Mark McCall wants change in salary cap to help clubs retain Academy players

Saracens rugby director Mark McCall urged Premiership Rugby to amend salary cap that will allow clubs to retain home grown talents.

The Premiership salary cap has been fixed to a maximum of £7m for the upcoming season out of which the clubs will receive a maximum of £600,000, if they hit the quota for home grown players.

Highlighting the problems clubs will face in retaining their top players, McCall, who joined Saracens in 2009/10 wants the board to allow a section of wages, who remain loyal to the clubs to be exempted from the salary cap.

"For now the cap is staying level, which makes things very difficult," said McCall.

"You have that group of players who are available for less than half the time in the Premiership and you have to have a group of players who are competitive when they're not there. It does make life difficult.

"It would be an unbelievable shame if we had to lose players we have grown ourselves, who have come through our system since they were 14 or 15.

"My own view - and this obviously suits us right now but it will suit everybody eventually - is that if you genuinely bring a player through your academy system and he becomes like some of our players then there should be a limit on what he costs you in the salary cap.

"That figure would be up to the RFU but I do think there should be an incentive for clubs to grow their own and to bring English players through for English clubs and for England."

Most of Saracens' British and Irish Lions contingent - Mako Vunipola, Jamie George, George Kruis, Maro Itoje and Owen Farrell have their contract expiring by 2019 and McCall believes it will be a challenge for the club to retain the players with the current system when the contract negotiation takes place.

"To be penalised for having all these academy players who are only asking for their market value, and not to be able to afford them and to have to let them go, doesn't seem right," said McCall.

"Hopefully someone will listen to that argument. I'm not sure we will get the support of all the clubs because it is maybe not their problem right now but it might be.

"It's really above my pay grade but we have suggested to the top of our club to have those conversations with Premiership Rugby and the board and we'll see what happens."