The Gallagher Premiership is now filled with players who earn astronomical salaries despite the games current financial crisis.
We’ve identified the highest-paid Premiership player for every season since the game went professional to find out.
To do so, we've undertook painstaking research to delve into newspaper archives to reveal the reported player wages.
Some seasons had multiple highest earners with players signing contracts at different times throughout the campaign but they’ve used the highest earner at the end of each season.
Got it? Good.
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Let’s take a look at the results:
1997-1998: Va'aiga Tuigamala (Newcastle Falcons) - £80,000 per season
1999-2000: Francois Pienaar (Saracens) - £85,000 per season
2000-2001: Jason Robinson (Sale Sharks) - £180,000 per season
2001-2002: Martin Johnson (Leicester Tigers) - £200,000 per season
2002-2004: Jonny WIlkinson (England) - £250,000 per season
2005-2007: Lawrence Dallaglio (Wasps) - £300,000 per season
2007-2010: Carl Hayman (Newcastle Falcons) - £350,000 per season
2010-11: Mike Tindall (Gloucester) - £380,000
2011-2013: Toby Flood (Leicester Tigers) - £400,000
2012-2014: Chris Robshaw (Harlequins) - £420,000
2014- 2015: Sam Burgess (Bath) - £500,000 per season
2016-2017: Louis PIcamoles (Northampton Saints) - £500,000 per season
2017-2018: Manu Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers) - £510,000 per season
2018-2022: Charles Piutau (Bristol Bears) - £1,000,000 per season
2023 - : Finn Russell (Bath Rugby) - £1,000,000 per season
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