STRIKE FEARS IN UNION’S CIVIL WAR

RUGBY UNION: PAY CUT ROW

CIVIL WAR has erupted in English rugby with the players’ union threatening strike action over “totally unacceptable” attempts by the clubs to make temporary pay cuts permanent.

With the sport on its knees financially because of the pandemic and no prospect of play in the UK before mid-august, Premiership club owners on Monday agreed to slash the £7million salary cap by £1.4m.

London Irish owner Mick Crossan (below) said that “we had to get real. You just can’t afford to keep running a business that’s losing three, four, five million pounds a year”.

But behind the scenes resentment has brewed since March when players across the league were forced to take a 25 per cent drop in wages to help clubs survive.

RPA chairman Mark Lambert (above) revealed yesterday Premiership Rugby sought “agreement” to make those cuts permanent – an approach the players’ board had unanimously rejected. The Harlequins prop claimed some players were “being served with ultimatums and being put under undue pressure to sign amended contracts through the manufactured deadline of June 18”.

He added: “This is a totally unacceptable way to operate. From the outset of this crisis there’s been an absolute disregard for the players and the values of the game.

“We now find ourselves heading towards a significant legal dispute unless meaningful and genuine dialogue takes place urgently.”

Going on strike would be an “extreme move” and a last resort.

However he warned: “But it’s difficult for us to entirely rule out any options when we’re in the current situation where we’ve members with existing, fixed-term contracts in some senses essentially being strong-armed into thinking they have no choice but to sign an inferior contract.”