Always a Wasp

It's who you know  that . . . . . .......     

Itoje's hit on Alfie that Inbetweenwasp mentions elsewhere. Having looked at other pictures I think Luke Pearce was rather generous in his efforts to get the game moving.

https://x.com/TightFive_Rugby/status/1785250255342125201

If it's too good to believe, then it is   And it was.  Hopefully the recent Sarries incumbents have avoided the bad practises.

Well good for them, now the RFU need to get their thinking caps back on and strike a deal with the Championship clubs that allows Wuss, Irish and Wasps to play in the 2nd tier for the 25/26 season and reintroduce promotion and relegation.

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.