My response to Brian Moore: You are wrong about Prem salary cap

[ASFN Admin]

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Bruce Craig says the salary cap exists to prevent recklessness and provide stability - David Rogers/Getty Images

There has been much commentary suggesting that new investment in Prem Rugby, including Sir James Dyson’s partnership at Bath, should act as a catalyst to remove the salary cap. I respectfully disagree.

The recent introduction of a licensed expansion model without relegation, almost unanimously supported by council, materially reduces the risk profile of the league and will make it more financially viable. It provides a stable and investable platform for long-term growth and removes many of the structural pressures that have historically driven short-term and unsustainable decision-making.

I have always believed and continue to believe that a salary cap is a fundamental pillar of responsible professional rugby. It exists not to suppress ambition, but to prevent recklessness. It must, however, keep pace with other global leagues to maintain our league’s competitiveness.

To argue that increased investment should now lead to its removal is, in my view, entirely counter-intuitive.

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Sir James Dyson (right) has purchased 50 per cent of Bath Rugby - Dan Mullan/Getty Images

This new structure creates the very conditions in which long-term investment can be made with confidence into infrastructure, academies, fan experience, and global growth. That is where capital should be directed, not into an uncontrolled escalation of player wages.

We must be clear that financial strength in a league is not demonstrated by how much its clubs spend, but by how sustainably they operate and how effectively they grow revenues.

History, both within rugby and across global sport, shows that without cost controls, spending rises faster than income. The result is not competitive balance, but financial fragility. Several clubs have already paid that price, even within a capped system. Removing discipline altogether would not solve that problem, it would amplify it.

I have great respect for differing views, including those expressed by Brian Moore, but I believe it is important not to confound ambition with excess, or investment with licence.

Good business practice is not about spending more because you can. It is about spending wisely, sustainably, and in a way that strengthens the whole ecosystem, not just individual balance sheets or short-term league positions.

The salary cap, properly structured and intelligently evolved, remains the best mechanism we have to ensure competitive integrity, protect clubs from themselves, and create a league that is both investable and enduring.

Our ambition should be to create the strongest league in the rugby world, not the most reckless one.

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