Premiership Rugby chief executive Mark McCafferty © Getty Images

Enlarge

Related Links

News: Mixed response to extra marquee player allowance

Features: Leveling the playing field

Premiership Rugby has confirmed changes to the Premiership salary cap from the 2015-16 season.

Following today's meeting of Premiership Rugby's chairman/shareholder group the salary cap will develop with the emphasis on further increasing the number of home-grown players in the Premiership.

Leveling the playing field

© Getty Images

• Today's announcement was hardly a shock, predicted as it has been for some time. Amid the salary cap details, the news that two top 'excluded' players will be allowed instead of one is perhaps the most significant.
  
  The criteria for the second player - that they must not have played in the Premiership for 12 months preceding the contract - is clearly aimed at two areas. One is the English player lured abroad; clearly this is aimed at those playing in the Top 14. The second is the big-name foreign players who have tended of late to head to France.
  
  Click here for the full analysis

"We are delighted to confirm the number of England qualified players in Premiership rugby has passed 70% for the first time and we want to drive the numbers even higher," said Premiership Rugby boss Mark McCafferty. "The increase in the base level of the salary cap will help our clubs to retain English talent. Also the introduction of Home Grown Player Credits helps the enviable production line that has been established from our Academies to our Premiership squads and on to England.

"England and their clubs are getting stronger because of our commitment to the development of world-class England players in the Premiership; the most competitive league in the world. It is an essential part of our league and the strength of our system.

"Earlier in the summer we saw an England Under-20s team dominated by players from our Academies win their second IRB Junior World Cup in 12 months so the production line is getting stronger.

"As we have already seen in the first two weeks of [this season] the league is compelling and dramatic, with a core of players desperate to play in next year's Rugby World Cup. It is performances for their clubs that win them places at the tournament.

"Attendances are up this season and a record number of tries have been scored in the first two rounds. The standard of rugby ensures England is in great shape not only for the 2015 Rugby World Cup but also for 2019 and beyond."

Explaining the rationale behind the rise McCafferty added: "The level of the Salary Cap is linked to central revenues which have increased significantly in recent years, as a result of new broadcast partner in BT Sport, new European revenues and the recent contract signed with our title sponsor, Aviva.

"This increase in central revenues has allowed us to increase the Salary Cap and further help our clubs compete in both the new European Rugby Champions Cup and European Rugby Challenge Cup."

In a nutshell

• From the 2015-16 season
  
  * The Base Salary Cap level will be £5.1m plus £400,000 Home Grown Player Credits
  
  * Each club will be also be able to nominate up to two 'Excluded Players'. Their salary is not included in the Salary Cap
  
  * The Home Grown Player Credit applies to players who joined a club Academy before their 18th birthday and have been with the club for more than two years

The Premiership Rugby clubs have also voted to add a second player excluded from the cap to their squads.

"Currently the 'excluded' player (from the salary cap) can be nominated from a club's current squad giving the clubs the ability to keep investing in English players to ensure they stay in Aviva Premiership Rugby," said McCafferty. "That will continue, but from the 2015-16 season clubs will be able to nominate a second 'excluded' player. This will allow our clubs to attract the best players from other competitions who will add to our TV and commercial values. The second 'excluded' player must be new to the Premiership in the 2015-16 season and/or have not played in the competition for at least 12 months."