It has been locked in a vault for almost 30 years but the original player contract is now valid for ‘World Rugby Corporation’, the £200 million Kerry Packer-backed rebel rugby circus that threatened to launch a global franchise league in 1995. will be announced for the first time.
The document, which remains intact, serves as a stark and fascinating reminder of the ‘rugby war’ that could have brought an end to more than 120 years of Test rugby.
And, according to the owner, former England, British and Irish Lions lock Martin Bayfield; This was a moment of missed opportunity for the Rugby Football Union; The consequences are still being felt today, and the union is on the verge of proposing new hybrid contracts. Get more control over your players.
The fight for the future of rugby union, which stumbled into professionalism against the backdrop of the 1995 World Cup in South Africa, was fought predominantly in the southern hemisphere, where media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Packer went head-to-head in the race to secure broadcasting. rights that would hasten the end of the amateur game.
Murdoch appeared to have struck the decisive blow on the eve of the World Cup final between the Springboks and New Zealand, when it was announced that the southern hemisphere’s three main unions – South Africa, New Zealand and Australia – had agreed a deal worth US$550 million. He is involved with the News Corp organization.
The 10-year deal gives News Corp exclusive television rights to a new annual Tri-Nations international tournament, a Super 12 club competition and all Test tours to the three countries.
But what News Corp, and indeed the unions, did not know at the time was that behind the scenes, leading players in each of the three countries were being secretly approached by representatives of the World Rugby Corporation (WRC). He was built by former Wallaby prop Ross Turnbull and later promoted by Packer.
Nearly 400 players, mostly from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa, have signed temporary contracts after the WRC contacted its captains Sean Fitzpatrick, Phil Kearns and Francois Pienaar.
After the Springboks’ support for the WRC collapsed under pressure from Louis Luyt, the controversial chairman of the South African Rugby Union, it was the Murdoch-backed unions who would ultimately prevail.
While these machinations between players, unions and broadcasters have since been well documented, what is less well known is how close the England team at the time came to signing up to the WRC and turning its back on the Rugby Football Union.
The contracts offered to England players were as lucrative as those to their southern hemisphere rivals; The 24-page document, titled ‘Deed of Providing Services’, included a salary offer of £200,000 per season. On 15 December 1995, plus a match fee of £1,350 per match.
The far-reaching document, which bore the imprint of Turnbull Hill Partners, a law firm based at the Charlestown Shopping Center in New South Wales, Australia, covered every aspect of the player’s life in the new global world league, which proposes the inclusion of 30 franchises around the world. The world will begin in September 1996.
“The Company proposes to establish a world-class organization for professional Rugby, commencing in 1996,” the contract states; but at the time the game had not yet been declared ‘open’ by the International Rugby Board, the global game’s governing body. World Rugby.
“The Company wishes to engage the services of the Player to play Rugby for the Company in accordance with the terms and conditions set out in this Charter.”
The contract was considered confidential; included not only the amount of money offered but also the existence of the contract; At the time, this was critical to his success, bringing in the best players in the world unannounced. News Corp. Relevant unions in the southern hemisphere that have reached agreements separately with.
However, players who received the contract offer would have no doubts about the consequences of signing the contract, effectively turning their backs on the unions and handing over control of future competitions, including changes to the law, to ‘The Company’. discipline.
But what is less clear is where players will play this new professional game, only that they will be allocated a ‘zone’, i.e. a region designated by the WRC on or before 31 December 1995.
“If the Company exercises its right to relocate the Player and the Company gives the Player two months’ notice of its intention to exercise this right, if the Player does not wish to play for the Player’s designated team, the Company will have a period of one month to negotiate with other teams to find a preferred team to accept the Player.” can have.” stated in the contract.
“The Player must be available for selection by the Company or any affiliate and, if selected, will train and play for a representative Team that plays the Game and in any Competition conducted by the Company in any country.”
It was made clear that players could not play for another team after the start of the contract, meaning players like Bayfield would have to turn their backs on England.
But the level of promised support is impressive; This includes clothing, promotional participation, straps and equipment, travel to games, accommodation and meals, comprehensive health insurance, and a disability insurance that will pay 100 percent of the first year of the contract and 50 percent of the second and third years if the player is unable to play due to injury.
There was even the foresight to recognize the importance of salary caps; This signaled that the company could introduce these for the sustainability of the game and “teams and competitions”.
Considering the decades-long struggles to align the hemispheres and resolve the conflicts between club and country that arose in those volatile days, the simplicity that the convention sought to bring to the game that would soon be known as ‘rugby’ also stands out. or rugby union’.
“The Games will be arranged to take place, to the extent possible, principally between September and April each year; BUT the Company reserves the right to hold a summer competition at any time or from time to time,” it adds.
It is unclear whether the WRC is considering rescheduling a summer tournament to replace the Lions tour, but Bayfield, a veteran of the 1993 tour of New Zealand, insists England players were left behind in the turbulent days following the 1995 World Cup. They decided to sign even if it meant they would never play at Twickenham again.
While high-level meetings involving southern hemisphere players were held in five-star hotels in Sydney, Johannesburg and Auckland, Bayfield reveals that one of the tough meetings involving England players took place in the less salubrious premises of the Holiday Inn in Crick. M1.
“When we came back from the World Cup, the East Midlands boys, including Dean Richards and Tim Rodber from Northampton and Leicester, met in that delightful setting at Junction 18 and talked about what the options were,” Bayfield told Telegraph Sport.
“I had doubts about how a game that had been amateur since the day William Webb Ellis was a naughty boy and picked up the ball could turn professional overnight, and how amateur managers could suddenly become professional managers.
‘I was earning £28,000 as a constable with Bedford Police’
“But suddenly contracts appeared in front of us. They would put teams together and you could be placed somewhere where a country might need you, like Australia or America. I guess we are all ready to sign because the numbers and figures are good,” said Bayfield, who was then earning around £28,000 as a constable with Bedford Police.
“It was a fascinating time for the players. We were being asked to make a really big decision. And like the vultures in the Jungle Book movie, we were asking each other: ‘What do you think? I don’t know? What do you think? I have no idea. But we liked the look of the numbers.
“But I am a suspicious police officer and I remember thinking that I would only sign this if I knew it was going to happen. That’s why I put it in my safe, that’s why you don’t have it.”
Bayfield says the concept only collapsed until South African players decided to withdraw from the WRC, and although the RFU hesitantly imposed a one-year moratorium on professionalism, club owners in England moved to sign contracts with the top team. The players took control.
“From that moment on, the seeds that we’re collecting now were undoubtedly planted,” added Bayfield, who keeps the contract as “a piece of history” similar to old jerseys and game schedules.
“This is a historical document about the evolution of the sport of rugby,” Bayfield added. “The RFU are trying to get these central contracts now, but if they had turned to the top 100 players in England at the time and said we would pay you £150,000, £100,000 and £75,000 on a sliding scale, we would have all signed and the RFU could have loaned those players back to the clubs and we would have been on our way. “There would be none of the negotiations we have now between club and country.”