England players to share mammoth £3.5m bonus if they repeat Six Nations Grand Slam

They will receive 66 per cent more than they did last year

England are favourites to win the trophy but will find a Grand Slam more difficult this year (Getty)

England’s players will share a mammoth total of more that £3.5m if they manage to win back-to-back Grand Slams during this year’s Six Nations.

Of the £3.5m, £1m will be shared among the squad as a special bonus, which is up a giant 66 per cent on the £600,000 Eddie Jones’ side divided up after completing their first championship clean sweep for 13 years.

The remainder of the money will be made up of match and training fees, as well as image rights, after a deal with the Aviva Premiership clubs was concluded this week, report the Daily Telegraph.

The agreement will strengthen England’s position as the highest-paid squad in world rugby.

The English rugby’s governing body, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) will also secure a £20m payout if the Red Rose finish in the top two of the Six Nations table.

Should England win the championship but Eddie Jones lose his perfect record as head coach, then the squad will still share a bonus of £610,000 - £10,000 more than they got for the Grand Slam last year and up from the £368,000 had they achieved the same feat in 2016.

These new bonuses come after the RFU and the Rugby Players’ Association struck a new deal on player payments in November. That sees, excluding bonuses, each player earns £22,000 per game – a 30 per cent rise from £17,000 – for their match fees, image rights and training fees.

The bonus for any clean sweep will be shared on a pro-rata basis but any member of each 23-man matchday squad would receive more than £43,000, taking the total earnings for a player who plays in every game of a Grand Slam triumph to £153,000 - £43,000 more than last year.

Eddie Jones (GETTY IMAGES)

The Telegraph claim the 66 per cent rise is due to the decision, agreed to by the players, to end the awarding of a squad bonus for winning every game of the autumn internationals.

Therefore, players earned only match fees, training fees and image rights for their victories over South Africa, Fiji, Argentina and Australia last year, and did not get a share of the £300,000 bonus they would have had in previous years.