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RUGBY UNION
Rugby Players’ Association wins arbitration case on behalf of Steve Borthwick’s squad, who had not been paid for appearing in third-place play-off
, Deputy Rugby Correspondent
The Times
, Deputy Rugby Correspondent
The Times
The RFU has been forced to pay the England World Cup squad almost £400,000 for appearing in the third-place play-off, a fee it initially tried to deny the players.
The Rugby Players’ Association (RPA) won an arbitration case on Friday morning on behalf of the England team, having taken the issue to Sports Resolutions — a company that deals with sporting disputes.
The RFU did not want to pay Steve Borthwick’s World Cup squad a match fee for the bronze final they won 26-23 against Argentina in Paris, but will now have to stump up about £12,000 per player — so almost £400,000 in total for the 33-man squad that went to France.
A clause in the players’ contracts states that “additional” games to those included in the usual fixture list should be paid at a fair rate. The RFU tried to argue the third-place play-off was not a specified match, so it should not pay a match fee for it, as it does for all Tests as well as Barbarians and World Cup warm-up games.
England have played in a World Cup third-place play-off only once before — in 1995, against France. The RPA disputed the RFU’s non-payment and won. Its victory comes in the week The Times revealed that England’s players have decided to split from their trade union, choosing to employ another company who will deal with the RFU regarding their commercial interests. That new company will be led by Gaia Bursell, who was formerly the players’ RPA representative in talks with the RFU. England’s players are the best remunerated internationals in the world, with match fees reaching £23,000 per Test. An RFU spokesman said that the union was happy to stump up the fee. “The contracts for the England men’s team at the most recent Rugby World Cup included bonus payments. Such payments are always budgeted for in planning for tournaments. As the position on the bronze final was not clear, it was agreed that this would be independently decided, with a commitment that the RFU was happy to fulfil any confidential contractual payment based on the independent decision.”Advertisem*nt
