Agents and legal representatives of New Zealand's leading rugby players and one of New Zealand Rugby's biggest sponsors - Adidas - have conducted high-stakes talks over the financial impact of the coronavirus lockdown.
Newshub can reveal an emergency meeting was called to discuss performance bonuses and incentives, with hundreds of thousands of dollars at stake for our biggest stars.
Contracts with Adidas can equate to almost as much as a player's NZ Rugby retainer for top players, with performance bonuses awarded on a large scale.
The retainer with Adidas is $5000 and that will now be deferred to July, but performance
incentives are where the players make their money.
Newshub understands those include about $90,000 for winning Super Rugby, $60,000 for finishing runner-up and then individual performance bonuses, including more than $80,000 for being the All Blacks top pointscorer and $70,000 for being the top tryscorer.
The apparel giants feel that Super Rugby and international rugby will likely start up again before the end of the year, but if that doesn't happen, the situation may be re-evaluated.
The bonuses constitute a large portion of a player's annual income and further enhances the complexities around player pay cuts.
Newshub understands those will be done on a case-by-case basis, with the top earners taking more of a cut than those at the bottom.
Further payments, such as All Blacks assembly fees amounting to approximately $7500 per week in camp, would also go, if no test matches can be played.
