Jeffrey – Rugby Noise

Marcus Smith is one of the most exciting young rugby players in the world. He is seen as the future of English rugby. So for all of this talent, how much is he getting paid? What does Marcus Smith get paid? It is believed that at the moment, Marcus Smith earns about £520,00 per year with his contract with Harlequins. This figure does not include other income like England appearances and sponsorships. Marcus Smith is certainly one of the most exciting rugby players in England. He has been the driving force in the success that Harlequins have had over the last few years, leading them to the Gallagher Premiership title in 2021. He has since made his England debut and looks like the long-term fly-half for his national team. For all of that success, the estimates of Smith’s current contract are that he is on around £520,000 per year. Some estimates have put this figure at around £460,000 per year. This figure comes from a contract that Smith signed with his domestic side Harlequins in the last few years. It seems likely that when his deal ends, Smith will be getting a pay bump considering how good he has been over the last few years. His current contract has 18 months left on it and I’m sure that Harlequins will be desperate to keep Smith and will offer him a pay increase to fend off offers from the Premiership and abroad. This figure of between £460,000 and £520,000 is only his base salary from his domestic contract. Smith also gets £20,000 every time he makes an appearance for his country, which will likely be an additional £200,000 every year when you consider the Six Nations, Autumn internationals and summer tour. Smith also has a variety of different sponsorships and endorsements. Smith has worked with Castore, Optimum Nutrition and Charles Stanley and these will likely all earn him some more income. This value is much more difficult to calculate as we don’t know the value of his sponsorship contracts. How much do Welsh rugby players make? The issues between the Welsh Rugby Union and the players who play for Wales has been leading the rugby news for quite a while now. Some of their discussion is about how much Welsh rugby players are paid as they have central contracts whenever they play for any of the four Welsh regions. The new average figure for Welsh rugby players is rumoured to be around £100,000 per year. The exact figure is difficult to calculate because the information is rarely shared publicly. The £100,000 is for players playing for any of the four Welsh regions, with the internationals likely earning much more than £100,000. This figure also does not include the Welsh players who are playing outside of Wales. There are quite a few Welsh players who have signed for teams overseas, mainly looking for better playing opportunities and better pay as well. The average figure for Welsh players will not include internationals like Dan Biggar, Louis Rees-Zammitt, Tommy Reffell, Nick Tomkins, Dafydd Jenkins and Christ Tshiunza who are all playing outside of Wales. They have all decided to play outside of Wales for different reasons and so are not primarily paid by the Welsh Rugby Union. This is good for the WRU as some of these players are on very large contracts. Dan Biggar’s estimated contract is around £700,000 per year which is not ideal for the WRU. So they are glad to only be paying the players who play in Wales. How much does Ellis Genge get paid? Ellis Genge is one of the biggest superstars in world rugby, having risen to be one of England’s best players over the last few years. Despite being one of the best players in the world at the moment, it is likely that he is not paid like one of the best players in the world. Ellis Genge is estimated to make around £400,000 per year, although there are rumours that this figure is much lower. Despite a lot of people saying that his move to Bristol was for money, Pat Lam has spoken about Genge taking a pay cut to return to Bristol. So his salary could be even lower than the £400,000 which is the most recently reported figure. This figure also does not include the money that Genge gets for playing for England. This is likely worth around £200,000 as Genge gets £20,000 per game that he plays for his country and he plays around 10 games per year for England through the Six Nations, Summer tour and Autumn Internationals. Genge also has a number of endorsements that will bring him some extra income. It is difficult to estimate the value of these endorsements. What does Owen Farrell earn? Owen Farrell is England’s captain and so he is one of the highest-paid players in Europe. He is also one of the highest-paid English players, earning a top salary. Owen Farrell earns more than £1 million per year. The majority of this comes from a contract that Farrell signed with his domestic side Saracens. Farrell signed this contract with the London-based team in 2020 and it is supposed to keep him with Saracens until at least the 2023 Rugby World Cup. This contract apparently earns Farrell around £820,000. This is his rumoured yearly salary, although the real figure is not something that is released publicly. His contract with Saracens is certainly not the only way that Farrell earns money. Being the captain of England means that Farrell plays pretty much every game that England have and this means he earns around £200,000 per year through playing for England. This is thanks to England players being paid £20,000 per game that they play. Being the England captain, Farrell also has a lot of endorsements. Farrell has worked with Investec, Castore Sportswear and Nike which earn him quite a lot of money. Although this figure is not something that can be calculated. So what we do know is that Owen Farrell earns at least £1 million per year.