Lions and England should pay player wages on international duty, says Sale Sharks owner

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Sale Sharks owner Simon Orange has suggested that the British and Irish Lions and England should pay player wages while they are on international duty. Orange is “frustrated” by a lack of communication between the Lions, the home unions and the clubs, and with his side set to lose up to six South Africans on top of potential Lions call-ups in Tom Curry and Manu Tuilagi - form and fitness depending - due to the 10-week mandatory post-tour rest period, he believes that more collaboration between the unions, Lions and Premiership clubs is required when it comes to sharing players. Last week Lions head coach Warren Gatland sparked fears that Premiership stars could miss out on close selection calls this summer because of clubs’ reluctance to release them early without a compensation deal in place, but Orange believes a “fairer” model would be for the Lions and unions to cover the salaries for the duration of their international commitments. Orange told Telegraph Sport: “A better system instead of negotiating compensation all the time is if the Lions take the players, they should just pay their wages, or if England takes the players, they should pay the wages for the time they have them. That would be a fair way of doing it. “But of course everybody wants everything and nobody wants to pay half the time. We would always want our guys to go play for/against the Lions if they could but it is a pain for us because we are going to be six or seven weeks of next season without six or eight of our best players. “Many of these players who get paid their main wages from the clubs are with the clubs for three or four months of the year. I understand everybody has a different perspective but what is disappointing is that the Lions, as well as the unions, should work more with the clubs. “It is in all of our interests to get it right. The clubs want to do well in their competitions, the clubs want England to do well because they are co-dependent, and the home unions want the Lions to do well because we are all co-dependent. We have all got the same goal. It is just a lot of the time the Premiership are not invited to the discussions and are just expected to fall in line, and bear in mind we are paying the vast majority of the wages. In rugby wages, I think we are playing 90 percent.” While European Super League row gets ugly, Premiership Rugby stays silent hoping nobody notices Telegraph Sport can also reveal that Orange has said no proposal has been drawn up yet by Premiership clubs regarding ring-fencing and the league remains open to expansion to allow clubs such as Ealing Trailfinders to join, contrary to recent reports. Orange is open to the Premiership expanding to 14 or even 16 teams. There will be 13 teams in the competition for the 2021-22, with agreement already reached to scrap relegation at the end of this season and allowing the Championship play-off winner, and Orange believes "the more strong teams" that they can boast, "the better" it is for the final product. “The Premiership has not been in a great place for years because wages are too high and income doesn’t match it," Orange said. "It has been propped up by owners, that isn’t a sustainable situation. Covid has really brought it home to everybody. "It could be that getting rid of relegation is a good thing, I am not even sure that it is. It might be. There are lots of other things we are trying to consider at the moment to put a proposal forward. Then when we do put a proposal forward, it still has to go to the RFU, absolutely nothing has been agreed. “We are conscious we have to keep the league competitive. We are also very conscious that we don’t want to block the path of an ambitious team who are good enough to play in the Premiership and have the relevant finances and facilities. We could end up with 14 teams; we could end up with 16 teams, who knows? “One of the priorities is to make sure we can get people in there who can afford it and they are good enough. I don’t know what the proposal or answer will be yet but whatever it will be, whoever wins the Championship this year will come up and there is now a natural place for a 14th team. So, say Ealing win it the following year, nobody wants to stop Ealing or anybody else coming into the Premiership. We think probably, the more strong teams, the better.”

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