Wage inflation for top players is shrinking squads says Hare
Hare’s lifetime in the game includes helping to set up professional rugby’s first academy at Leicester and while he acknowledges good progress has been made, he believes poor decisions at board level are making it harder for players to break through.
Hare told The Rugby
Paper: “I get very frustrated because I don’t think the academy system is evolving as it should. We’re cancelling A-League games because of injuries but is anyone actually looking at the make-up of Premiership squads?
“Directors of rugby are complaining they haven’t got big enough squads, but they’ve got a £7.5m salary cap now when four years ago it was £4.5m and yet they’ve still got the same number of players – or fewer.
“Who’s at fault? Are the top players getting too much money?
“Crowds are modest and the money coming into clubs is limited, but player wages are taking big chunks out of revenues and squad sizes when what we should be doing is making our academies bigger and blooding more young players at the top level. I shake my head at how we’ve got to. Look at someone like Zach Mercer, he was thrown in at Bath last year because some senior, non-English players were injured and he’s proved he can play.
“Northampton’s Harry Mallinder is another who’s benefitting now and players need those proper opportunities.”
While England U20s have claimed three Junior World Cup titles in five years and senior England playing stocks have never seemed higher, Hare remains dismayed at what he views as a sub-standard playing programme below first teams.
He added: “We’re told about dual-registration with the Championship clubs and how wonderful it all is, but I’m old-fashioned and I’d rather see players wearing their own club jerseys in an A-League, U23 league or whatever.
“I talk to players and they tell me they want to play for their own clubs, be coached by aspiring young coaches within those clubs and then to be given opportunities at a high level.
“I don’t think we’ve got a proper structure to accomplish that and while Eddie Jones probably thinks it’s Christmas with the number of good players at his disposal, we should be doing even better.”
Hare recently retired from his position at Northampton, but the 64year-old former England full-back said: “I’m still going to be involved somewhere. I’m just taking October as a time to put things together.”