The Australian Rugby Union has to be smart about cost-cutting decisions to ensure the Wallabies remain at the cutting edge of high performance, Test hooker Stephen Moore says.
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Wallabies players have agreed to a pay cut for at least the next two years, with Test match payments being slashed from $13,100 to $10,000. It is part of the ARU's cost-cutting as the cash-strapped code attempts to save money and strengthen rugby in Australia.
The ARU, the Rugby Union Players' Association and five Australian Super Rugby franchises signed a new Collective Bargaining Agreement on Wednesday.
The agreement includes:
■ Reduced assembly allowances for Wallabies training camps and Test matches.
■ Inclusion of $5 million salary cap per season for Australia's five Super Rugby teams.
■ Increase in players' share of gross player revenue from 26 per cent to 29 per cent.
■ Increase of more than 15 per cent in minimum player salaries.
■ Design of a player draft for first-year professional contracts, to operate in conjunction with new Super Rugby development squads.
■ Improve player development pathways in Australia through a commitment to a national rugby competition.
Moore, Australia's most-capped hooker and a player director on the RUPA board, said he was comfortable with the Test payments, which were ''a small proportion of the cuts''.
''It's important to note there have been jobs lost at the ARU and there have been cuts to funding,'' he said. ''Most people will focus on the match payment cuts, but other parts are equally important to the future and health of rugby.
''It's a fine line between cutting things where you need to and remaining at the cutting edge of high performance. We just need to be really smart with the way we go about things. Financially we have to be smart about how we allocate sources.''
The agreement is set to save the ARU more than 10 per cent of its player payment costs.
The ARU said match payments for nationally-contracted Wallabies players would be reduced to $10,000 from next year until the end of 2017 - a drop of about $50,000 a year for a player involved in every Test.
But RUPA has negotiated an increase in the minimum individual player salaries for all Super Rugby squad players, as well as boosting their share of gross player revenue from 26 per cent to 29 per cent. Non-nationally contracted Wallabies will get an increase of $2000 to $12,000 a Test in 2016 and 2017.
And for the first time, the agreement also includes a $5 million a season salary cap for each of Australia's five Super Rugby teams.
ARU chief executive Bill Pulver said the agreement required significant compromises from all parties. While the ARU opted against introducing incentive-based match payments for players, Pulver said he would not rule out such a concept when the next CBA was up for discussion.
''In a commercial sense I do appreciate the benefits of a basic pay-for-performance concept,'' he said.
''But at this particular juncture I'm delighted with the outcome. I have zero concern about whether the Wallaby players are putting in all of the effort required to win games.
''I see the way they respond when they've lost games. I have no concern at all about the fact that they are performing to the absolute best of their ability.
''To date, we just haven't been good enough to win these competition games. But we'll get there.''
with AAP