Squad building is a skill that deserves wider appreciation, especially in a competition like the Premiership that operates under a salary cap. For the upcoming league campaign, which begins on Friday as Bristol Bears host Leicester Tigers, clubs have needed to be canny and resourceful. A fraught financial landscape has placed a premium on things like tactical clarity, coaching and youth development; not to mention recruitment.
To talk broad brushstrokes, the ceiling will remain at £5 million for this season. Each club is entitled to an additional £400,000 to cover injuries as well as £600,000 of homegrown credits and another £400,000 – with up to £80,000 per player – to mitigate for the absence of international players. One player per club is allowed to be excluded from the salary cap, unless two excluded players are still on contracts that were signed before June 2020. That is one palpable benefit of forward planning.
While it is somewhat uncomfortable to dwell upon, clubs with spending capacity – and room under the cap – could make signings from Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish. Players let down by Jersey are already finding Premiership jobs.
There are a few trends at play in this year’s club-by-club breakdown:
- Argentina and Wales internationals welcomed en masse
- Some clubs facing rebuilds after cost-cutting and recalibration
- Others maintaining impetus in a period of solidity, usually thanks to prolific academies
- Test fly-halves, tighthead props and ball-carrying back-rowers still valuable
- While some England players have headed to France, others have returned
- Premiership comprises a mix of top-heavy and level pay structures
The salary cap is due to rise again for 2024-25, to £6.4 million with a single excluded player which will alter the landscape next season. One senior figure attached to a club, however, expects squad sizes to “come down significantly” due to the Premiership being streamlined to 10 sides. Fewer clashes between meaningful domestic matches and Tests in November, February and March could alter spending habits. “I imagine we’ll spend a similar amount of money, just on fewer players,” they explained. “The knock-on effect of that is you can spend on quality”.
Two significant subplots are worth considering. While players can only be selected for England by playing in the Premiership, the identity of the England head coach influences the league’s ability to retain talent. Another source suggested players are hopeful of Steve Borthwick providing greater consistency and clarity than during the Eddie Jones era. Then again, the ongoing negotiations around professional game partnership (PGP), which have discussed hybrid contracts, may change everything. A degree of uncertainty lingers over everyone, which is difficult for players when big decisions must be taken.
In this part one, we will assess the first five clubs. Use these links to go direct to your team: Bath, Bristol Bears, Exeter Chiefs, Gloucester, Harlequins.
Part two of our series examines Leicester Tigers, Newcastle Falcons, Northampton Saints, Sale Sharks and Saracens.
Bath
Excluded player: Finn Russell
Although the Scotland sorcerer was lauded as a million-pound man when whispers of his move from Racing 92 to the Premiership first began, it is understood that Russell will be earning closer to £750,000 per year as Bath’s excluded player. Clearly, that is still a tidy sum. And the West Country wage bill features other big numbers.
Thomas du Toit, the burly South Africa prop, is another high-profile arrival. Ben Spencer, Cameron Redpath, Charlie Ewels, Joe Cokanasiga, Sam Underhill and Will Stuart are all big earners, too. There would not be much, if any, change out of £2 million for the combined wages of those last six.
It is understood that back-dated deals have allowed Bath to bring three prime assets from Wasps and Worcester Warriors in Alfie Barbeary, Ollie Lawrence and Ted Hill. This means that a player might have a contract for £10,000 over their first six months before receiving £290,000 for each of the next two seasons. The ploy requires nimble administration.
In short, Bath face a period of recalibration. Jonathan Joseph left for Biarritz last summer among a swathe of departures. Cokanasiga, Ewels, Underhill and Stuart, as well as Tom de Glanville and Will Muir, are all out of contract at the end of the season and some may only be able to stay on reduced terms. Stuart is thought to have met with Gloucester prior to the World Cup and has Top 14 suitors, too.
One insider suggested a “huge turnover of playing staff” was necessary in order to clean up salary structures that have become a “mess”, with Bath’s current predicament a classic example of what can happen – and what did happen at Leicester Tigers – when coaching teams are not allowed to settle and spending persists without a coherent strategy.
Even so, there is also optimism that “for the first time in a long time, they have a lot of good people in good positions”. Lee Blackett has joined Johann van Graan to oversee the attack and Rob Burgess, a vastly experienced former agent, arrived from Dragons in September as head of recruitment. Burgess was hailed as “their best appointment” of the summer.
Among his immediate priorities, sources have indicated, will be to find a back-three player with outstanding “gas” – Henry Arundell would fit the bill, one imagines – and an elite lock.
Bristol Bears
Possible excluded player: Kyle Sinckler
Pat Lam has run a top-heavy group for some time now and that will not change despite the exits of two Ashton Gate Galacticos in Charles Piutau and Semi Radradra. Those two were both excluded from last season’s cap and followed Luke Morahan, who left in January, as well as other departees including Joe Joyce and Andy Uren.
Kyle Sinckler signed an intriguing, one-year contract to remain in Bristol beyond the World Cup. Even if he may have come down from his initial deal, worth around £475,000 per year, the tighthead prop is doing well. Top 14 clubs are believed to be interested in his services from 2024.
Steven Luatua was another influential figure to extend his time under Pat Lam with Chris Vui, Ellis Genge, Magnus Bradbury and AJ MacGinty also around the top of the wage scale. MacGinty is in the second year of a three-year contract worth around £475,000 per season. Harry Thacker renewed for this season.
Kieran Marmion, the England-qualified scrum-half capped by Ireland, is another ex-Connacht man to have arrived and Max Malins, set for more game-time in his favoured full-back role, is a Bear again after his loan stint between 2020 and 2021. The latter has earned a pay rise in the process. Saracens are believed to have offered around £275,000 yet could not match Bristol’s mark of close to £360,000.
To his credit, Malins has shown himself to be a prolific try-scorer and a versatile, intuitive operator over the years. The 26-year-old was exceptional in the Premiership final four months ago. Benhard van Rensburg, the ex-London Irish centre, and former Wasps hooker Gabriel Oghre, who also represented Leicester Tigers and Union Bordeaux-Begles last season, are shrewd signings. Van Rensburg has been one of the competition’s best backs over the past two years and Oghre caught the eye in the Top 14 play-offs.
Top-heavy squad building has its critics who wonder about dressing room harmony, yet the approach could be suited to the smaller fixture list of a 10-team Premiership and the promise of fewer clashes with internationals in the future.
Cap space must be at a premium, but Virimi Vakatawa will not have broken the bank because his cardiological issues, which Bristol checked out with a panel of independent doctors, bar him from playing in France and the explosive centre is eager to kick-start his career. Santiago Grondona’s unfortunate ACL injury, sustained in Argentina’s final warm-up game against Spain, yields injury dispensation.
Having also acquired Kaleveti Ravouvou, a tackle-breaking wing, from Fijian Drua, the next priority for Gethin Watts, Bristol’s head of recruitment, is to strengthen the pack. Fitz Harding recently landed a long-term contract and Bears have enquired about a pair of versatile back-five forwards to have represented England over the past year.
Exeter Chiefs
Likely excluded player: Henry Slade
After an almighty exodus comes the rebuild. Rob Baxter leant heavily on the league-wide Covid dispensation, which meant that only 75 per cent of contracts counted towards the salary cap, to keep together the bulk of his double-winning squad. Retention was always going to be tough and the drip that began in 2022 with the losses of Jonny Hill, Sam Skinner and Tom O’Flaherty became a flood out of the Sandy Park gates.
Ben Moon, Dave Ewers, Harry Williams, Ian Whitten, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Jack Maunder, Jack Nowell, Jannes Kirsten, Joe and Sam Simmonds, Stuart Hogg; the list of leavers is dizzying, and swelled further by relatively recent arrivals including Reuben van Heerden, who returned to South Africa in January, and Solomone Kata.
Sources have suggested that, after that turnover, Exeter are not spending up to the cap for the current season, yet have re-signed a group including Jack Yeandle and Olly Woodburn as well as a younger crop featuring Tom Cairns, Tom Wyatt and Will Becconsall. There have been indications that Chiefs will be back up towards the ceiling soon enough.
Premiership Cup results have been promising with Ross Vintcent, a former Italy under-20 international who joined from Exeter University, showing impressive pace from No 8 to plunder a hat-trick against London Scottish to secure a semi-final berth.
Chiefs have looked to the Ospreys to bring in Ethan Roots, a combative Auckland-born back-rower, and Joe Hawkins. Having the latter and Henry Slade, both integral playmakers, around for the bulk of pre-season is a big bonus.
Will Haydon-Wood, the former England Under-20 fly-half who was developing nicely at Newcastle Falcons before an ill-fated switch to Wasps, could find a second wind in Devon via Massy in the French second tier. Matt Postlethwaite, released by Sale Sharks, is a burly lock that will graft and graft.
Slade will be front and centre of discussions around recruitment and retention for 2024-25. The centre, Exeter’s sole excluded player following Hogg’s retirement, is out of contract at the end of the current season. It is understood that he will take his time to assess options, with any further England involvement under Steve Borthwick now up in the air. The 30-year-old will not be short of suitors from aboard.
Gloucester
Possible excluded player: Fraser Balmain, Adam Hastings or Zach Mercer
Insiders at Kingsholm told Telegraph Sport a year ago that the identity of excluded players is a closely guarded secret, with even the individuals themselves unaware of that status. That could have changed in the interim given considerable backroom movement has seen Alex Brown taking over from Lance Bradley as chief executive and Alex James arriving from London Irish to aid George Skivington in recruitment and retention.
Either way, Zach Mercer has joined Adam Hastings, Fraser Balmain, Ruan Ackermann and Albert Tuisue as one of the club’s top earners. The back rower, back in the West Country from Montpellier to fight for an England place, is earning in the region of £400,000. One source has suggested that Mercer’s four-year agreement could rise to as much as £475,000 for its final instalment.
Gloucester’s academy products have habitually needed to be patient to pick up lucrative contracts, which brings us to Louis Rees-Zammit. The Wales wing will be out of contract next summer and is believed to be on a wage of around £225,000. He will have little trouble finding a juicier deal and Gloucester may let one young flyer go to acquire another in Henry Arundell.
That would continue a strong theme of picking up former Exiles, with James Lightfoot-Brown, previously academy backs coach at London Irish, now overseeing attack. Afolabi Fasogbon, the promising England Under-20 tighthead, headlines a cohort of London Irish youngsters bound for Cherry and White.
There are high hopes for rangy inside centre Max Llewellyn, who has come on board from Cardiff with Billy Twelvetrees moving to Ealing Trailfinders. Ackermann extending beyond the upcoming season felt significant, too.
Fasogbon will be a tantalising, long-term prospect for Trevor Woodman, though Gloucester were hurt by injuries last season and have their sights set on another senior prop to support Fraser Balmain, who has been an excluded player in the past. It is understood that the club met with Will Stuart prior to the World Cup. Hastings is another whose contract is running down, putting Gloucester on a search for a front-line fly-half as well as a scrum-half.
Harlequins
Possible excluded player: Marcus Smith
It is understood that an England regular at Harlequins can expect to earn around £325,000, with that number remaining relatively steady to account for the bonuses that members of the Elite Player Squad receive from the Rugby Football Union as well as the time that they are likely to remain unavailable for club duty.
Marcus Smith was probably commanding more than that even before he signed a Harlequins extension when a Racing 92 deal, thought to be worth around £500,000 per season, fell through. Remember that the fly-half was heavily linked to Bath before putting pen to his previous contract.
Retaining Smith has capped off an impressive year for Ed Spokes, Harlequins’ head of recruitment, because there has been a real sense of logic and succession planning to the ins and outs. Joe Launchbury, who opted for the Twickenham Stoop via Japan rather than Racing 92, bolstered lock stocks that were depleted in 2022 due to the departure of Hugh Tizard.
Will Porter, another ex-Wasp, is viewed as a long-term replacement at scrum-half for Danny Care. Dillon Lewis and Jarrod Evans have crossed the Severn Bridge from Cardiff, following the departures of Wilco Louw and Tommaso Allan, and Harlequins were opportunistic and focused upon the demise of London Irish. You could not wish for a player that fills the hole left by Joe Marchant more snugly than Will Joseph, and Harlequins will have saved money on that trade-off.
Chandler Cunningham-South is understood to have been brought in as injury cover for James Chisholm, with Lovejoy Chawatama acquired using the dispensation yielded by Simon Kerrod’s lay-off after ankle surgery. Both former Exiles will be eager to prove themselves and earn longer stays.
Chawatama, regarded as a highly effective scrummaging tighthead prop at Irish, attracted interest from Australia, Wales and France. He turned down more money in order to keep his family in Walton-on-Thames. With Castres thought to be closing in on Will Collier, Chawatama could make a more permanent home at Harlequins.
Roma Zheng, who compiled an eye-popping highlight reel when Cardiff Metropolitan University, may have looked like a wildcard. But two alumni from the same institution, Alex Dombrandt and Luke Northmore, have thrived in Harlequins’ environment. Zheng, a low-slung wing, scored on his debut against Hartpury in the Premiership Cup.
The concept of tactical identity often feels fluffy and vacuous, but Harlequins have made it tangible. This helps their recruitment because preferred positional profiles seem sharply defined. Josh Bellamy, for instance, is a sparky fly-half progressing through the academy. Smith would seem to be an appropriate role model.