Premiership Rugby has been urged to make major changes to its salary cap amid claims clubs are being penalised for producing homegrown England internationals. Saracens are leading the call, fearful that under the current system England stars such as Maro Itoje will be lured away on lucrative contracts, and want the Premiership Rugby board to take action.

Saracens believe England players who have come through their academy should be at least partially exempt from the salary cap, which is currently £7m plus two “marquee players”. Owen Farrell, Itoje and Jamie George all came through their academy and have all signed new contracts in the last two and a half years. Their value has risen after their performances for the British & Irish Lions this summer, however, and it has been reported Itoje is likely to command a seven-figure annual figure when his deal runs out after the 2019 World Cup.

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The Premiership salary cap has risen by £500,000 this season but will be frozen until 2020 and with wages steadily increasing – Charles Piutau is reportedly set to earn £1m a year at Bristol from 2018-19 – and England players’ market value climbing at a similar rate, the Saracens director of rugby, Mark McCall, fears losing his stars. Saracens propose that each homegrown England player contributes an arbitrary sum to the club’s salary cap – significantly less than their actual wage – therefore freeing up funds to spend on the rest of the squad.

“It would be an unbelievable shame if we had to lose players we have grown ourselves, who have come through our system since they were 14 or 15,” he said. “My own view – and this obviously suits us right now but it will suit everybody eventually – is that if you genuinely bring a player through your academy system and he becomes like some of our players then there should be a limit on what he costs you in the salary cap. That figure would be up to the RFU but I do think there should be an incentive for clubs to grow their own and to bring English players through for English clubs and for England.

“To be penalised for having all these academy players who are only asking for their market value in fairness and not to be able to afford them and to have to let them go doesn’t seem right.”

Saracens are unlikely to receive unanimous support from the rest of the Premiership clubs, some of whom spend significantly below the current cap without a rich benefactor to bankroll them or offset huge debt. Moreover, built into the £7m cap is a £600,000 fee that accounts for “homegrown player credits”, while clubs receive £80,000 for each player selected in England’s elite player squad. But considering the time his England players spend on international duty, McCall believes Premiership clubs get the raw end of the deal. He has therefore urged the other clubs to take a long-term view with their French counterparts – the Top 14 salary cap is approximately £9m – ready to circle for England’s finest after the World Cup.

“Hopefully someone will listen to the argument. I’m not sure we will get the support of all the clubs because it is maybe not their problem right now but it might be,” he said. “For now the cap is staying level which makes things very difficult. You have that group of players who are available for less than half the time in the Premiership and you have to have a group of players who are competitive when they’re not there. It does make life difficult.”

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This month John Kingston, who also has a number of homegrown England players at Harlequins such as Chris Robshaw, Kyle Sinckler and Joe Marler, admitted his growing concern. “The market has gone stupid in the last few years,” he said. “Everyone does things for money to a certain extent, it is all relative to what it is. I always say that if you want to earn the most amount of money then you move.”

Elsewhere, Denny Solomona insists he has learnt his lesson after being sent home early from England’s recent training camp. Along with Manu Tuilagi, Solomona was told to leave the three-day pre-season camp in Teddington by Eddie Jones three weeks ago for what the RFU said were “team culture issues”, which were understood to be alcohol-related.

The 23-year-old rugby league convert says he will heed the advice of England coach Jones.

“He’s just said to train harder and play harder and that’s what I’ll do,” Solomona said. “I need to do what he says. That’s the only way I’ll achieve what I want to achieve. What happened was out of character, it was definitely a mistake on my behalf. I’ll cop that on the chin and I’ll work harder to get back. I put that person behind me a long time ago.”