Manu Tuilagi can make claim against Leicester for compensation, says lawyer

Manu Tuilagi can make a straightforward claim against Leicester for compensation and damages after he was stood down by the club, according to a leading sports lawyer – aiding the England centre’s chances of continuing his international career.

Related: Manu Tuilagi and Kyle Eastmond leave Leicester after refusing pay cuts

Tuilagi’s time at Leicester is in effect over after he was among the players who did not accept a reduced contract before the club’s imposed deadline this week. The 29-year-old has already been linked with a move to France but doing so would halt his England career given the Rugby Football Union’s refusal to pick players based abroad. In addition, the Top 14 is exploring a reduction in its €11.3m salary cap, meaning Tuilagi’s wages of around £500,000 a year are more of a stumbling block.

Matching those wages is all the more difficult for the cash-strapped Premiership clubs but Tuilagi could walk away from his Leicester contract and make a claim for compensation from the club for any shortfall in earnings. In other words, if he were to agree a cut-price deal of £300,000 at another Premiership club, the shortfall of around £200,000 would be made up by the Tigers, assuming his claim was successful.

“If [the club] wants to impose a wage cut that would be a repudiatory breach,” said Richard Cramer of Front Row Legal. “The players can stay within the club, there is no requirement to actually leave, and then if there’s a shortfall of wages they can take that to a tribunal.

“Or the players can accept the breach, walk out of the club and then they are free to join any other club they wish with a duty to mitigate their loss. And then if there’s a financial shortfall the players can make a claim for compensation.”

Cramer also believes that Tuilagi and co could potentially make claims for reputational damage if they could show they have been portrayed as acting rebelliously or if the decision by the Leicester chief executive, Andrea Pinchen, to name the players on Wednesday is deemed to amount to a breach of confidentiality.

“If I was acting for the players I would claim not just for the shortfall in wages but for damages too,” he said. “The way it has been spun, they’ve almost been painted as rebels for not agreeing to the pay cut. Naming them and breaching confidentiality – iIs it permissible for an employer to name and shame those players? That could carry a financial penalty.”

Leicester declined to comment on Cramer’s remarks but issued a statement on Wednesday defending their actions, claiming the pandemic has cost them £5m in revenue with 31 staff members being made redundant. “We had to go down one path,” Pinchen said. “The majority of the people are all going down that path with us, because we believe in the future success of the club, and a handful couldn’t.”

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Meanwhile, Brad Barritt does not believe his achievements at Saracens have been diminished by the salary cap scandal, having announced he will leave the club when the season is completed. The Saracens captain has won five Premiership titles and three European Cups in his 12 years at the club but this season saw them condemned to relegation for their salary cap breaches.

“You can’t stop what people think,” Barritt said. “I know what I personally put into the journey and how it made me feel. At no point did I ever feel that those memories are tarnished.”

Barritt is mulling over whether to retire at the end of the season and while he would not consider a move to another English club, he could play on in South Africa. That would raise the prospect of playing against the British & Irish Lions next summer, having represented the tourists in 2013.

“I haven’t ruled it out. At this point I’m pretty certain that my career playing in the UK is over. I’ve just got to assess how I feel about playing in the next few months and whether the appetite to continue is still there.”