Australia’s Ashes stars will be paid up to £6,500 for representing their country in this autumn’s Test series with England, it has emerged.
Pay at international level has long been a point of contentious debate, with some nations not remunerating their players at all for pulling on their country’s shirt at the highest level.
The Kangaroos, however, have been given a decent sum of money for the honour of playing in the first Ashes series in 22 years, a report in the Daily Telegraph has revealed.
The sum of $13,000 has been revealed as the maximum figure each player can earn for playing in the series, with a figure of $3,000 paid for each Test a player appears in.
That leads to a maximum of $9,000, with every player guaranteed $1,000 per week for expenses across the four-week trip to England.
However, that figure falls short of what players get for featuring in State of Origin; around $30,000 – underlining the gulf between Origin and international rugby league as things stand.
The Rugby League Players Association negotiated a special fee for Kangaroos players due to the Ashes not being part of the NRL’s bargaining agreement for its players, leading to the sum of $13,000 ultimately being agreed for any player who features in all three Test matches.
Kangaroos players have reportedly made a significant sacrifice from previous pay of around $20,000 per Test match to allow more money to be filtered into the Pacific Championships and allow those representing the likes of Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand to also be paid.
“No, we’re not here for the money. If you play the game for money, that’s when your career will go downhill. It shows what the jersey means to everyone,” prop Keaon Koloamatangi said.
“I have never been big about money. It has always been for the love of the game, as long as I’m enjoying and loving the game.
“All these players are the best players in the game so for them to not worry about the money is a big thing, especially for the younger boys coming through. It’s about growing the game globally and that is the best thing for the NRL at the moment.”
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