Rugby Australia is hopeful it will reach an "appropriate arrangement" to slash player payments in the coming days as wage negotiations threaten to drag on this week.
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RA boss Raelene Castle and the Rugby Union Players Association met again on Wednesday to discuss how salaries will be affected due to the coronavirus.
Players have become frustrated at the delay and being left out of wage negotiations until now, while their NRL and AFL counterparts have been in discussions for the past three weeks.
Super Rugby had completed almost a third of its season when the competition was postponed indefinitely earlier this month.
But Super Rugby nations, and Australian rugby in particular, are struggling with the pain of having no game and television revenue, while the likely cancellation of international matches is projected to cause a $120 million loss of revenue for RA.
The players are expecting to take a significant hit given Castle has already cut her salary by 50 per cent. Her executive team has taken a 30 per cent hit, while all Super Rugby clubs are relying on the JobKeeper funding package to pay staff a fraction of their wages.
But player tension is growing as the stalemate continues and past players criticise the administration.
"Rugby Australia announced a raft of deep cuts across the organisation that were necessary to support the game through the current global health and economic crisis caused by Coronavirus," Castle said.
"These very difficult decisions have impacted every single employee at Rugby Australia and the Super teams, and 75 per cent of those employees have been stood down from their roles for a period of three months.
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"This also equates to over a 75 per cent savings in costs across these organisations.
"Yesterday, we commenced formal discussions with RUPA with a genuine desire to find a fair and reasonable solution on a short term pay deal with the players for the three-month period from now until June 30.
"We believe the information we have shared, including information on future cash projections, provides the players with enough information to develop a position.
"We have entered the discussions with RUPA in good faith and look forward to continuing those discussions to reach an appropriate agreement under the current circumstances."
Meanwhile, New Zealand Rugby has unveiled an emergency grant to its five Super Rugby teams to have them afloat and ready whenever the competition resumes.
On the same day that he confirmed staff cuts across the organisation, NZ Rugby chief executive Mark Robinson announced the distribution of $NZ250,000 ($A243,000) each to the Blues, Chiefs, Hurricanes, Crusaders and Highlanders.
The money can be used for the next three months as a "critical supplement" to other financing options in the face of the coronavirus epidemic, Robinson said.
Kiwi Super Rugby teams earn most of their revenues through private commercial backing and gate takings but both streams were pummelled when the competition was suspended two weeks ago.
A bid to launch a New Zealand-only competition fell over when tight national restrictions were announced by the government to combat COVID-19.
The current franchise licences are to expire in September and Robinson said negotiations for the next term would go on hold.
That would allow NZ Rugby to review its governance of the competition and ensure it is sustainable.
"These decisions are about protecting the core capability of the Super Rugby clubs so that they are ready to hit the ground running if Super Rugby resumes later this year, and also be in a position to revive and participate in Super Rugby in whatever shape it takes in 2021 and beyond," Robinson said.
He confirmed New Zealand's 26 provincial unions would receive their full quarterly funding from a pool of about $30 million this month but couldn't guarantee that would continue later this year.
Earlier, it was confirmed that NZ Rugby staff will take a 20 per cent pay cut across the board, which a spokesperson said would have been worse were it not for the assistance of the New Zealand Government's wage subsidy scheme.
The measures compare favourably with Rugby Australia, which on Tuesday night announced three-quarters of its staff -- about 100 people - will be stood down while the remainder were retained on drastically reduced salaries.
An agreement with New Zealand players over pay cuts is expected to be reached next week.
Robinson has estimated his organisation will suffer revenue loss in excess of $NZ100 million ($A97 million) this year in a worst-case scenario, under which no top level rugby is played.
In an interview with the New Zealand Herald, Robinson said redundancies at NZ Rugby would become a reality if the sport's resumption is delayed.
He said he will dip into the sport's cash reserves, which total about $80 million, but wouldn't say to what extent.
- With AAP