by Maro Itoje and Jamie George are set to give Steve Borthwick a big boost ahead of the Six Nations by signing contract extensions at Saracens following a historic financial intervention by the Rugby Union, which offered the pair new ‘enhanced hybrid contracts’ to stay put. England.
The RFU are understood to have offered the two players a lump sum payment of around £160,000 per season to strengthen their club contracts with Saracens, after both had been targets for clubs in France and Japan.
The decision by two of England’s most experienced and most senior forwards to commit to the new central contract system will be seen as a timely piece of good news following Henry Arundell’s decision to forgo the chance to play international rugby by signing a contract extension . at Racing 92 this week.
Arundell would be eligible to play in the Six Nations this season if he accepts an offer to join Bath next season under the exceptional circumstances rule of the overseas selection policy which states that players must be based in England to play for the side national.
He was also offered a hybrid contract but there were no guarantees that Arundell would have made the England team this season, however, after playing a fringe role during the World Cup, but Itoje and George will remain key figures in plans Borthwick for the next one at least. 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 matchday squads, leaving players at risk of missing out if injured or if they were not selected.
It also allows the player to make longer-term decisions about when to undergo medical treatments such as surgery even if it means missing test matches for their benefit.
Although the new professional game partnership between the RFU and Premiership Rugby has yet to be finalised, it is understood Borthwick has been able to move quickly to identify key players at risk of moving abroad.
Itoje’s future has been in great uncertainty due to a change in salary cap regulations that now mean clubs can only designate one, and not two, players as ‘marquee’, whose salaries are outside the cap.
With Owen Farrell retained as Saracens’ ‘marquee player’, Itoje faced a significant drop in wages, attracting interest from clubs in France and Japan, with the 33-year-old George also a target for French club Lyon.
The RFU’s intervention leads to a flow of talent out of the Premier League with Northampton Saints captain Lewis Ludlam set to join Toulon next season despite being respected and influential in Borthwick’s World Cup squad and Ludlam’s former Saints team-mate David Ribbans. already with Toulon.
Former Harlequins representative Joe Marchant has joined Stade Francais, Jack Willis at Toulouse, Jack Nowell at La Rochelle, Sam Simmonds at Montpellier and Joe Simmonds at Pau.
Gloucester hook Jack Singleton also lost the right to play in the Six Nations this season when he signed for Toulon on loan for the rest of the season.
‘RFU was in danger of losing an English game’
Whether or not Maro Itoje has physically put pen to paper, the promise of the second tier signing a hybrid contract is the best form of Christmas card Rugby Union chief executive Bill Sweeney could put on his mantlepiece Twickenham.
Hybrid contracts – the RFU prefer the term ‘Enhanced Elite Player Squad’ – are the most attractive part of the potential Professional Game Partnership to be signed with Premiership Rugby sometime in early 2024. In essence, the RFU are the end of add to the £20,000 match fee system in return for paying a fixed annual sum of around £160,000 to its top 25 players. This added security should, in theory, convince England’s top players to stay in the Premier League despite the higher wages of clubs in France and Japan where they would be ineligible for international selection.
But this idea was dealt a major blow when, as first reported by Telegraph Sport, Henry Arundell decided it was better to stay in Paris under Stuart Lancaster at Racing 92 rather than return to Bath with a hybrid contract sweetener. Arundell is arguably the hottest young England player around the globe, at least when he appears on social media clips. Whether he would have started in the Six Nations is another question entirely. Steve Borthwick, the England head coach, who as far as we know does not have access to a TikTok account, will consider losing him for three years somewhere between torture and evil.
Losing Itoje, on the other hand, would be a completely different equation. With Owen Farrell retiring from international rugby for an interim period, Itoje is now the face of this England team. Seeing the 29-year-old leave for the Top 14 would send the message that the grass really is greener in France. The alarm bells at both the RFU and Premiership Rugby would be deafening.
But was this ever a realistic proposition? Losing his marquee status at Saracens has almost halved his club wages to around £400,000. Would a French club be willing to pay his old wages plus interest to bring Les Rosbifs’ main asset across La Manche? Lyon were sniffing at one point but French clubs tend to produce a more prominent second tier like Will Skelton for their weekly dogfights.
Even if a French club could beat Saracens’ and the RFU’s bid together, Itoje’s abundant commercial opportunities would diminish the moment he ceases to be an England international. And all those nice breaks guaranteed by the Rugby Players’ Association as part of the new PGP? They are not in France. For every player like Jack Willis who loves the Gallic experience, at least two hate the weekly joke.
Let’s keep playing with the hypotheses: let’s say Itoje went to Lyon on a three-year deal so he could come back in time for the 2027 World Cup. Who’s to say he’ll walk back into the team with Ollie Chessum and George Martin in the last 12 months? Or has Exeter’s Rui Tuima or Bath’s Ewen Richards lived up to their promise as the leader of many promising second tiers? And if nothing else Borthwick values loyalty.
All in all it is a wise decision for everyone. Itoje’s representatives did their part by blinking their eyelids towards the Top 14, which undoubtedly helped their negotiations, but it was the best thing to serve their interests by staying at Saracens.
In fact, it could be argued that Jamie George’s decision to stay in the StoneX also has more important short-term benefits, given England’s shallow depth at the hurker. This will not deter players such as Lewis Ludlam either after other members of the World squad Arundell, Willis, Joe Marchant and Dave Ribbans have gone to France.
But for the sake of symbolism if nothing else, the RFU needed to keep Itoje in the Premier League and for that reason inside Twickenham he will be the most festive pick since John McClane ditched his wife at the climax of Die Hard.
