NPC salary cap price-fixing doomed to failure

"We have had a salary cap in New Zealand. We've had it, we've trialled it, it didn't work - it was called amateurism."

So says Auckland-based player representative David Jones, who believes a salary cap will be a disaster for New Zealand rugby and a key driver for players leaving to play in price-competitive markets in the Northern Hemisphere.

The proposed salary cap for the revamped 14-team NPC is the sticking point in negotiations for the collective agreement, due to be finalised within the next two months.

The Players' Association and the New Zealand Rugby Union are at pains to point out it is a hypothetical argument as there is no cap in place as yet but rather a number of possible payment models, but Jones believes any form of 'price fixing' would be counter-productive.

"I have dealt with salary caps in league, in countries overseas, all it does is breed a climate of dishonesty.

"It doesn't work. There are always ways of getting around it."

Jones, one of the most influential representatives in the country, cited New Zealand rugby under amateurism, and the NRL, as examples of a failed cap system.

Under amateurism, players like Carlos Spencer and James Kerr were still enticed to bigger teams.

The Canterbury Bulldogs rort of 2002, where they were stripped of all their points for cheating the NRL cap, and the furore this season of the Sydney Roosters' apparent miracle of being able to sign two of the best players on the free market without breaking their cap, are examples of the negative publicity a cap attracts.

On the flipside, NRL bosses will point to the fact 12 teams have a realistic chance of winning the competition as evidence the cap works.

Jones, however, said you can't read anything into that because the NRL is a "closed shop".

Jones said you need market leaders - Auckland, Canterbury or whoever - for the rest to emulate; that you need winners to aspire to, not drive them down to the level of the rest. He believes that the cap is a sure-fire way of doing just that.

"It's anti-competitive, it's price fixing. It's like a cartel where they get together and say 'we're going to fix the price'.

"It will drive people away from New Zealand."

The Players' Association and the NZRU are in mediated negotiations over the new collective and it is understood the NZRPA rejected the first cap model as unworkable.

The unions are split between the 'haves' who believe a cap is anti-competitive and the 'have-nots' who believe it is the only mechanism that can ensure a spread of talent.

The subject of tax breaks for players has been raised but Jones did not believe it would be an incentive for players to stay in the country.

Tax incentives, like the ones offered to film-makers, could take many forms - such as a rebate at the end of their careers should they have stayed in New Zealand to ply their trade - but has been consigned to the 'too hard' basket.

Although Jones said rebates would not stop players seeking overseas experiences, there needed to be an acknowledgment of the special circumstances professional sportsmen and women found themselves in when they had a small window of opportunity to earn big.

A system where the top 10-20 per cent of their income was protected from tax and put straight into a superannuation scheme that could not be touched until they were 35 would be the most workable option.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY