Friday 19 December 2014 18:39, UK
Will Greenwood talks about Racing Metro signing Dan Carter and why scrapping the salary cap could hurt the Premiership.
Dan Carter is a wonderful fellow and a wonderful player. He will no doubt play in the World Cup in England next year. He picked up an injury in the group stage of the World Cup in 2011 – he has the medal but he will feel like Roy Keane did in that Champions League final when he did not play. He will always feel that there is a slight gap that is missing.
After the World Cup he will head to Racing Metro and become the highest paid rugby player in the world. He is just a brilliant rugby player and he actually played for Perpignan in 2008. He only played five games – they were unbeaten in those five games – and then he picked up an injury. But no one could deny the Carter effect! Perpignan just don’t win the Top 14, they end up winning having Dan Carter in and around them.
Such is the pull of Carter that Stade Francais took their game with Perpignan – which is usually a low key affair – to the Stade De France and they sold it out.
Racing Metro owner Jacky Lorenzetti said: "Given what he [Carter] will bring to the club, he will be the least expensive player in the team". Given that he is on a million quid a year, what is he talking about? Well, it is the fact that the immediate impact that Carter will have will be just outstanding.
France fell in love with Jonny Wilkinson and in Carter I suspect that they may have a replacement foreigner who they can take to their hearts.
Racing's signing of Carter has raised the issue of salary caps in the English game with clubs like Saracens looking to scrap it. The issue will be that at the end of the World Cup next year there will be a whole host of southern hemisphere players who will head north. One of them has already signed for Harlequins – James Horwill, but a lot will go to France. Will Genia is supposedly signing for Stade Francais, he was going to Bath but Stade have said, 'no, we want you'.
Toulon owner Mourad Boudjellal talks about the fantastic four – we presume he is talking about Israel Folau, Richie McCaw, Conrad Smith and Ma’a Nonu. With the salary cap in the Premiership you just can’t accommodate that number of world class players in your team.
Toulon are going for an unprecedented third title on the trot in Europe – you just have to look down their squad to see how they can do it. I believe Bakkies Botha is retiring but we hear that Eben Etsebeth, the absolute monster from South Africa, is going there.
It makes it more difficult for English clubs to compete in Europe which is the top club competition on the world.
However there is a 'but'. We have grown our game on a sound financial footing, we have 12 clubs in the Premiership, it is very competitive and with that we enjoy that competitive spirit. Occasionally we do suffer at the top table of Europe but we are growing. With that I think we have a much better chance potentially of having a lot more competitive clubs down the line in terms of competing in Europe if we continue in this vein and with this financial stability.
It does not help a club like Saracens who feel that they can sign a couple of marquee players which you are allowed to do and who don’t count as part of your salary cap and they would like to push for the top.
It is a real balancing act, there is no way a London Welsh could suddenly afford to pay eight, nine or 10 million pounds in wages. These French clubs can because by in large they are privately owned.
What I believe is that if a club owner in France leaves, then they are in trouble. If a club owner leaves over here in England then the club will be fine. That is one of the good points and we learnt in the early days of professionalism when some great clubs in this country went bust.
We are growing slowly, but safely.
