England Players Decide Not to Donate Match Fee To Samoan Team

The England players have decided not to donate any of their £22,000 match fee to this weekend's opponents, Samoa, despite the SRU chairman declaring bankruptcy earlier this month. 

The Samoan Prime Minister & SRU chairman, Tuila'epa Sailele Malielegaoi made the announcement before the start of the Autumn series and a crowdfunding page has been set up by former Samoa captain Dan Leo to try source funds for the playing staff.

England take on Samoa at Twickenham on Saturday in their final Autumn International, with the Pacific Islanders in financial crisis and only earning £600 each for the Test match.

The RFU has agreed to give £75,000 to the SRU from funds raised this weekend, but England captain Dylan Hartley raised the issue with the senior player group and they decided that they will not be supplementing that figure with additional donations.

As players we feel it isn't our place to get involved in what appears to be a complex issue between the Samoan union and World Rugby," an RFU spokesperson said in a statement issued on behalf of the players.

"We are aware that the RFU has pledged to make a goodwill gesture to them on behalf of everyone involved with England and we support that decision.

"As players we look forward to playing Samoa this weekend as I am sure they are too."

This week, World Rugby issued a statement to reject the SRU's claim that they had gone bankrupt, confirming they had invested £1.5m in the union so far this year.