RFU Gets Tough On Player Exodus

In the wake of a growing player exodus over the Channel, the RFU Management Board has announced that England players’ club contracts in France must include the provisions detailed in the Elite Players’ Squad deal brokered with Guinness Premiership clubs.

The RFU and Premier Rugby Limited, the organisation which represents the 12 Guinness Premiership clubs, have signed an agreement which allows England players to be released for international matches during the season.

However any club outside of the agreement, including all French domestic clubs, does not need to adhere to the regulations.

Following a number of high profile player transfers to French clubs in recent weeks, the RFU has emphasised that any England player wanting to remain within the EPS structure would need to have the same provisions included into his contract with his overseas club.

Those include setting a 32-game limit per year, a 10-week minimum off-season and release for training camps and the ‘rest weekends’ in the autumn and Six Nations periods.

‘The migration of a number of senior EPS players overseas at the same time does reduce the effectiveness of the EPS programmes in the new RFU/PRL agreement and creates certain contractual difficulties for us with these players,’ said RFU chief executive Francis Baron.

‘It is therefore important that we establish and communicate clearly to players what our policy is for such moves so that they can properly take this into account when considering future career moves.’

The Premiership’s 12 clubs must operate within a stringent £4m salary cap set by Premier Rugby. However, France’s Top 14 clubs do not have any wage ceilings in place and can offer salaries which English teams cannot rival – a move that has prompted the latest spate of transfers.

England players James Haskell, Tom Palmer and Riki Flutey have all announced lucrative moves to France’s Top 14 league for next season.