The Welsh Rugby Union could take a financial hit in excess of £4m after Wales’ bid to retain the Six Nations title floundered with defeat to England.
Wales banked a bumper pay-out of £5.5m last season for completing a Grand Slam, consisting of £4.5m in prize money for lifting the European championship and an extra £1m for Wales winning all five fixtures.
But a 33-30 defeat at Twickenham means it’s mathematically impossible for Wayne Pivac’s squad to finish higher than third in this year’s table.
And, surveying the remaining fixtures, fourth would be more realistic if and when Ireland’s match with Italy in Dublin, which has been postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak, takes place.
A loss to Scotland at the Principality Stadium would probably condemn Wales to a fifth place finish.
Third-placed Scotland will come to Cardiff on a high after ending France’s bid for a Grand Slam and with the carrot of still being in the race for the title.
Wales are fifth in the standings with only Italy, who have a game in hand, below them and would stay in that position should Scotland win for the first time in the Welsh capital in the Six Nations since 2002.
The tournament winner gets £4.5m, the runner-up £3.3m, third £2.3m, fourth £1.8m, fifth £1.3m and last £800,000.
As there will not be a Grand Slam this year, the extra £1m for a clean sweep is divided equally among the competing nations, each of them getting around £166,000.
WRU policy is to budget for a fourth place finish and Wales’ results in the Six Nations mean it won’t be dishing out so much to coach Pivac’s squad in bonus payments.
Wales pay their players a match fee of around £5,300 per game and an image-rights payment of £1,500 per player per campaign but have a lucrative bonus system in place to reward success that can mean players earning up to £15,000 a match.
The WRU’s last annual accounts stated an extra £1.4m had gone on bonuses as a result of Wales completing the Grand Slam under then coach Warren Gatland in 2019.
The union made a loss of £4.3m in it’s last financial year to increase its bank debt by £2.9m from £6.1m to a total of £9m after hosting one fewer Six Nations match and had a drop in income of £2.4m because it hosted fewer non-rugby events, such as music concerts, boxing and motorsport.
Outgoing WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips has previously warned income will suffer this financial year as the World Cup means Wales didn’t host its popular and lucrative four-match autumn international Test series.
They faced England and Ireland at the Principality Stadium during the summer holiday season in August warm-up matches ahead of the global showpiece and entertained invitation side Barbarians following it.
A crowd of 73,931 was in attendance for the fixture with England, 62,905 for Ireland and 62,138 for the Barbarians at the end of last November.
