Wray: We must not raise the salary cap

Chris Jones13 April 2012

English club rugby could be heading for a damaging financial crisis if plans to raise the salary cap to £2.3 million for each of the twelve Zurich Premiership clubs are introduced next season.

Saracens owner Nigel Wray insists the current salary cap level of £1.8m has to remain or the game will return to the bad old days when more than £100m - invested by the club owners - was written off as the fledgling professional sport struggled to survive.

Wray said: "Where is that extra £500,000 going to come from? I expect every Premiership club's revenue to be down this season because of the current economic situation.

"Why would a business agree to take a sponsor's box when they have had to cut thousands of jobs?

"The current salary cap level is one we are living with and there is no point returning to the days when millions just leaked out of the game through increasing wages."

His warning comes as Sarries appear to have found a tentative agreement with Bernard Lapasset, the French Federation president, over compensation for Thomas Castaignede's 13-month injury saga.

Castaignede was hurt warming up for France against Australia on 4 November last year and has undergone three Achilles tendon operations. He is currently in Paris seeing a surgeon and hopes to be cleared to play by February.

Despite worries at Sarries that he may not make it back, Castaignede believes his rehabilitation is progressing well.

He said: "I hope I am at the end of the tunnel, but I shall have to get the engine going again after a long time in which it produced only smoke."

Sarries have paid Castaignede's wages - around £300,000 - throughout the period of his injury after the FFR said the full-back was not covered by their insurance because he played for an English club.

After meeting Lapasset and French coach Bernard Laporte in Paris, Wray believes a solution can be found.

He said: "It has been left that the FFR will come back to us and after meeting the two Bernards I am confident that we will come to a sensible agreement. After all, we are talking about honour and integrity.

"Saracens could have walked away from Thomas's contract after the injury, but we stood by him because it was the decent thing to do. Now, the FFR seems ready to follow suit."

Sarries face Newcastle at Watford on Sunday with key men Abdel Benazzi, Robbie Russell, David Flatman and Jannie de Beer on the replacements' bench after returning from injury. The team won at Bristol last weekend without 10 regulars.

Josh Lewsey, off to face Northampton with London Wasps tomorrow, has been named in the new 60-strong England elite players squad.

Containing the best and most promising players in the game, their playing and development will be controlled centrally by the RFU, rugby's governing body, at Twickenham.

London Irish will be rotating their front-row players for their trip to Sale Sharks, who have England full-back Jason Robinson playing in only his third home game of the season.

Keith Wood is all set to make a welcome return to the starting line-up for inconsistent Harlequins, who are off to Leeds.

The Ireland captain, who has not featured for Quins since mid-October, needed minor surgery on his shoulder after his country's defeat by New Zealand in Dublin last month.

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Rugbymail.co.uk

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