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Tom Hamilton, Senior Writer
The announcement on Wednesday of the new-look Men’s Professional Game Partnership (MPGP) for English rugby came to much fanfare, heralded as a “new deal to stabilise and transform the professional game and have a long-term positive impact on community rugby.”
It has been a long-time coming, complete with 18 months of collaboration between the stakeholders to make the professional game in England more aligned.
But what exactly is it? And why is it so important?
What is the Men’s Professional Game Partnership (MPGP)?
The MPGP is a deal between the Rugby Football Union (RFU), Premiership Rugby and the players and will be managed by the Rugby Players’ Association.
It is worth £33 million a season to Premiership clubs for the first four years, before a profit sharing model will be used in the second four-year cycle.
The agreement governs things like England’s access to their players and has introduced 25 new hybrid contracts, which will give England influence over skills and conditioning of a group of selected key players.
This will be an eight-year deal, replacing the previous agreement which finished in June.
The hope is this will signify a brave new partnership between the clubs and the RFU — allowing for more synergy over things like social media and ticketing promotions, all under the auspices of the new-look Professional Rugby Board (PRB) which becomes English rugby’s decision-making group, replacing the previous Professional Game Board.
The PRB will be made up of an independent chair, two independent members, while the RFU will have three voting members (including ex-referee and new RFU board member Wayne Barnes) and Premiership Rugby will also have three votes. The Rugby Players’ Association has two seats, one with voting power, and another for observation.
What does it mean for the England men’s team?
Well, for those players on one of the 25 hybrid contracts, the England management team will contribute to their programmes for both strength and conditioning and skill development. Steve Borthwick, the England head coach, will have final say on “all sports science and medical matters relating to the management of Enhanced EPS players,” according to the RFU.
“The England national team benefits by having control over the [individual development programme], medical and S&C of the best players in England at the peak of their form and in the best shape to play for their country,” RFU CEO Bill Sweeney said.
This is a huge step forward for England’s control of their best players — a select group of 25 — of which only two have been taken up so far from Jamie George and Maro Itoje.
The chief mission is to help keep England’s best players in the Gallagher Premiership.
There’s been a talent drain over the past couple of seasons, with the salary cap lowered in the Premiership and promises of greater riches (and brilliant rugby) on offer in France.
That’s seen players at varying stages of their career like Henry Arundell, Joe Marchant, Jack Nowell, David Ribbans, Sam Simmonds, Jack Willis, Owen Farrell, Courtney Lawes, Lewis Ludlam, Kyle Sinckler, Manu Tuilagi, Billy Vunipola and Mako Vunipola swap home shores for France.
But those players on these hybrid contracts — like George and Itoje — will receive a guaranteed fee of £160,000 a year up front, which replaces the £25,000 or so match fees players are on.
So it it potentially less money for someone who features in as many as 12 matches in a season for England, but also guarantees them a fixed sum if they get injured.
Overall, while this gives Borthwick more control, the agreement still falls short of how the system works in other countries, like Ireland.
There the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) has influence over their centrally contracted players, can influence recruitment, rest players and shift a player from one province to another if it’s in the interest of long-term development and game time.
Borthwick cannot influence a club if he feels they’d be better at inside centre, rather than fly-half for example, nor could he nudge a player like Theo Dan to move away from Saracens to be first-choice elsewhere rather than second to England captain George. Yet this should be seen as progress overall.
How will this work for the Gallagher Premiership clubs?
The agreement is a commitment to ensure “world-leading English teams and thriving professional leagues delivered through a fully optimised performance system in partnership with our players,” according to a statement.
There was a bit of confusion over how the hybrid contracts would work when it came to who would have the casting vote, but it seems like Borthwick will have the final say.
So for example, if Saracens want Itoje to bulk up, and England wanted him to slim down, who would have the final say? Well, the announcement makes it look like Borthwick has jurisdiction.
Then there will be instances, near the Six Nations or autumn internationals, where a player may require a procedure which would rule them out for, say, two weeks. Does that happen on club time, or impinge on international schedules?
“If you’re in control of someone’s medical decisions, you’re deciding when they play, aren’t you?” Exeter Chiefs boss Rob Baxter said recently. It looks like Borthwick holds the cards here.
In short, it is not really the perfect agreement both parties were hoping for. But that’s to be expected in an English rugby system which has been chasing its own tail since the game went professional in 1995.
The “relationship” has been Church and State. The RFU and Premiership Rugby previously rarely found middle ground and instead of building a harmonious arrangement for the better of English rugby as an organic whole, the two bodies have far too often descended into self-interest.
So the hope is this will help bring them closer than ever before.
“The new Professional Game Partnership is fundamental to the next phase of English club rugby,” Premiership Rugby CEO Simon Massie-Taylor said.
“We have worked hard with the RFU and RPA to provide more financial stability, better governance and a joint high-performance plan that will help make the men’s England team and the Premiership clubs as successful as possible.
“What we have learnt from the challenges of the last few years is how important healthy clubs and a successful men’s England team are to the rugby eco-system — and also how important it is to work in partnership with the players, the governing body and other rugby stakeholders.”
The agreement will also see the salary cap reviewed in the Premiership. It sits at £6.4m, with extra credits and allowances taking it to £7.8m with one player allowed to sit outside the cap. The announcement said the eight-year deal includes “a commitment to implementing a salary cap formula from 25-26 aligned to key central financial metrics, which will include a review of the salary cap credit system.”
The MPGP has also seen academy boundaries redrawn, to re-distribute parts of the country left without partner clubs following the demise of Wasps, London Irish and Worcester Warriors.
Clubs will partner with a minimum of two state schools each, while players in Yorkshire — a part of the country a fair distance from a Premiership club — will go into an academy managed by the RFU and PRB. These geographical boundaries could shift with promoted clubs if they become an established Premiership force.
There is also clarification on how promotion and relegation will work.
There will be a two-match play-off between the team at the foot of the Premiership and the winner of the Championship, providing that team meets the Minimum Standards Criteria (MSC) for promotion (a set of rules including things like minimum stadium capacity).
The new-look MSC will allow a longer period for a promoted club to achieve required ground capacities. For example: clubs may move from 5,000, to 7,500 and finally 10,001 at the start of their fourth season in Premiership at the latest. The PRB will take charge of the MSC from the start of the 2024-25 season.
This comes with a note of caution.
An RFU press release said: “All parties want a viable, sustainable, and valued second Tier that can produce clubs capable of competing in the Premiership and providing the jeopardy and competition that keeps the league vibrant. However, there is currently a major gap in competitiveness and playing budgets between the Gallagher Premiership and Championship clubs and the financial requirements needed to compete in the Premiership.”