Rugby Australia is set to honour all current playing contracts but Rugby Australia CEO Raelene Castle says cuts across the game will likely spell less lucrative contracts in the long-term.
Australian rugby's highest earners are believed to earn just over $1 million a year, though multi-million dollar deals pale in comparison to many overseas competitions and even some of Australia's other major football codes.
The financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic will likely see player contracts reduce in the long-term, though much of that will also be determined by a collective bargaining agreement set to be renegotiated at the end of 2020.
Castle said all current player contracts will be honoured but admitted that beyond the current arrangements, the ongoing financial challenges of COVID-19 meant that salaries would likely be reduced in the long-term.
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"We will honour the contracts that are in place as they stand at the moment and that is the agreement that we have with RUPA," she said.
"Obviously we have had to have a difficult conversation about the short-term phase and we will work through that with this whole of game decision…I don’t think there is a player or a player agent that works in rugby across the world who thinks that all contracts, particularly long-term contracts, will necessarily be delivered at the values they were delivered previously.
"In the English Premiership, for example, they are looking to make significant cuts to their salary caps so this is a conversation that is going to affect players in every sporting competition and Rugby Australia will be no different.
"But as far as the baseline contract goes, yes we absolutely are going to honour those."
Australia's Sevens teams could be the ones set for the greatest change in the coming months, with the bulk of those squads coming off contract in 2020 with deals structured around when the Olympics were set to be played.
While Rugby Australia is committed to fielding teams in the World Series and the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, the structure of the program overall could move away from its current centralised structure.
The pay deal agreed upon on Monday night runs through to September 30, with changes expected should Super Rugby resume before then.
For the Sevens sides, the remainder of the World Series has been postponed indefinitely, or in some cases at least until October, along with the Olympics
Down the track, the financial impact of COVID-19 could mean players are based around the country and only come together for pre-tournament camps and tournament trips but it's not clear exactly how changes to the program would be implemented.
"I have had quite a lot of conversations with the sevens through the RUPA negotiations," she said.
"There is an absolute commitment from the RA board to teams compete in the Olympics and HSBC Sevens but the program to get there, knowing that there already has been another tournament cancelled on the HSBC program, that’s a conversation that we are going to have to work through to centralize still the model that works for everyone, a more decentralized program work that’s going to be more cost-effective.
"Those are all the types of discussions we’ll be having with the sevens players to make sure that they can defend gold medals at the Olympics but, as I said before, we are going to make some decisions that will be different to a pre-Covid-19 world. "
Changes anticipated to high performance areas of Rugby Australia will be reflected in the administration side as well.
Already three-quarters of staff have been stood down until June 30 and the remainder of the workforce have had their pay or hours reduced significantly.
While the Federal Government's JobKeeper subsidy is keeping staff receiving at least $1500/fortnight in payments, Castle forecast "difficult conversations" down the track.
"Those conversation for the rugby landscape as it stands at the moment will be part of what we look at as to how we design a whole of game structure that delivers to effectively professional rugby, to make sure that we can continue to be, that we can continue to deliver the changes that we have made to date in the high performance environment and actually the really hard work that we have done around that baseline to be delivered on the world stage.
"Secondly, we’ve got a community game here that survives and has done so for 100 years but it needs support from Rugby Australia.
"So whatever model ends up being in place has to make sure that we have success on the world stage in men’s and women’s and Olympics and those things.
"But also to have a recognition that the world is not what it was and there is going to be reduced revenues coming in and ultimately we have to fit the Australian rugby environment from Rugby Australia into our Super teams, into our clubs…cut our cloth to match our revenue.
"So there are some difficult conversations that need to be had but they need to be had with a plan in place."
