Castleford's Jacob Miller says England’s finest young talent can’t be blamed for heading to the NRL as its financial riches means they’ve “nothing to lose.”
Wakefield’s flying winger Lewis Murphy, 20, is the latest player set to move after reportedly agreeing to join Aussie giants Sydney Roosters in 2024. Wigan’s England star Kai Pearce-Paul, 21, and Huddersfield’s Will Pryce, 20, have both already announced deals with Newcastle Knights for next season. They’ll join Dom Young, 21, who ditched Huddersfield for Newcastle two years ago and advanced so quickly he starred with England in the World Cup.
Dazzling Murphy only made his Wakefield debut in March yet scored 19 tries in just 21 games. There’s fears more rising quality will follow him Down Under especially as the NRL’s salary cap has increased again to an historic high of £6.6m. That’s more than TREBLE Super League’s which stands at just £2.1m having barely moved in the last decade.
There’s calls for the cap to rise to restrict the talent drain but cash-strapped clubs are already feeling the pinch. Aussie half-back Miller, 30, was Murphy’s captain at Wakefield last term before joining their derby rivals. He said: “It’s hard. You can’t blame young players for wanting to challenge themselves.
“And another thing it comes down to is that the NRL minimum wage is $120,000 - that’s about £70,000. A young kid here getting the opportunity to go be in that top squad might only be on £20,000. But the chance to go and learn and challenge themselves they have nothing to lose.
"The worst case scenario is they come back here and get a Super League deal on more than when they left. You can’t begrudge them. It’s obviously disappointing that Super League’s losing such great talent but what do you do?”
Miller knows only too well there’s not enough money here for Super League to compete with the NRL’s cap. He said: “The challenge is you have to try nurture the next Lewis Murphy to come through.
"Hopefully there’s a few more kids to come in. And he is a good kid. He had a breakout year and did really well. If the rumours are true, I hope he reaches his full potential over there.”
Miller did things the other way around - joining Hull from Sydney’s Wests Tigers when just 20. He recalled: “I was coming over to try and get some first-team experience. I was in and out back home so couldn’t get any consistency. The plan was to come here for a few seasons to get that - and I’m still here ten years later! My situation was probably pretty unique. Not many come over at 20 and do ten years. But I’ve loved it here.”
Meanwhile, the RFL has increased its return-to-play protocols from 11 days to 12 which ensures a player will always miss their next fixture if they have failed a head injury assessment. In the forthcoming season, clubs will also be permitted to name an 18th player to be used if three players fail an HIA in the same match, something which was applied in the Rugby League World Cup last autumn.
Also, ex-Catalans and France captain Jerome Guisset and former referees boss Steve Presley have been added to the match review panel list for 2023, criminal defence barrister and ex-Great Britain Lioness Rebecca Stevens will be available to the operational rules tribunal and referees will wear ‘Ref-Cams’ in the Challenge Cup first round to help improve player and spectator behaviour.
