Rugby transfers
Transf er rumours are always swirling but how are deals actually done? RugbyWorld spoke to three people who make it all happen – a director of rugby, an agent and a head of recruitment
IF YOUR childhood was anything like mine, you will have spent a lot of it playing FootballManager. A large element of the game was wheeling and dealing as you made transfers and completed contract discussions. It gave kids experience of the business of football.
Recently, though, I was asked by a football-loving friend how signings work in rugby. Despite being a fan for more than 20 years I realised I had no idea, so I asked a coach, a head of recruitment and an agent about the mechanics of a signing.
Rugby is still somewhat different to football in that the vast majority of moves happen when a player is out of contact, so there aren’t the transfer fees involved in the round-ball game. But there are still plenty of complexities, such as visa requirements and reference checks…
All in the planning
“As a player you will enter the last year of a contract and be thinking that you need one big season to keep your job. Actually, it’s likely that your replacement has already been found.” Those are the words of a former professional player turned agent, who spoke to Rugby World on the condition of anonymity.
Nowadays we’ll most likely hear about a player signing over Twitter, but that is just the last step in a process which might have taken more than a season.
Pat Lam is the director of rugby at Bristol Bears. Like all clubs in the Gallagher Premiership, the Bears need to keep within the salary cap. That requires planning because once the money is spent, it’s gone for good.
Lam says: “My aim is to have a squad which has 15 world-class players, those are players which any team in the world would be interested in if they became available. Then I want 15 elite
players who can play week in, week out. Finally, I want 15 talents to push those other 30 players for playing time.”
Planning for the next campaign features plenty of unknowns but teams can’t afford to think just one season ahead. We can all remember clubs who sacrificed long-term ambitions for short-term success. Usually that involves spending a lot of money to hoard talent at the peak of their careers. It might look good in the first season but quickly you end up with a squad who are all going to be past their peak at the same time and a rebuilding job will be required.
As Lam says: “The age profile of a position is really important. The last thing you want is three 30-year-olds playing in the same position because where is the development or the succession plan?”
That planning process is replicated in the Greene King IPA Championship but there are key differences, as Ealing Trailfinders head of recruitment Alex Shaw explains. “There is a lot more turnover at Championship level so I’ll go into a season scouting for every position. We know which of our players will be out of contract at the end of the season so that helps guide us, but it won’t be until February that we have a solid idea about which positions we need to strengthen.”
Finding talent Once you have decided how to allocate your finite resources for the next few seasons you have to find a player for the task. Even before you start looking there are some hoops that need to be leapt through.
“We look at Super Rugby, Mitre 10 Cup, Currie Cup and the NRC in Australia,” says Shaw. “The problem you have is that those players don’t necessarily qualify for a UK sports visa. If you play 75% of Super Rugby games, you qualify for a visa, but not in the lower competitions. The only way you’ll qualify from those leagues generally is if you have English ancestry. If you can find those players, it will also help with your EQP quotas (clubs need to average 15 English Qualified Players in match-day 23s across a season). Otherwise you will be left to sign already established Super Rugby players at a premium.”
Brexit has hampered European signings. French and Italian players now need to play 75% of matches in the Top 14 or Pro14 respectively. International honours can help secure visas, though, like one cap for a Tier One country, three for a Tier Two or ten for a Tier Three in the preceding 24 months. The intricacies of employment law are not usually something we consider when planning our dream teams.
Visa rules limit your pool of players but then you reduce it further by looking for players who fit your style. No matter how good a player is, if they don’t fit into your system you would be better off avoiding them. Lam states that recruitment and retention is about how you intend to play the game but also softer skills, such as leadership, character and culture.
“The wrong person coming in can rip a team apart, so it is crucial that you get the right people,” he says.
It’s generally at this stage that an agent will get involved in the process. “We build up relationships with coaches and recruitment managers and they will come to us when they are looking to fill a hole in their squad,” explains our agent. “Obviously, it is important to know what position they are looking at but we also want to know what type of player they are looking for. Are they looking for a young EQP development prospect, a good Premiership-standard player to fill in during the International window or a world-class ten to build a team around? I will then send through the players I have on my books who fit that requirement.”
There is no central location that lists out-of-contract players, so relationships with agents are critical for knowing exactly who is available. “We probably find about 75% of our signings by scouting the players we’ve been told are available by agents and 25% by scouting leagues and finding potentially untapped talent,” says Shaw.
Once you’ve identified the player you want, then comes the job of completing the signing. That involves meetings, discussions, offers and counter-offers and, surprisingly, reference checks.
Show me the money
“The key is the meeting,” says Lam of the first step once a potential signing has been found. “I won’t sign anyone unless I have that interaction. That interview is crucial because I want to get to know the player and I also want to outline our journey. I always say, ‘You don’t have to come to Bristol, but if you do this is how we do things’. I don’t like anyone having surprises.”
Our agent explains that those meetings will usually involve the head coach and either the backs or forwards coach, depending on the player’s position. Some of the questions will be typical interview questions that any of us will be asked – what appealed to you about the role, where do you see yourself in five years, etc.
Increasingly, teams will use video to check a player’s understanding of the game but also to show the player some of their own play. Showing a player a package of their best moments when you first speak to them makes them feel valued and demonstrates that you’ve done your homework, says our agent.
I’m sure we’ve all worked with people who have interviewed well but struggled to do the job day-to-day. That risk can be reduced by contacting people who know and have worked with the player – the reference check. “It is key to build up that network of coaches and players around the world that you can speak with when you are thinking of signing a player,” says Shaw. “You can see how good a player is by watching videos but you won’t know, without a reference, how they react in a squad environment.”
Finally, after all the scouting, meetings and reference checks, the time comes to put your hand in your pocket and agree a salary. The price is dependent on the principles of supply and demand.
“The availability of player groups will change the price. If you have a season where you are short of English-qualified back-rowers, then the price for that player will skyrocket,” Shaw explains.
Our agent says: “When coming to a figure, I always look at who the club currently has. If they only have an academy player in the position, then that will push up the price. Equally, I need to know who else is available in that position. If you have that good relationship with coaches, they will usually give that information away. If there aren’t many players on the market in that position, then you can stand your ground more firmly in the negotiations.
“Some clubs will say they have £300k for a first-choice ten, for example, but then it becomes like a game. Do you believe they only have that budget? I then try to work out how desperate the team are for that player. They might say they only have £300k but they’re phoning me six times a week.”
The player is yours and has signed on the dotted line. It’s still not job done, though. Lam explains how the Bears have a team manager and also a couple of long-term injured players who have taken it upon themselves to help new signings with things like finding a house. The difference between a good signing and a bad one might be how well they settle in, so that additional support can be key.
So that’s how a rugby signing works.
“I won’t sign anyone unless I have that interaction, that interview. I want to get to know the player”