Smith to fight for league WCup pay parity

Nov 22, 2017 - 8:14 AM Kangaroos captain Cameron Smith believes it is inevitable Australian and New Zealand players will have to take a pay cut to reduce the disparity between rugby league nations.

Smith on Wednesday revealed international payments were a hot topic in collective bargaining agreement talks this year between the Rugby League Players' Association (RLPA) and the NRL.

Kangaroos players will earn $50,000 from the NRL if they win the Rugby League World Cup, however could get more with the $300,000 prize money for winning the tournament.

The runners-up get $150,000, losing semi-finalists are paid $125,000 and losing quarter-finalists are rewarded with $35,000 by the Rugby League International Federation (RLIF).

Minnow nations are barely paid by their own governing body, and instead receive the $30 daily allowance by the RLIF for all representing countries.

Smith, who is players' union president, has declared the system needs to be changed.

"It's a topic that the NRL playing group had actually raised with the RLPA throughout the year. This is before (CBA) negotiations started," Smith said in Brisbane ahead of Friday night's semi-final against Fiji.

"This is when (RLPA boss) Ian Prendergast and his team were gathering information around what players thought were big issues in our game.

"And that was actually high on our list around payments to Pacific nations and developing rugby league nations."

Smith said the players' push for a spread of the international payments had been overtaken by their desire to be genuine partners in the game and share revenue.

But while the CBA had just been finalised for the next five years, Smith conceded Kangaroos and Kiwis players were likely to have to take a pay cut in the future.

Asked if a reduction in Test payments was inevitable, Smith said: "Well, of course it is. We're open to discussions on ways to try and bring those payments closer together.

"That's the thing that the players get frustrated with - the perception in the public is that the NRL playing group is just in for the cash grab.

"But it's not. It's about looking after the entire rugby league community, particularly the players playing in the Pacific nations that don't have the same working conditions as the Kangaroos or Kiwis at the moment. We want to make that happen relatively soon."

Fiji counterpart Eloni Vunaceke, who is also on the RLPA board, said he would raise the issue again at the next players' union meeting.

"I touched on it with Nigel Vagana on the weekend and trying to discuss it and develop a strategy going in there," he said.

"Next time we meet, I'll bring that up amongst the board and see how we can help the Pacific out. It's in the pipeline."

Source: AAP