Charles Piutau is to become the highest paid player in world rugby next year after Championship side Bristol smashed Premiership records by signing the former All Black on a sensational £1 million per season deal, Telegraph Sport can reveal.

Piutau, the utility back who won 16 caps for the All Blacks before joining Irish province Ulster via a dazzling season at Wasps, is to join the south west club at the start of the 2018/19 season having signed a two-year deal that will shock waves across English rugby.

Bristol saw off strong competition from leading clubs in France to secure the deal – well beyond Ulster’s financial means - and had to pay above the odds because of their current status outside of England’s top flight.

Bristol, who were relegated from the Premiership last season, had already set a new Premiership record by signing Piutau’s former Auckland Blues and All Blacks team-mate Steven Lautau this season on a deal understood to be worth £650,000 per season.

The Piutau deal however last night described by Pat Lam, Bristol’s new director of rugby, “one of the biggest coups in the club’s history” and underscores the south west club’s ambitions – bankrolled by billionaire owner Stephen Lansdown - to become not only the top force in England but also Europe.