ARU Raising Salary Cap by $800k
THE ARU is expected to increase the Super Rugby salary cap by $800,000 in a deal with the Rugby Union Players Association.
It is understood the ARU has agreed to raise the cap from $4 million to $4.8m following concerns about the ability of Super Rugby teams to retain players.
But the ARU's annual grant to the five Super Rugby franchises -- the Brumbies, Force, Rebels, Reds and Waratahs -- will remain the same at about $4m. The teams will have to come up with the additional $800,000 themselves.
The salary cap, which will come into play next year, is part of the ARU's renegotiation of the collective bargaining agreement with the RUPA, which is expected to be finalised in the next few weeks.
The ARU needed to be financially responsible in setting the cap limit, but find a way to help the teams stop their players from going to Europe and Japan.
The cap will replace the contracting protocols that have governed player salaries in Australia since the game went professional in 1995.
Under the protocols, teams tended not to pay any player more than $110,000 plus benefits and match payments, but they can now pay players whatever they like under the confines of the cap.
Meanwhile, ARU chief executive John O'Neill has called for a new approach to managing referees following New Zealander Paddy O'Brien stepping down as the IRB referees manager.
O'Neill said the IRB should break from tradition and consider appointing a non-referee as the new referees manager.
"It's time to review the management function of referees," he said.
"It would be well worthwhile going outside the norm and looking at whether former coaches, players and administrators might be well equipped to bring a new perspective to this unbelievably important area of the game."
O'Brien, a former Test referee, stood down after seven years as referees manager to take a similar role with the rugby sevens, which will return to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
While O'Brien was looking for a fresh challenge, there was widespread discontent with the officiating at the World Cup in New Zealand last year.
New Zealander Bryce Lawrence, heavily criticised for his handling of the Wallabies' 11-9 win against the Springboks in the quarter-final, has been dropped for the Tests in the June window.
