Despite the Premiership ongoing financial meltdown, the key members of the England squad could earn £325,000 each in the build-up to the 2023 Rugby World Cup.
Players are currently paid a match fee of £25,000 per game with 13 tests scheduled between now and the start of the sports showpiece next September.
As a result, these players would be paid MORE by the RFU than Championship clubs in a calendar year.
The men in white earn by far the most money per test with the All Blacks paid £15,000 and most other nations considerably less than that.
With the restructuring of English rugby incoming following the collapse of Wasps and Worcester, it is now looking more and more likely that central contracts could be introduced.
The RFU would pay a certain percentage of the players wages in exchange for the club giving up a certain amount of control. The idea is that national unions can prevent players from playing in too many club games so that they can be fresh for internationals.
Essentially to avoid the situation where french internationals have to play two club games and five internationals over the 7 weeks that the six nations are played over.
The Welsh Rugby Union and Irish Rugby Union have already implemented this in the last decade.
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Marcus Smith might be the latest big thing in English rugby but he is still only England’s seventh highest earner.
#10. Tom Curry (Sale Sharks) – £430,000 per season
#9. Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints) – £450,000
