Battle looms over Lions €178,000 compensation

LEADING English clubs are poised for a legal battle with the Rugby Football Union after Twickenham decided to withhold £120,000 (€178,000) in Lions compensation cash.

The row, which has overshadowed England’s domestic season, has escalated following Wednesday’s RFU management board meeting.

The RFU say they will pay Guinness Premiership clubs an agreed £15,000 (€22,200) per player for those English Lions “who have been given the full and agreed 11-week rest and recuperation period.”

A total of 20 English players toured New Zealand with the Lions this summer, meaning a £300,000 (€444,000) compensation package being agreed.

According to the RFU’s take on events though, it is claimed three clubs and eight Lions played full games (classed as more than 40 minutes) ahead of schedule. The players are Sale Sharks quartet Jason Robinson, Mark Cueto, Charlie Hodgson and Andrew Sheridan, Leicester pair Martin Corry and Julian White, plus Wasps duo Matt Dawson and Simon Shaw.

It means £60,000 (€88,800) is being held back from Sale, with £30,000 (€44,400) each owed to Leicester and Wasps. According to the RFU, Cueto, White, Dawson and Shaw should not have played full games until September 24, with September 17 the return date for Robinson, Sheridan, Hodgson and England captain Corry.

However Premier Rugby, the organisation representing England’s 12 Premiership clubs, does not accept an agreement has ever been in place covering a rest period for their Lions.

That stance has now hardened, with legal action to recover the money now a probability in the latest row to scar English rugby’s professional era.

Kevin Potts has been appointed as the IRFU’s Domestic Rugby Manager and will be expected to develop the game at grassroots level.

Potts has a proven record on and off the field. The Templeogue College and Dublin University graduate represented Leinster and Ireland at school and at senior level captained St. Mary’s College and played for Leinster and Ireland A, leading the Ireland development tour to South Africa in 1993.

Potts has held several senior management positions in the financial services industry.

* ULSTER v Dragons (Celtic League at Rodney Parade on Saturday): P Wallace; T Bowe, K Maggs, A Trimble, J Topping; D Humphreys, K Campbell; J. Fitzpatrick, R Best, S Best, J Harrison, M McCullough, N Best, N McMillan, R Wilson.

Replacements: P Shields, B Young, R Frost, C Feather, R Spee, S Stewart, T Howe.