Terms And Conditions

These assumptions and limitations are not intended to be exhaustive and, where contrary to any notes / references provided in the specific EI Material, the notes / references should be given precedence.

(i) Information in the EI Material referred above is intended to provide only a general outline of the subjects covered. It should be neither regarded as comprehensive nor sufficient for making decisions, nor should it be used in place of professional advice.

(ii) All analysis and graphics are provided for illustrative purposes only, based on data collated and managed by Wasserman Rugby.

(iii) All analysis remains based on data compiled by Wasserman Rugby as at the date the EI Material was released, unless otherwise stated.

(iv) All financial analysis, unless otherwise stated, is provided in Great British Pounds (GBP). Foreign exchange rates are applied as deemed reasonable over the particular season. For example, an FX rate of EUR 1.13 to GBP 1 has been applied in relation to salaries for 2017-18 (and 1.16 in relation to y/e 2017 revenue).

(v) Capitalised terms referred to in each document have the same meaning as defined in the relevant document. A number of these key terms are included below:

– Senior Squad: Includes only senior squad players, as announced at the point of the season at which the analysis was carried out. I.e. Development and academy players and those players in the Premiership with salaries less than £30,000 cost to club (i.e. who do not count towards the salary cap) are excluded.

– Squad Spend: Refers to the basic compensation received by senior squad players in respect of their club commitments, regardless of who the paying party is (e.g. the IRFU in respect of selected players for some Irish clubs). Generally, items include salary, pension and amounts paid to image rights companies for an individual’s commercial rights where applicable; non-monetary benefits and allowances, performance-related bonuses (both team and individual, for club and country), and transfer fees are excluded.

References to ‘Spend’ may be limited to basic compensation paid to the players, or the cost to club in terms of amount paid to players which would therefore include employee-related salary taxes and agency fees, both payable by the club where applicable. Please refer to the relevant publication.

– Primary position: Refers to the perceived best position that the player was recruited by the club to fill.

– Players’ positional rankings: Refers to a player being first-choice (A), second-choice (B) etc. in their position at their club; based solely on the compensation earned comparative to others in the club squad after their primary position is determined.

Individual player compensation is based on a full year’s salary equivalent for all senior squad players who are contracted to a club for 4 months or more (e.g. late arrivals post ITM Cup). Injury replacements / short-term signings are included based on information available at the time of data collection, and such players’ compensation is pro-rated for the period they are contracted.

• – Starting XV refers to the 13 highest paid individuals in their position at each club, plus the second-highest paid lock and winger. Lineout/tighthead locks and left/right wingers are deemed as inter-changeable so are not differentiated between for the purposes of our analysis.
• – Match-day 23 includes the Starting XV, plus the second-highest paid tighthead prop, hooker, loosehead prop, scrum-half, fly-half, third-choice lock, highest paid of all second-choice back-rows and highest paid of all second-choice outside backs.
• – Minutes played: Refers to the number of minutes played by particular player’s in a season (in Europe, this is deemed to be from 1 July to 30 June). Figures generally based on public sources such as OPTA, Itsrugby.fr or ESPN.
• – Age: Based on an individual’s age on 1 September at the start of the relevant season.
• – Nationality of a player / coach: Refers to the country in which that individual was born according to publicly available information. Where an individual has dual nationality or otherwise qualifies to play for another international team, their nationality is still based on country of birth.
• – Domestic (and foreign) internationals: Refers to where an individual represents the senior international team of the country of his birth.
• For the avoidance of doubt, players who have received a senior international cap is based on information as at 1 September at the start of the relevant season (and updated periodically following senior tournaments) and include British & Irish Lions’ full caps but exclude Barbarians caps.
• – Number of years at a club is based on best available information as to the period for which an individual has been part of the senior squad.
• – Club academy is based on best available information regarding the first senior academy a player was contracted to (and hence the club that is deemed to have brought the player into professional rugby).
• – Coaching teams: refers to those coaches employed in roles such as Director of Rugby, Head Coach or Assistant Coach.
• For the avoidance of doubt, this does not include performance staff (data / analysis), strength & conditioning staff, medical staff, recruitment personnel or senior management involved in rugby operations where relevant. Where some personnel perform dual roles on the management and coaching side, they are only accounted for in in this respect where it is judged that their primary role is in coaching.
• – Coaching experience: Based on the number of years since obtaining their first role coaching a senior professional team.
• – Ranking: References to team rankings in the Premiership, PRO12 / PRO14, Top 14 and other club rugby competitions where applicable, are based on table standings at the end of the season, prior to knock-out stages.

(vi) All individual information is collated by the Wasserman Rugby Intelligence team and, where salary information is stored, its certainty is determined as follows:

a. Certain: Wasserman Rugby client and hence figures are verified.
b. Informed: Not an Wasserman Rugby client but information received from a primary source or a source believed to be reliable.
c. Estimate: Based on round-table discussion among Wasserman Rugby professionals and analysis of similar individuals in the league at the time.

(vii) Calculations of employee-related salary taxes payable by clubs (as part of ‘cost to club’), the following rates are applied:

a. National Insurance Contributions payable by clubs in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, i.e. Ulster are based on a rate of 13.8%
b. PRSI payable by Republic of Ireland clubs. i.e. Connacht, Leinster and Munster are based on a rate of 10.75% (10.85% from 2018-19).
c. Social security rates are variable in France. As an estimate, a rate of 23% is assumed.

(viii) Agency fees are assumed at a rate of 5% where not otherwise known.

(ix) Information from audited financial statements or public sources has been extracted in the form available and categorised as deemed appropriate. In particular, revenue classifications and related financial figures can vary by company, depending on their interpretation and circumstances of the directors at that time. In some cases, we may make reclassification adjustments to provide a more meaningful comparison (in our view).

We reserve the right to add or amend the above terms based on what is deemed internally to represent best practice at a particular time.