Wales captain Warburton signs WRU contract

a simple reason may be that , none of these unions have the money to completely satisfy players' demands. to put things into perspective: Christiano Ronaldo gets paid GBP1.2mio per month. Lionel Messigets GBP 1.0 mio per month. with the endorsements deals these two boys earn as much as a national rugby administration !!!

The trouble is Wales can't afford to Centrally Contract an entire squad. They claimed to want to give CCs to six players but at the rate they're paying Warburton they couldn't even afford that. Two of those six - Leigh Halfpenny and Alun Wyn Jones - have already turned down CCs. The NZRU works with its five Super Rugby sides. The WRU is virtually in open warfare with the four Welsh Regions and there is no trust on either side. A completely different situation. In 2003 when "the Regions" were set up it was supposed to be a copy of the NZRU system including CCs by David Moffett (the CEO of the WRU at the time, an Englishman who had spent most of his working life in NZ and Australia, including being CEO of the NRLin the wake of the Superleague war) but the WRU was broke due to massive financial mismanagement. That ship has well and truly sailed. Also central contracts and even Regions are pretty much totally culturally incompatible with Welsh rugby which is very tribal and club based. NZ has always had Provinces and players have played for different entities at different levels (club, province, SR side, National team). In Wales this doesn't happen and the Regions are pretty much clubs in all but name.

I agree Chan,Without knowing the actual contract one just has to wonder if it will be effective in also player satisfaction like the AB.

No. Very few details are known except duration and 270000GBP per year. The WRU statement says "the WRU *intends* to release the player outside his Wales duties to the Cardiff Blues at no cost to the Region allowing them to reinvest these funds in the region". The weasel word "intend" is in there as there has been no agreement with the Cardiff Blues. The 20 games a year thing is from numerous interviews Warburton has given in the past. I very much doubt it's explicitly in the contract. This is essentially a PR exercise by the WRU in the near-civil-war in Welsh rugby.

@ felix : As far as i know, central contracting happens with cricket. the pros are , it allows a country to ensure availability of the best for matches year-round. the cons are, it limits players' ability to go to certain lucrative events. for example - one issue KP (England) and a few others have is not being able to play in IPL for million dollar contracts. that is becoz ECB prevents its central players from playing in such events. IMO football has a better way of dealing with country - club conflict. Most of the time country has priority over players irrespective of any central contract. for example many players are being named into the England squad due to injuries to regulars. Some of these boys are just starting out on clubs. this may be possible due to the money in football as opposed to all other games/ sports. Because clubs are so rich, some even richer than smaller nations, a country cant afford to have conflicts with clubs or players. however at times clubs do resist releasing players (especially for friendlies).

@ ben : Only consistant 7 IMO was FLOW ; others had ups and downs. RM was not his usual self and also didnot play all games. But then he is measured by very high standards. Cane was good when he played. Hooper was good after the RC. Robshow led from front in his workmanlike manner.

Welsh trying the All Black central contracting move,will it be as effective?,remains to be seen :-?

Lion, do you know if the contract signed stipulates he shouldn't play more than 20 games per year? Its the first time I see an international player having for main employer his country/national team which will magnanimously 'release' him so he can play a few matches for his club.

Poleaxe, nothing worse than a tr0ll who doesn't realise he is being a tr0ll. Atleast take pride in your poor effort to illicit talk about Robbie Deans in an article about Sam Warburton and the WRU.

Nobody is as dumb as you pretend to be. Nobody surely. Nobody is id1otic enough to blame players leaving after a coach is sacked to the coach sacked. Nobody is stup1d enough to attribute a Welsh players actions to the previous coach of Australia. How can that compute in a persons brain? There is no connection whatsoever. It can only be a tr0ll. Nobody is mo0nic enough to blame Robbies Wallaby selections for club failings. I get it, everything is Robbies fault, even in foriegn countries. You are a real genius.

yeah right, he hasn't resigned, but he signed again with the WRU.....yeah right....big differnce!!!!! how silly of me I have a sneaking suspicion that if deans had played Mowen a few years ago, when he should have, Ben would not have to do the cash run he is doing know. This is probably his last professional contract, or close to it. He is probably the lowest paid (relative to other players I mean in the profrssional era) to have captained the wallabies. If he had been given a crack earlier he would not be in this position. Time with my family...bollocks..He wants to make a decent living before retirement. Tane why am i a troll because I think deans has dented australian rugby. There have been many posts about deans. Get over yourself mate.

Well your really assuming that ive watched him "the odd game"....like most kiwi rugby fans i have the rugby channel and watch all the northern hemisphere comps they show as well as ours....hes pretty underwhelming in my opinion....a way behind the sth african, aus and kiwi 7s.

That would finally shut the Ponty fans up, thank god. You mentioned a 2 division league. I think that is a great idea. I know the English championship clubs are whinging and don't like the idea, but we could have a British/Irish league with those clubs acting as feeder clubs for the English, just like the premiership clubs (Newport, Swansea, Cardiff) do for the Dragons, Ospreys and Blues) I believe that would strengthen English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish rugby a lot as it would free up more local talent and kick the foreign players out. And personally I don't care if it screws the WRU over; they have been holding Wales back from becoming successful outside Europe. Yes, winning 6N's is great, but realistically Wales are good enough (NOW with the players they have) to knock over Australia and SA, whilst an odd win now and again against the AB's is not unreasonable (England can do it). There is often the idea (which I believe is true) that regional rugby in the Rabo doesn't prepare Wales for the international games in terms of fitness, intensity, etc. Surely the WRU should realise that by playing with the English and others, it will improve their international game. Therefore Wales won't be rusty and start off slow as they did against Ireland last February.

Well yes. They are rumoured to be West Wales (playing out of The Gnoll, Neath), East Wales (playing out of Sardis Road, Pontypridd) and Rygbi Gogledd Cymru 1404 (playing out of Parc Eirias, Colwyn Bay). But where will Roger Lewis get the players from for these teams and what will he pay them with. If the 4 fully professional sides in Wales join the English clubs in an Anglo-Welsh League (or even better a 2 Division British & Irish League with full relegation / promotion) then the WRU will lose the participation money that those clubs bring in from the Pro12 and HEC. It's just hubris from RL. He wanted to sign 6 players who were out of contract at the end of the season. Leigh Halfpenny has signed for Toulon, Alun Wyn Jones has resigned for the Ospreys (despite him being put under huge pressure not to and to sign a CC instead) and now Warburton has signed a CC. As I said he was always the most likely to. Just Adam Jones, Scott Williams and Priestland are still making up their minds. Yes Jamie Roberts is very injury prone but he has always played more club games than Warburton.

He hasn't resigned, he has signed a Central Contract with the WRU to play for Wales plus wherever they place him to play sub-international professional rugby. So nothing to do with leaving Wales (the opposite in fact) like Mowen left Australia for a contract at a French club and nothing to do with Robbie Deans. Go and troll elsewhere.

I saw him dropped from the starting line up for Wales. I then saw him come back as a 6. I then saw him only play 2 games against Australia for the Lions. Warburton had a mixed year. There was much debate if he should be included in the Lions because he had such poor form to start the year. Thats why people question it. However his peers voted for him.

Poleaxe is a troll. He was posting on here as black the other day. Every story he attributes negatively to Deans. He gets a stiffy from it.

Ben: If you watched him this year and not just for the odd game you'd understand why. For example, he was excellent in the Scotland, England and 2nd Lions test in particular. He is an underrated player.

Surely that means if the regions split from the WRU to join the English (please do), then Warburton will leave the Blues to join one of the WARU's newly formed regions? He was stupid to become centrally contracted and should have waited another month at least. At the very worst, he could have taken a pay cut and stayed with the Blues if nothing eventuated. Also, if Roberts can get contracted and he is the biggest injury prone player around, I see no reason why Warburton couldn't.

Im still trying to get over the fact he was named in the world xv for 2013 as the best 7 in the world!