermined English rugby for three decades is finally in reach.

?It is all about trust and a collaborative approach that was not there during Eddie Jones?s tenure,? said a senior club source. ?The goal is to create a shared vision for the performance aspect of elite rugby.?

For that to happen, both sides have conceded ground to some extent. The clubs are giving England more control of the management of their players, but the backstop will come in the form of a new beefed-up professional game board, that will include an independent chair and independent directors to hold Steve Borthwick to proper account rather than the lip service that was paid to post-tournament reviews by his predecessor Jones.

It may not go as far as the central contract model that has underpinned Ireland?s success in the last decade, but for the first time, sources say club and country will be aligned to improve the national team?s performance.

Underpinning the new deal and providing a level of security and stability for the Premiership clubs will be an enhanced financial package worth about ?132 million (?33 million per season) from the RFU to the 10 clubs for the first four years.

It represents a major uplift to the current level of funding (a share of the RFU revenue, which falls significantly in a World Cup year) and will offset the five per cent (?5.5 million pro rata) fall in broadcasting revenues with the new two-year deal with TNT Sports next season. The previous deal is thought to have been worth ?110 million over three years.

It had been hoped that the agreement would have been reached before last Christmas, but one of the key sticking points of the final round of negotiations was funding for the second half of the agreement.

The 2016 deal, worth ?225 million, fixed the first four-year payment to the clubs at ?112 million, with the second four-year payment based on a percentage of the RFU?s revenues. It proved costly for both parties, with over-optimistic revenue forecasts forcing the RFU to shed jobs in 2018, while the collapse of revenue during the Covid years hit the club finances.

A compromise has been reached now with the second four years moving to a split of the RFU?s profits, with the guarantee of a minimum return to the clubs, to underscore the motivation for the clubs and governing body to work together. Projections for the governing body?s revenues are expected to rise with the establishment of the Nations Championship in 2026.

?Everyone will be incentivised to ensure the RFU is in good financial health and delivering a commercial plan,? said another source.

We have, of course, been here before. Those of us old enough to remember the ?Leicester? and ?Mayfair? agreements in the late 1990s and ?Long Form? agreement of 2000, all of which failed to bring peace between the two warring factions, will no doubt regard with a dose of scepticism talk of a mutually beneficial collaboration.

The last two eight-year deals (Heads of Agreement in 2008 and Professional Game Agreement in 2016) promised as much but flattered to deceive, with RFU chief executive Bill Sweeney admitting two years ago that ?everyone is fed up? with the current English structure.

It must also be stated that the RFU and Premiership Rugby have yet to resolve their differences with the Championship clubs, particularly over removing the barriers to restoring the genuine possibility of promotion and relegation and the future structure of the second tier.

Yet the devastating impact of Covid, and the subsequent loss of four professional clubs, appears to have provided the fertile ground for a genuine reset in relations between the RFU and the Premiership. The dire financial reality, aggravated by England?s poor performances on the pitch, forced everyone?s hands.

Even so, when the negotiations first began two years ago, such a collaborative approach was far from guaranteed.

?I have sat in meetings where owners of certain clubs have said that our biggest competitor is the RFU,? said another source. ?One of the positives of this process is that sentiment has dropped away and it does seem as though there is genuine alignment that will allow elite rugby to thrive in the future.?

It is said the intervention of the Government last September acted as a catalyst for agreement to be reached, although it is understood that hopes of restructuring of the Covid loans will not be applied to all 10 clubs.

?In the last year real trust has been built,? said a senior club source. ?I think people have realised that the only way for England and the clubs to be successful is to work together.?

Key to this transformation has been Simon Massie-Taylor, the Premiership Rugby chief executive who was previously chief commercial and marketing officer at the RFU and his relationship with Sweeney, who has dedicated his tenure to driving the deal to improve the national performance systems and English structure. The pair also worked together previously at the British Olympic Association.

Phil Winstanley, the rugby director at Premiership Rugby, is also said to have played a key role along with his RFU counterpart Conor O?Shea, in visiting all the clubs to establish the core principles of the new deal, while Borthwick is also said to have had a key input in raising the areas of improvement required to enhance England?s elite programme.

Sources say Bruce Craig, the Bath owner, Chris Booy, the Bristol chair and Semore Kurdi, the Newcastle owner, have also been key influencers in the negotiations.

All club chief executives and directors of rugby are said to have had at least three face-to-face meetings on an individual club basis around the core principles while the RFU council has been regularly updated.

Those involved believe the new deal will be a game-changer, both improving the performance of England and the Premiership clubs, while making the domestic game more attractive to investors.

That remains to be seen, but for the first time since the game turned professional in 1995, the collaboration between club and country finally appears to be genuine.

On the WW board links to BBC commentary.

Behind the scenes with a rugby citing commissioner

Telegraph Sport is given exclusive access to the inner workings of the Premiership?s disciplinary processes
Charles Richardson, Rugby Reporter 8 April 2024 ? 7:00am


Standing on the concourse of a Premiership rugby ground on match day, awaiting the arrival of the citing commissioner ? and he is late. Is that an offence worthy of a red card?

Given that the commissioner in question has been hospitable enough to grant Telegraph Sport exclusive access to the inner workings of the Premiership?s disciplinary processes, probably not. Besides, it is the commissioner himself who decides.

With kick-off just over an hour away, I am here to take a look behind the curtain at the role of citing commissioners ? about the only subsection of rugby?s off-field, match-day officials who have not come in for scrutiny over the past fortnight.

These are 22 officials, all part-time employees of the Rugby Football Union, scattered around the country, who are paid to watch Premiership, Championship and Premiership Women?s Rugby matches every weekend and highlight anything untoward in a post-match report. Some are ex-players, some come in from other unions ? there is a Hungarian officer currently ? and some carry out duties in European competitions, too, but all are united by a keen eye for foul play.

?After my playing days, if I had a pound for every time someone said ?poacher turned gamekeeper?,? today?s commissioner, having arrived, tells Telegraph Sport. ?There are a few ex-players. I absolutely love it. It keeps me involved in the top end of the game. I end up bumping into loads of mates.?

Before the pleasantries among friends, however, business must commence. First stop, the television truck, where the commissioner drops off a USB stick to one of the broadcaster?s technicians. It is this stick and a soon-to-be-created WhatsApp group around which the entire process revolves. During today?s match, the citing commissioner will spectate alongside the official timekeeper in the press gantry, and when he spots an incident that requires further attention, he will note the time in the match and where on the pitch the incident took place, and ask the broadcaster?s technician to save all the angles as clips on his USB stick. Then, from the comfort of his own home, the commissioner will be able to come to a considered judgement on whether to cite a player.

As kick-off approaches, it is time to meet and greet the respective team managers in the tunnel. A less experienced commissioner might have to introduce himself, but not this particular officer, who is seemingly known by all and sundry. ?Hopefully, they genuinely like me!? the officer says, when I ask if they are just being convivial because of his commissioner status. ?If I cite someone, maybe not.?

The commissioner reminds the two team managers that they can flag any issues to him after the match. The deadline for referrals from clubs is 12 hours, with the commissioner given a further 12 to cite. For a snapshot into how the duties of a commissioner have eased, this particular officer has cited just one player in the past two years; the last citing in the Premiership for an incident missed by the on-field officials came nearly a year ago (an Ellis Genge tackle on Tom Curry in April 2023).

?Howlers don?t happen very often,? the commissioner says. ?There are so many different levels now with the referees, the assistants and the TMO. We?re more of a safety net, to be honest. The only other time is if the on-field officials decide that something is a yellow card and we look at it and think, ?Hmm, it?s a bit worse than that. It needs upgrading?. If it?s straight red, we don?t get involved, that gets automatically dealt with. All we have to do is sort the clips out to send to David [Barnes, RFU head of discipline] because they?ll have to write up a report. We only get involved if it?s a penalty or a yellow that deserves a red.

?It used to be gouging, punching; you name it, it went on. Now, it?s high tackles, tip tackles. There are too many cameras to get away with anything else.

?I?ve been a citing commissioner for 10 years. Beforehand, I was on the judicial panel. The citing officers used to send the naughty boys to us and then I was asked if I?d like to become a citing officer. I?d just packed up playing so I jumped at the chance.?

With the pre-match preparation complete, we ascend to the press gantry. A packet of nuts and a bag of mint humbugs suffice for dinner and with the match in full swing handbags erupt on the field. The commissioner?s attention is caught and the binoculars are raised. ?No one is going to throw a punch,? he says, almost egging the players on. ?They know damn well they?re going to get into trouble!?

At the end of the first half, the commissioner scribbles ?NFP? into his notebook: No foul play. Had there been any, he explains, he would have waited until half-time to put it into the WhatsApp group. After all, his undiluted focus needs to be on the match while it is taking place.

?We have something called the ?pink card test?,? he says. ?We are on the lookout for anything that?s a yellow card going up to a red. That?s the easiest way to describe it.

?I write down every foul play incident. You wouldn?t cite a deliberate knock-on or a collapsed maul but they are foul play. It?s about causing injury ? which we do look at ? and we look at the level of danger. A deliberate knock-on is not dangerous; collapsing a maul could be, but invariably isn?t.

?High tackles and the other thing which has been creeping in, people attacking the lower limb. Dissent... if a player tells a referee to ?f--- off? then you?d hope that it was dealt with there and then but if it wasn?t then it would come under my remit.?

This is not a chummy, jobs-for-the-boys affair, either. Barnes told Telegraph Sport that accountability was one of the principal reasons for paying their citing officers, although having officers delisted is ?very rare?.

?Often, it is not always about the decision, but more offering a rational explanation of it,? the former Bath prop says. ?Most are pretty good and do exactly what we ask.

?And that works both ways. The citing commissioners like going to games so we have kept their roles in-person, whereas World Rugby, for internationals, have citing officers working completely remotely.?

The commissioner adds: ?There is accountability ? 100 per cent. If you?re not doing your job properly and you don?t pick stuff up then you either don?t get given games, or you get dropped down a level to the Championship or women?s matches.

?If there?s something a bit controversial where you?re not sure, we discuss it in a WhatsApp group. We?re probably about 90 per cent always singing from the same songsheet.?

The songsheet for this match, just as it did at half-time, sings ?NFP?. All that remains is to check in with the two team managers ? who, on this occasion, have nothing to add ? before swinging past the broadcast cabin to collect that precious USB and heading off into the night, with 24 hours to file a post-match report which will be quite bare ? as ever.

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🐯 BREAKING: Leicester Tigers breached the salary cap by ?47,136.91 in 2019/20.

They will be fined ?1 for every ?1 overspend

Premiership Rugby clubs post losses of almost ?25m for 2022-23 season

Saracens posted biggest losses of over ?5 million, while Newcastle Falcons have not yet made their finances for 2022-23 period public
Ben Coles, Rugby Reporter 29 March 2024 ? 1:17pm


Nine of 10 Gallagher Premiership clubs have posted financial losses which total almost ?25 million for the 2022-23 season.

Newcastle Falcons have yet to publicly post their results for the last financial year but of the data available, nine clubs cumulatively made a loss of around ?23.5 million.

Saracens posted the biggest loss at ?5,295,310, with the club?s turnover of ?23,206,354 falling well short of their ?28,559,147 budget.

Bristol Bears, backed by the billionaire Steve Lansdown, finished with a total loss of ?4,554,814. Harlequins posted the highest turnover, ?26,813,85, but had the largest budget at ?30,392,791, resulting in a loss of ?3,648.893.

Gloucester produced the best results due to having a budget of ?18,291,675, which was marginally higher than the club?s turnover of ?18,162,660, making an eventual loss of ?393,079. Two other clubs produced losses which were below the half a million figure, with Sale making a ?439,294 loss and Northampton a ?467,836 loss.

Sale notably had the lowest turnover, ?11,735,339, but also the lowest budget of ?16,496,292. They were also one of only two clubs, along with fellow Premiership finalists Saracens, to produce a positive net financing costs figure of ?258,953.

The results also disclose the number of people employed by each club, with Exeter recording the highest figure of 354 of which 156 were coaches and players. Bristol employed the fewest number of people (155) and number of players and staff (87).

Exeter?s financial results, with a loss of ?3,994,469, included the hotel built on site at Sandy Park, which made a loss of ?2m over the course of the financial year. The hotel has since been sold off, with Exeter?s chairman and chief executive, Tony Rowe, buying an undisclosed stake in the Sandy Park Hotel back in December 2022 to help pay off the club?s Covid-19 loans.

Exeter said at the time: ?The fee paid for the shares by Mr Rowe not only provides an injection of capital to keep cashflow going, but will also help service substantial debts accrued by Exeter Rugby Club due to the impact of the Covid pandemic in 2020. Directors will use ?their best endeavours? to retain ?at least? 26 per cent shareholding in the hotel company.?

Premiership Rugby has been contacted for comment.
Analysis: Rugby still feeling Covid after effects

Perhaps the main factor to consider when analysing the latest accounts for the nine Premiership clubs, with Newcastle still to come, is that teams across the league are still feeling the financial effects of the pandemic, hit hard by that loss of matchday revenue.

Seeing that amount of red on a spreadsheet naturally leads to concern but among the numbers there are some positives, such as Northampton posting a record turnover of nearly ?22 million, up by a million on the previous year. Even a club in as strong a position as Northampton is still going to be confronted with costs, with their cash balance dropping due to the construction of the club?s new High Performance Centre.

The Premiership is still reeling from the loss of Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish during the previous season and, predominantly, clubs appear to be cautious. Take Sale?s budget, around ?16.5 million, being almost half of that of Harlequins (?30.4 million).

The same long-term concerns remain. Certain clubs relying on the large investment of owners with deep pockets, a TV deal which lags far behind the money paid for the rights to the Top 14 in France, the fact that clubs with excellent attendance figures and large capacities ? Leicester, Northampton, Gloucester ? are occasionally falling short of making a profit. Not forgetting that the salary cap ceiling is set to rise next season from ?5 million to ?6.4 million ? the timing of which seems highly questionable ? or how the Covid-19 loans from the government will be repaid.

These are all existing issues which require long-term solutions but right now, the aim across the Premiership appears to be to create stability.

At the same time, sources close to the league are optimistic about an increase in supporter numbers this season at matches, with gate numbers continuing to climb and up by around five per cent on the previous season. The more people back in grounds, the more revenue. Right now, every extra pound feels important.

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What could have been?

BREAKING: Mateo Minozzi announces his retirement from rugby at the age of just 27.

Minozzi burst onto the scene at the 2018 Six Nations when he was nominated for Player of the Championship.

The hot stepper moved to Wasps a year later and then to Benetton in 2022.

Quite a startling article - many pictures so link is - https://news.sky.com/story/is-there-a-link-between-cte-brain-disease-and-violent-crime-13075134



The human cost of brain disease hitting one of the world's most popular sports

The question over whether CTE is linked to violent crime has come to the fore after numerous incidents of violent ex-football players. Most experts say it is hard to say what motivates someone to commit a crime, but the symptoms CTE causes could all contribute.
Martha Kelner

US correspondent @marthakelner

Monday 19 February 2024 12:46, UK


Is there a link to CTE and crime?

Why you can trust Sky News

When Noah Green, a 25-year-old with no known history of violence, crashed his car into a barricade at the Capitol building in Washington DC, killing one police officer, before lunging at others with a knife, his own family were grappling for answers.

"My heart just sank," his mother, Mazie Green, tells me. It was a murder, which, on the face of it, had nothing to do with American football.

But three years on and speaking publicly for the first time since that day, Mazie says she now believes it has everything to do with American football.


Green was shot dead by responding police, and in the days after the killing the FBI recommended that Mazie submit Noah's brain to be analysed.

The diagnosis came back months later, indicating Green had stage one Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, more commonly known as CTE.

It's a brain disease caused by repetitive blows to the head and it afflicts participants of contact sport, including American football. Symptoms include aggression, paranoia and problems controlling impulses.


"Noah took big hits," Mazie says. At Alleghany High School in rural Virginia, Green had played in defence and was voted most valuable player and he later played for Christopher Newport University.

Teammates recall him being dependable and good-natured but Mazie says she noticed changes after he suffered several head injuries.

"He wanted to be tough, to prove himself," Mazie says, "But there were changes. He would start wearing blankets around his head and I thought it was a teenage thing, but it was because he was so sensitive to the light. Then he would lose his keys and he forgot how to cook, prepare his meals.


"After that, he started with these really bad headaches. One day he said 'I don't know what's wrong with me, mum, I've lost 20 pounds.... I feel like I need to leave. I've got to get out of the country. They're going to kill me, the FBI, they're going to kill me.'



Officer William Evans, the police officer who Noah Green killed, left behind two young children. I ask Mazie if she has any message for his family.

"Officer Evans should not have died that day," she says, "Noah should not have died that day. Someone has to take the responsibility for telling parents what to do if something's just not quite right with those kids that are out there playing football for entertainment."

Shannon Terranova, the former spouse of Officer Evans and mother of his two young children, said: "I want to be mindful of all who are impacted by this real-life horror; but it is difficult for me to comprehend any rationalisation of what happened to Billy and the events that led up to his death. I appreciate the efforts in bringing awareness to the long-term implications of bodily trauma caused by sports injuries. However, nothing can justify what Billy's co-workers and family experienced, saw, and felt on April 2 2021, and every day since."

Christopher Newport University declined to comment on Noah Green's case. Alleghany High School did not respond to Sky News's request for comment.

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The National Sports Brain Bank in Pittsburgh analyses donated brains for evidence of CTE. 1:16
How CTE is diagnosed


The question over whether CTE is linked to violent crime has come to the fore after numerous incidents of violent ex-football players.

Former San Francisco 49ers star Phillip Adams shot dead six people in an explosion of violence in 2021.

He murdered doctor Robert Lesslie, his wife, Barbara Lesslie, and two of their grandchildren, Adah, 9, and Noah, 5 at their home in South Carolina.

He also killed James Lewis and Robert Shook, who were working on an air conditioning unit at the house. Analysis of Adams' brain showed he had severe CTE.

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Chronic traumatic encephalopathy is a condition caused by repetetive head trauma. 1:56
Is CTE linked to violence?


Kellen Winslow, another former NFL player, was convicted of multiple rapes in 2021.

His lawyer argued for his sentence to be reduced because of what he says was head trauma suffered on the football field. That potential mitigating factor was rejected by a judge.


Most experts say it is hard to say definitively what motivates someone to commit a crime, but the symptoms CTE causes could all contribute. More research into the causes of CTE and what factors might make some people more susceptible is under way.

Sky News was given access to the national sports brain bank in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where former professional and amateur American footballers are being urged to donate their brains for study.

Inside the histology laboratory, Dr Julia Kofler slices open a brain with a knife to show me the cross-section.


It is impossible to diagnose CTE with the naked eye so she takes a tiny sample of the brain tissue and loads it onto a slide so it can be analysed under the microscope.

I ask if she thinks there is a link between CTE and violent crime. "It's really difficult to draw any conclusions about what motivates someone to commit a crime based just on their pathology," she says, "but we certainly know that neurodegenerative diseases can cause all sorts of different behavioural changes and changes in executive function and judgement, so it certainly could have contributed."


'We watched him lose himself'

Karen Kinzle Zegel is one of those fighting for more research. Her son, Patrick Risha, had CTE and died by suicide aged 32. He had played American football throughout his childhood and at university.

"We watched him over 10 years, sadly lose himself, lose his dignity," she says, "He was paranoid, he was argumentative.

"One time there was an incident with him and he said a homeless guy attacked him in Pittsburgh and he broke his hand punching this person. The rage he had was definitely scary."


Through her organisation Stop CTE, Karen is campaigning for the brains of those who commit mass violence to be analysed for traumatic injury.

"Every time we're looking at the symptoms like 'they lost a job, they, broke up with their girlfriend'.

"Everybody wants to know why, why would someone take another person's life? But if you've dealt with somebody whose brain became unwired you see the lack of empathy. They don't care about other people, sadly.

"We're not going back to the root cause, which could be a damaged brain."


Concerns about brain injuries have contributed to the growth of flag football, a lesser contact sport which means fewer big hits and not an obvious danger.

But the popularity of the NFL as a spectator sport is enduring. Last week's Super Bowl final was the most-watched TV event in American history.

But for its stars, the damage may already been done. The human cost of the richest sport league in the world is far too difficult to count.

Sky News contacted the NFL for comment about our report. In response, the NFL provided details of the funding they are giving into CTE-related research, mental health support and the physical safety measures they say they are taking in the sport.