by Maro Itoje and Jamie George will give Steve Borthwick a major boost ahead of the Six Nations Championship by signing contract extensions with Saracens after a historic financial intervention by the Rugby Football Union, which has offered the pair new “contracts improved hybrids” to remain in England.
The RFU are understood to have offered both players a lump sum payment of around £160,000 per season to bolster their club contracts with Saracens, after the pair became targets of clubs in France and Japan.
The decision by two of England’s most experienced and accomplished forwards to commit to the new central contract system will be seen as timely good news following Henry Arundell’s decision to miss out on the opportunity to play international rugby by signing a contract extension. on Racing 92 this week.
Arundell would have been able to play in the Six Nations this season had he accepted an offer to join Bath next season under the overseas selection policy’s exceptional circumstances rule which stipulates players must be based in England to play for the national team.
He was also offered a hybrid contract but there were no guarantees Arundell would have played for England this season as he played a marginal role during the World Cup, while Itoje and George will remain key figures in Borthwick’s plans for at least the next. two seasons.
The guaranteed payment replaces the previous system of match fees of around £20,000 which would only be paid to players in 23-man match day squads, leaving players at risk of missing out if they are injured or not selected in shape.
It also allows the player to make long-term decisions about when to undergo medical treatments, such as surgery, even if it means missing test matches to improve their well-being.
While the new professional playing partnership between the RFU and Premiership Rugby is yet to be finalised, it is understood Borthwick has been able to act quickly to identify key players at risk of moving abroad.
Great uncertainty loomed over Itoje’s future because a change in salary cap regulations now meant that clubs can only nominate one, not two, marquee players whose salaries are outside the cap.
With Owen Farrell retained as Saracens’ ‘star player’, Itoje faced a significant drop in wages, sparking interest from clubs in France and Japan, while George, 33, was also a target for the club. French Lyon.
The RFU’s intervention follows an influx of Premiership talent that has seen Northampton Saints captain Lewis Ludlam join Toulon next season despite being a respected and influential member of Borthwick’s Cup team. Mundo, while Ludlam’s former Saints teammate David Ribbans. He is already with Toulon.
Former Harlequins center Joe Marchant has joined Stade Francais, Jack Willis is at Toulouse, Jack Nowell is at La Rochelle, Sam Simmonds is at Montpellier and Joe Simmonds is at Pau.
Gloucester hooker Jack Singleton also forfeited the right to play in this season’s Six Nations when he joined Toulon on loan for the remainder of the season.
“The RFU risked losing the face of English football”
Regardless of whether Maro Itoje has physically put pen to paper, the second row’s commitment to signing a hybrid contract is the best form of Christmas card that Bill Sweeney, the chief executive of the Rugby Football Union, could place in his Twickenham ledge ledge.
The hybrid contracts (the RFU prefers the term ‘enhanced elite player squad’) are the most eye-catching part of the potential professional playing partnership set to be signed with Premiership Rugby sometime in early 2024. Indeed, the RFU is scrapping the £20,000 match fee system in exchange for paying its top 25 players a fixed annual sum of around £160,000. This extra security should, in theory, persuade England’s best players to remain in the Premiership despite higher salaries at clubs in France and Japan, where they would not be eligible for international selection.
However, the premise of this idea was dealt a blow when, as Telegraph Sport first reported, Henry Arundell decided he was better placed in Paris with Stuart Lancaster in Racing 92 rather than returning to Bath with the sweetener of a hybrid contract . Arundell is arguably the most attractive young English player, at least when it comes to appearing in social media clips. Whether he would have started in the Six Nations is an entirely different question. Losing him for three years will be considered somewhere between an annoyance and an aggravation by Steve Borthwick, the England head coach who, as far as we know, does not have access to a TikTok account.
Losing Itoje, on the other hand, would have been a completely different equation. With Owen Farrell stepping away from international rugby for an interim period, Itoje is now the face of this England team. Seeing the 29-year-old depart for the Top 14 would have sent the message that the grass really is greener in France. The alarms in both the RFU and Premiership Rugby would have been deafening.
However, was this ever a realistic proposal? Losing his marquee status at Saracens has seen his club wages almost halved to around £400,000. Would a French club have been willing to shell out his old salary plus interest to take Les Rosbifs’ main asset across La Mancha? Lyon were sniffing around at one point, but French clubs tend to reward beefier second-rowers like Will Skelton for their weekly aerial fights.
Even if a French club could outbid the combined bid from Saracens and RFU, Itoje’s plentiful commercial opportunities would dwindle the moment he ceased to be an England international. And will all those nice rest periods that the Rugby Players Association has guaranteed be part of the new PGP? They do not exist in France. For every player like Jack Willis who has loved the Gallic experience, at least two have hated the weekly grind.
Let’s continue playing with hypotheses: let’s say Itoje left for Lyon on a three-year contract so he could return in time for the 2027 World Cup. Who’s to say he returns to the team with the emergence of Ollie Chessum and George Martin in recent years? 12 months? Or whether Exeter’s Rui Tuima or Bath’s Ewen Richards fulfill their promise as the vanguard of a host of promising second rows? And at least Borthwick values loyalty.
Ultimately, it is a sensible decision for everyone. Itoje’s representatives did their part by moving their eyelids towards the Top 14, which certainly helped his negotiations, but it was in his best interests to remain at Saracens.
In fact, it could be argued that Jamie George’s decision to also remain at StoneX has more significant short-term benefits given England’s lack of depth at hooker. This will also not stop players like Lewis Ludlam, who followed his World Cup teammates Arundell, Willis, Joe Marchant and Dave Ribbans, from heading to France.
But for symbolism at least, the RFU needed to keep Itoje in the Premiership and for that reason inside Twickenham it will feel like the best festive boost since John McClane rescued his wife at the climax of Die Hard.
