[nelsonone]

Maybe from another perspective then...as I said NZ Rugby' aimis to develop the game and tries to limit in the vicinity of 10-20% of all revenue to its All Blacks....some is given back to the S14 + NPC (national Provincial Clubs) and the rest distributed between costs and junior Rugby......I for one wouldn't want to see them drop that stance or the whole foundation caves in...

so a Super14 player not yet an AB is paid by his club.....prolly in the vicinity of UKP30-40K a season.......a newish AB gets a contract from NZRU about 50-80k and a seasoned AB somewhere from 80-120K....Carter would be about the top of the tree and he gets circa 150K.....

NZRU runs on a budget of less than UKP30 mill so there ain't a lot of wastage by the time you pay the 30 or so contracted players in the vicinity of UKP 4mill, give the majority of returns on TV licences back to S14 clubs, run the Junior AB's, the Sevens team the Under19's + The Ferns (womens team) who all play at international level,pay the costs involved with all of this and distribute the rest to develop the game (around 10mill).....this year NZRU is looking at a decent loss...IIRC around UK1mill

In Europe if I am not wrong the clubs buy the players and release them for internationals??....so the national bodies don't pay out for players....they get them in effect for NIL (however they are at the beck and call of their clubs first and foremost.....

I have no idea how NH clubs can generate enough revenue to supply the salaries they are offering their best NH players and the cream of the SH players (it must be in the vicinity of 10-15mill for players for some clubs alone each year) but it's gotta come from somewhere...maybe sponsorship, maybe owners....I don't really know the system there