Ranked: The highest-paid Premiership positions including shock lowest earners

Jared Wright 29 Apr 2024 4:51 PM

Which positions are commanding the biggest salaries in the Premiership?

Premiership Rugby has released the 2022/23 annual Salary Cap report detailing the clubs’ spending and highlighting the highest and lowest-paid positions.

The report states that a senior player’s total salary went down from the 2021/22 season (£187,545) average to (£182,866) with the average income also dropping from £158,277 to £156,095.

Highest-paid Premiership positions

Unsurprisingly, no players’ names are mentioned throughout the report but it does highlight which are the top earning positions.

In the forward pack, the locks were the highest-paid position during the 2022/23 season with an average income of £174,785, up from £164,568 in 2021/22.

However, the highest-paid position is in the backs, with a Premiership fly-half earning an average income of £217,761, slightly up from £217,153 in 2021/22.

On the other end of the scale, the lowest paid forward is still hooker, as was the case in 2021/22. The hooker’s average income of £128,556 is up from the 2021/22 average of £119,146.

But they are still paid more than the lowest-paid position in the Premiership, which is scrum-half, who average £121,104, down from £132,590 in 2021/22. The number nines were also the lowest-paid backline players in 2021/22.

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The reduction in the average income of a scrum-half has seen them slip to becoming the lowest paid position, which during the 2021/22 season was the hookers.

Meanwhile, centre is the second highest-paid position in the Premiership for the 2022/23 season at £178,755 – averaging £39,006 less than the number 10s.

The locks aren’t too far off of the centres, with full-backs following closely in fourth place with an average of £169,918.

The back-rower average income has fallen from £181,624 during the 2021/22 season to £159,467, which has seen them drop from the second-highest earning position to fifth.

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Props have seen a slight increase in their earnings in 2022/23, going from £140,961 the season before to £143,187.

Just above the scrum-halves are the wingers, whose average income in 2022/23 was £127,969, down from £142,901 the season before.

According to the report, 16% of the fly-halves earn £400,000+ a season, with 3% earning between £350,000 and £400,000 – the highest percentage of the top earning bracket across the positions.

While the back-rower position averaged significantly less in 2022/23, 20% of the Premiership loose forwards were still averaging an income over £200,000 a season, with 3% earning the top bracket of £400,000.

The data also reveals that the top-earning wingers earn between £200,000 and £250,000 a season. Meanwhile, 3% of scrum-halves in the Premiership earned between £300,000 and £350,000.

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