Steve Borthwick starts work as Leicester’s head coach next week with his first task to repair morale, which has been battered by a contract dispute between some players and the club that has seen the Tigers release five who refused to accept pay cuts for the next year, including the England and Lions centre Manu Tuilagi.
The Tigers’ chief executive, Andrea Pinchen, confirmed the departures of the five, who were not prepared to take a 25% pay cut next season despite a pledge that some of it would be reimbursed once the club, which has not been in the black since 2015, returned to profitability.
Tuilagi, who has spent his senior career at Leicester having joined in 2009, is the headline departure and is likely to move abroad, ending his England career. The other four are Kyle Eastmond, another England centre, the long-serving prop Greg Bateman, the centre Noel Reid and the full-back Telusa Veainu.
“Early on after we had little income coming in, we asked staff and players who were earning above a certain level to take a 25% pay cut across the board,” said Pinchen. “Everyone bought into that. Then as we looked at a central funding cut of 60% and the loss of £5m from not playing, which will double if we are not allowed to have spectators back until January, we realised we had to make deep cuts.
“That is primarily wrapped up within players’ salaries. They were asked, for next season only, to take a reduction of 25%, above a certain threshold, with an opportunity to later claw back part of it and to sign an agreement to say that they would not reserve their right but accept it. Some chose, because of their own circumstances, not to come on board.
“There is no blame game in this,” added Pinchen, who said that 31 non-playing staff had been made redundant. “We wish them well for their next chapter. We had to go down this path and the majority of the players are going with us. Some wanted more money than we were prepared to pay and were not prepared to talk with us, so here we are.”
Leicester are upset that the contract difficulty has been played out in the media. “That has been massively disappointing,” said Pinchen. “We may not stop it but we will get to the bottom of this and going forward there will be a code of conduct that everyone will be expected to live by.”
Leicester’s East Midlands rivals, Northampton, have secured all their players on reduced contracts next season, and had no dissenters. “This was not a decision that was taken lightly,” said the Saints’ chief executive, Mark Darbon. “It was a necessary temporary change to reduce our cost base and preserve the financial sustainability of the club.”
Unions are also feeling the squeeze. Rugby Australia has agreed a 30% pay cut with its players. Talks between the Irish Rugby Football Union and the players’ association over a 20% reduction remain deadlocked after three rounds of negotiations.
