Aviva Premiership Salary Cap.

How many clubs will actually be able to afford to spend to the Salary cap if it goes up? Sarries, Bath and Leicester are a given, but does anyone know how the likes of saints or quins would cope?

I can't see the benefit to English Rugby of making the Premiership uncompetative and driving smaller clubs to the wall.

Judging by the fact we've just signed a lad from the championship to cover injuries then you compare that to the likes of Tuqieri or Stringer being signed by Leicester and Saracens for the same reason I don't think Quins are anywhere near the salary cap.

Edinburgh have just shown what is possible with a very small player budget.

Stop signing gash foreign players......simple

Likewise London Irish yappy. As far as I am aware we don't pay up to the cap as it is, so increasing it will be of no benefit to us at all, and will merely mean that clubs like Bath and Saracens who have wealthy backers will buy up all the talent and the league will become uncompetitive.

To be fair Edinburgh aren't the first team to beat Toulouse in the HC this season.

yappy, I'll try and find where I read this but it was stating Quins were one of a number of clubs at the cap (Glaws included). Probably the difference is two-fold: you probably pay Nick Evans the earth (well deserved too!) and you also don't buy farms for players!

Glaws Directors have said we will be paying up to the new extended cap next season and I've always understood that Quins are more financially stable than us.

yappysnap wrote:To be fair Edinburgh aren't the first team to beat Toulouse in the HC this season.

And the other 2 defeats were far more convincing!

Talking about getting to the HC semi's rather than beating Toulouse.

Nice try though

Edinburgh have just shown what is possible with a very small player budget.

Stop signing gash foreign players......simple .

The difference being that Edinburgh, if it was living with the realities that the English clubs face, would now be in a relegation battle - could they fight a campaign on two fronts with their current squad?

The only teams able to significantly increase there spending would be those with wealthy backers.

Tigers have (probably) the biggest income in the AP - but profits were not huge. A a business they have a need to ensure they do not overspend.

Nigel Wray is banging on about the cap again:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/moneyball-european-failures-raise-issue-785228

Interesting to see he has changed his approach though:

“If you are a Newcastle, say, and your concentration is to stay in the Premiership, then you need one squad,” he said.

“If you are a Leicester and you are fighting on several fronts - ie you’re trying as they are to win the Premiership and to win the Heineken plus, in addition, you’re giving half a dozen players to England, say - then clearly you need two squads (as Clermont have) and that implies a completely different wage cap.

We do not have the income to significantly boost our squad however.

yappysnap wrote:Judging by the fact we've just signed a lad from the championship to cover injuries then you compare that to the likes of Tuqieri or Stringer being signed by Leicester and Saracens for the same reason I don't think Quins are anywhere near the salary cap.

Actually that suggests to me that they may well be very near the cap and thus have to cut their cloth accordingly.

Temporary signings such as Tuqiri and Stringer to cover long term injury can allow the club to exceed the cap.

Julian Salvi was brought in under those rules to effectively replace Jordan Crane/Craig Newby. The injured players salaries did not count towards the cap.

Ozzy3213 wrote:Likewise London Irish yappy. As far as I am aware we don't pay up to the cap as it is, so increasing it will be of no benefit to us at all, and will merely mean that clubs like Bath and Saracens who have wealthy backers will buy up all the talent and the league will become uncompetitive.

Exactly, all it would do would help 5 clubs get themselves in to possible financial trouble and force the rest to get in to an arms race to keep up.

I would not mind seeing further benefits for clubs that produce more Eng players, likewise clubs that produce a lot of their squads from their acadamies.

Also a seperate extra £500,000-£1mil budget specifically for European tournaments could be trialled for maybe a few seasons.

HongKong, I suppose we could be at the cap. Honestly I don't know how much are players get paid and am just comparing our squad to other teams. To me we do not have as many big names but then the now Eng players that we do have could be on a lot. And as you say Evans will be paid a lot.

But compare that to say Saracens, Bath or Saints and I can't see how they fit in to the cap if we are at it.

LT, my comparison was more highlighting the fact you had that money to burn, we just don't have the cheddar.

English players tend to be more expensive than overseas journeymen.

We had enough cash to fund Tuqiri - though his actual salary was not all that high.

Quins signing Ward as a replacement for a cheap backup hooker suggests either:

1) Quins do not have the cash to recruit a bigger name and have signed a like for like replacement

or

2) Quins do not have room within the salary cap to fund a big name and have signed a like for like replacement.




Personally I think PRL should publish the total amounts spent by club, but it is unlikely to happen.

Not sure LT, I think Quins signing of Ward shows that they view Grey and Lambert as the 1st choice. Ward is an experienced back up, but not someone you'd want to spend much money on with Buchanan in the picture too.

LT, was it you that posted the link to the article about the chap that polices the cap? That was interesting reading

(Edit - I meant Brooker not Lambert and I've only just read that Brooker is out for a long time)

Judging by the fact we've just signed a lad from the championship to cover injuries then you compare that to the likes of Tuqieri or Stringer being signed by Leicester and Saracens for the same reason I don't think Quins are anywhere near the salary cap.

That Tuquiri signing has been replicated in Salvi this season but then again it fits in with Cockerill stating Tigers could probably afford one extra player on top of the current squad because of the club's income. At the start of the season we had to make do with the loan of a loosehead from Notts to stand in at tighthead so it's not like we have endless resources.

Tigers will be able to maintain more of the current squad due to the salary cap where as in previous years we have lost players because of French influenced wage inflation. The likes of Moody, Vesty and Hipkiss would have been club players for life in the past but under the current salary cap the club just couldn't afford to keep them.

I'd expect only Bath and Sarries to be making the big signings this off season.

I think the situation at Exeter this season was that Rob Baxter could have had the existing cap to spend if needed. However any addition to this is likely to stretch things and there is one certainty at Chiefs - our members and board will not sanction anything the club can't afford. There are long term plans in place to finish the development of Sandy Park as well as establishing Chiefs as a force in the Prem and Europe. The key here is that they are long term, we're just getting a bit ahead of them this season Rob Baxter's recruitment for next season is likely to be just a handfull of players and we've already signed 3, Whitten from Ulster and 2 young front row players from Doncaster. Even if we had the money for a Marque player he would have to fit with the Chiefs ethos and I think Rob Baxter likes to work with guys who have something to prove.

our members and board will not sanction anything the club can't afford

Saints and Tigers work on a similar basis to that. They plan for bigger stadiums and success on the pitch but not at the cost of financial instability. Only Bath and Sarries spend over what their club can afford but they have big money backers to inject cash as and when they need it.