£1m-a-season deal for Pollock and Hearn unlikely under Premiership salary cap
Henry Pollock and his agent Eddie Hearn face major barriers to securing a reported £1m-a-year contract under the Premiership salary cap, BBC Sport reported on 4 August 2026. The negotiation hinges on league salary-cap mechanics and whether Northampton or another club can find space within current rules.
Pollock, the 21-year-old Northampton back row who holds the record as the youngest English try-scorer in Six Nations history, is entering talks for a new contract. The Premiership cap is currently set at £6.4m per club, and clubs in the 2026-27 season must also meet a minimum spend of £5.4m, the new salary cap floor. According to the last published 2024-25 salary cap report, Newcastle was thought to be the only club with potential room for a large signing, although data have not been updated since the Red Bull takeover and the signings of Raffi Quirke and Hoskins Sotutu.
If Pollock wants to remain at Northampton, the club appears unlikely to have sufficient cap space for a £1m deal. The club could theoretically create room by substantially reducing the salaries of team-mates who renegotiate this year, but the article notes that would "not be very popular or sensible business." There is an outside chance of a seven-figure salary next season only if a club can demonstrate the necessary cap headroom.
One route around the cap is nomination as an excluded player, covered by Premiership regulations, but the rules set strict eligibility. Regulation 3.26 on excluded players requires a nominee to "been a player of that club for at least two full salary cap years prior to the salary cap year in which they are nominated to be an excluded player," meaning Pollock could not be named Northampton's excluded player immediately.
The regulations also guard against back-loading and poaching by averaging pay over three years, as set out in regulation 3.28.2. The article summarises the averaging rule with an example: "If a player earns £100,000, £150,000 then £200,000 across three years, the average is £150,000. Then as the excluded player, if you then want to pay them £1m, the extra £850,000 would actually be included in the cap as it is above the average." During the Covid pandemic, clubs agreeing larger paydays ahead of lowered caps illustrated why these provisions were introduced.
Clubs are not permitted to know each other's excluded-player nominations, which complicates transfer planning: "a club is not entitled to know the identity of the excluded players of other clubs." If Northampton already has an excluded player nominated, the club would have to undertake complex recalculations to shift that designation to Pollock.
Prem Rugby defended the cap structure in comments to BBC Sport: "The salary cap is designed to prevent clubs from over-spending. It helps control inflationary pressures from club costs and ensures the viability and competitiveness of clubs. "This year the Prem is forecast to post record revenues of more than £200m for the first time, with that number forecast to grow again year-on-year." The governing body added that "Any change to the wider cap structure would always go through a full club consultation and be up for discussion amongst the men's professional Rugby Board before any decision is made. "The removal of promotion and relegation is a separate strategic decision aimed at giving clubs long-term investment certainty, as is evident with the new ownership of Red Bull at Newcastle and Black Knight Rugby at Exeter Chiefs - as well as the new investment from Sir James Dyson at Bath." The article also notes some players supplement club earnings with large commercial deals, listing Ilona Maher, Siya Kolisi and Ellie Kildunne as examples.
As Pollock negotiates a new contract, Northampton would either need to free sufficient cap room or rely on the excluded-player route, which requires a player to have been at the club for two full salary cap years before nomination.