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Johnson begins with pay headache

Wednesday 14th May 2008

He's only been in the job for a fortnight, but already Martin Johnson is facing England team disgruntlement, with a row over pay breaking out and talk of strike action.

A report in The Daily Telegraph says that Rob Andrew is set to meet with player representatives on Thursday to talk about a new pay deal, with the tour to New Zealand in danger if agreement is not met.

The row is believed to be over the new pay deal which has offered less of a flat rate per game for the players - currently they are paid £9,000 ($17,500) per game - and more of the amount reliant upon results.

The players are said to be arguing that a performance-related pay deal throws their integrity into question, in that the inference is that they might give more to the cause somehow if they were working for bonuses, whereas the players insist they are playing for honour and that that would be motivation enough.

Johnson would be the ideal person to deal with such a problem though - he was involved on the players' side when England's players went on strike in a row over pay in 2000 under Clive Woodward, a situation which was relatively quickly resolved.