Eddie Hearn has claimed that transforming rugby would be "a stroll in the park" for him, as the Matchroom supremo backs himself to improve the sport's landscape. His greatest successes have come in boxing, but he is now involved in rugby after taking control of the futures of Henry Pollock and Finn Russell, arguably the two biggest names in the Premiership.
Pollock's new deal and the salary cap
Russell, the Bath fly-half, is thought to be the competition's highest-paid player. On Tuesday, Pollock signed a new deal that sees him earn in excess of £400,000-a-year. Negotiations over the Northampton star were ultimately limited by the £6.4m salary cap for Premiership clubs.
That cap is imposed to ensure a level playing field and so that clubs do not go beyond their means in pursuit of success, with three clubs already going bust since the pandemic as rugby struggles financially. Hearn has been vocal about scrapping the salary cap, which would give individuals the belief that they could earn huge sums from playing the sport.
Meeting with Premiership Rugby chief
The Matchroom boss is due to meet with Premiership Rugby chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor in Monaco in the coming weeks to discuss ideas and insists his successes in darts and snooker show what he could do.
"We haven't really touched the surface in terms of what we could do in the sport," he said. "All I've done is done a few deals with Henry, he's come to a couple of fights and I've done a couple of Zoom calls [with journalists]. That just shows you the buzz that can be created with a little bit of hype and perception. But hype and perception are nothing without substance. The sport and the brand is the substance and it's significant in rugby. Look at what Matchroom has done elsewhere. Boxing was dead, darts was non-existent, snooker was stuck in the air. We don't fail. Our track record is second to none."
Hearn's vision for player earnings
"If we went into rugby, it would be a stroll in the park for me," he added. "It's a huge global sport steeped in history with fantastic values and tradition that just needs to be just turbo-charged."
Hearn admits Pollock turned down seven-figure offers to move elsewhere, with the young back rower determined to remain at his boyhood club, where he won the Premiership last season. But his agent insists the salary cap model is proving a hindrance.
"Let the players earn," Hearn claimed. "All they hear about is salary caps or one star player per team - marquee names or whatever you want to call it. You don't want that. You want to say to a young player, 'hey, come to rugby, you can be a superstar and you can earn a fortune'. You could have lost Pollock and it would have been a disaster for English rugby."
