Welsh Rugby Union has signed a new five-year deal with the senior Wales players
The governing body of the Rugby Union in Wales, the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), has announced their new five-year deal with senior Wales’ team players. The new deal has helped the WRU to secure
the services of key Welsh players until the end of the 2016 Wales tour to New Zealand.
WRU officials have confirmed the signing of the new deal in a statement released on their website on Friday, August 5. With this new deal, Wales becomes the only Rugby Union team which has
a player agreement deal running even after the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
The new deal will allow WRU to retain the services of the senior players for Wales 2011 and 2015 Rugby World Cup Campaigns and for the next five 2012 – 2016 Six Nations campaigns. Additionally,
the players are contractually bound to represent Wales in their four international tours in next five years.
The Wales team will take on the tour of Australia in 2012, Japan in 2013, South Africa in 2014 and New Zealand in 2016. Besides this, they are also bound to play in all of Wales international
assignments during the summer and autumn seasons for the next five years.
The work on this groundbreaking deal was started last year in December, which featured WRU Group Finance Director, Rhodri Lewis, Welsh Rugby Players’ Association (WRPA) General Secretary Neil
Maclean-Smith, WRPA President, Rhys Williams, Steve Phillips and Roger Lewis.
In the built up to this milestone deal, WRU Group Chief Executive, Roger Lewis, held a series of meetings with the senior Welsh players during Wales 2011 Rugby World Cup training camp, at Spala
Poland.
Lewis, Wales’ international captain Matthew Rees, and Players Chair (WRPA), Gethin Jenkins signed the final deal on Friday.
Commenting on the occasion, Roger Lewis has expressed his delight on securing a long-term contract with the players. He added that he was very looking forward to this deal and has praised the
role of players in achieving this historic event.
Lewis further added, “The structure of the contract is based on rewarding success. The more matches they win the better the payments will be. This arrangement is good as it shares the spoils
of victory fairly. I am delighted this contract takes us through to 2016 because it removes any concerns the current and future players will have and allows us to concentrate on matters on the field without any distractions off it.”
The attribute of the new deals include:
Basic match fees
Players’ payments are linked with the outcome of the match
Player appearances on behalf of the WRU in different commercials
Payment to players playing for Wales A team
WRU to provide a fund of £130k to WRPA, for players’ welfare and development.
Tags: