Richie McCaw. Photo / Getty Images
The All Blacks have been given 100,000 good reasons to become the first New Zealand side to lift the Webb Ellis Trophy in 24 years.
The Collective Agreement between the New Zealand Rugby Union and the Players' Association, which was formally ratified yesterday, sets in stone a payment of $100,000
to each member of the All Blacks squad should they win next year's showpiece event.
Should they make the final at Eden Park and lose, they will receive $35,000 each. Just to prove there's no such thing as a bronze medal in rugby, anything less than second equals $0.
Players' Association manager Rob Nichol, who negotiated the terms with the NZRU, said the figure did not deviate from the past two world cups.
"We went through a robust process in 2003 and came out with a good outcome," Mr Nichol said. "We saw no reason to change."
The World Cup bonus is not the only win for the players in the agreement, which runs through to the end of 2012. Players will now receive $1000 a day to take part in commercial photo shoots, filming or recording sessions.
A clause in the agreement states that the NZRU cannot assign the players' image rights to Rugby World Cup Ltd, meaning the company will be forced to negotiate the release of those rights with the players themselves.
If that sounds like brinkmanship, Mr Nichol said there was no chance the All Blacks would not take the field at the New Zealand-hosted event - the International Rugby Players' Association and Rugby World Cup Ltd had entered similar discussions before the 2007 event and had resolved them.
