Central contracts - second attempt

[trendylfj]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugby ... d-Cup.html

It looks like the start of central contracts for the second time (Teo was the first attempt) with Anthony Watson as the second target and guess which club may benefit from this??? Yes it is the ultra-honest Sarries. Love him to bits but why should an exception be made in one player and not for all?? The answer is all England players/clubs to be offered the same deal not just one.

[TigerFeetSteve]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/rugby ... d-Cup.html

It looks like the start of central contracts for the second time (Teo was the first attempt) with Anthony Watson as the second target and guess which club may benefit from this??? Yes it is the ultra-honest Sarries. Love him to bits but why should an exception be made in one player and not for all?? The answer is all England players/clubs to be offered the same deal not just one.

Yeah certainly interesting how Saracens seem to be the club most likely to profit from it...

[mol2]

Providing the RFU allocate the same level of funding to all the other Premiership sides.

We cannot have a situation like Leinster where a great chunk of the England team is allocated to one side along with their salary funding. That would kill the Premiership as a spectacle for the supporters of the other sides.

If central contracts were adopted a fairer system would be for the RFU to supply funding to all of the sides in the Premiership equal to the most supplied to the team with the largest sum of funding for centrally contracted players. In return those sides would be free to spend that money on salaries with the proviso that they would nominate players who would be subject to the same "rest weeks" as the sides with England players. All sides in return would be expected to fund meaningful development programs from junior level and their senior development squads would be made available to championship sides for a meaningful number of games each season if not in the match day squads of the Premiership sides.

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If the RFU only want to pay Watson until the end of the WC, they should either leave him where he is now or insist he plays for Newcastle. Funding one of the richest teams who have already cheated the salary cap system is absolutely shocking and just shows how out of touch they are with reality!

Or just let him go to France and pick him any way. Idiots....

I'm not actually against central contracts if it helps the over all game in England, but it has to be done fairly. Paying one player is not fair.

[GB72]

I think that the only fair way to deal with this, and I am not sure if there is a fair way, is that centrally contracted players should be offered first to the club that brought the player through their academy and so, in this case, London Irish. That would at least give a further incentive for player development.

[loretta]

Just maybe, if the RFU do this, we could afford to keep him.

[tigerburnie]

Just maybe, if the RFU do this, we could afford to keep him.

If the RFU are paying his salary Leicester Lions could afford him, never mind Tigers.

[FrontRowUnionMember]

I think that the only fair way to deal with this, and I am not sure if there is a fair way, is that centrally contracted players should be offered first to the club that brought the player through their academy and so, in this case, London Irish. That would at least give a further incentive for player development.

Great shout. Would add real incentive back to academy investment.

[Farmboy]

Perhaps if the RFU paid more for the England players & there was an increase in the Cap for England players for the clubs. Also an increase in the academy credit in the cap would possibly allow clubs to keep their homegrown players.

[MrG2]

I think that the only fair way to deal with this, and I am not sure if there is a fair way, is that centrally contracted players should be offered first to the club that brought the player through their academy and so, in this case, London Irish. That would at least give a further incentive for player development.

Interesting idea and I like it. Going for the 23 that England picked for the 6 Nations finale
Steward Leicester
Watson Irish
Slade Exeter
Tuilagi Leicester
Arundel Irish
Farrell Sarries
JVP Leicester
Genge Bristol
George Sarries
Sinckler Quins
Itoje Sarries
Ribbans Western Province?
Ludlam Saints
Willis Wasps
Dombrandt Cardiff Met

Walker Carnegie
Vunipola Bristol
Cole Leicester
Isiekwe Sarries
Curry Sale
Mitchell Sale
Smith Quins
Marchant Quins

[sk 88]

Central contracts would be the death of rugby union in this country.

The players cannot serve two masters. They would be pulled from club games for the slightest reason, they'd rarely face away games (I think I heard Sexton hasn't played in Wales for Leinster since he returned from Racing as a comparison), and it would make the play offs massively skewed more than they are already.

Originally, in the 90s, the clubs banded together and simply refused to play ball. They need to do it again. We cannot let one player in.

[ay2oh]

If central contracts come in it is the end of club rugby as we know it.

[Wes]

Club rugby as we know it is already dead. it just has momentum still...