England’s players have opted against donating a proportion of their £22,000 match fee to their Samoa counterparts because doing so would compromise rugby union’s integrity, according to Dan Cole, who has defended the decision on “ethical” grounds.

Cole revealed that England’s senior player group had discussed the issue this week after Mako Vunipola had urged his team-mates to donate £1,000 each to Samoa, who earn approximately £650 per player, for the match at Twickenham on Saturday. “It’s above our station as players,” said the tighthead prop Cole. “We play the game against the opposition, whoever we play, and it’s not for us to get involved in the politics of paying people.”

The Rugby Football Union will this week make a “goodwill gesture” of a £75,000 donation but has ruled out sharing any of Saturday’s matchday revenue – expected to be more than £5m – with Samoa, insisting World Rugby legislation does not allow it.

The RFU also has concerns over involving itself in a continuing row between the Samoan union and World Rugby. The Samoa union was declared bankrupt by its chairman, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi – who is also the country’s prime minister – this month but World Rugby has disputed that claim.

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The decision of England’s players, meanwhile, has been met with some criticism considering the RFU is the world’s richest union and its players the best paid. Cole however, believes there was the potential to set a dangerous precedent. “[The decision] was along the ethics of paying an opposition to play against you and the future issues it might create,” he said. “Not so much opposition asking for pay but it potentially looks like: ‘We’ve paid you before, now you owe us a favour.’”

Cole did acknowledge that England’s riches were the envy of all other nations but again reiterated that the finances of unions was not an issue for the players to involve themselves in, adding that “I would love for other nations to get paid what we get paid”.

He added: “At post-match functions you don’t discuss finances, you talk about the game and playing and it’s similar at the club. We have a lot of Tongans and a few Samoan boys [at Leicester]. They might say, ‘yes, you’re well paid,’ and fortunately we are. But it’s not said in a bitter way. The issues are not player to player. The issue is with the unions.”

Samoa’s financial plight has been reflected on the pitch and having endured a 17-13 defeat by Romania last weekend they are 16th in the world rankings. As part of World Rugby’s regulations, the RFU has funded their stay in Teddington this week while the sport’s governing body has covered player insurance, flights and a pre-tour camp. Player release and sufficient preparation time remain significant problems however, according to the Samoa captain, Chris Vui.

“We get guys coming from Australia, New Zealand, the UK, France and they all come for just three days of camp. We’re trying to get to grips with how they learn, how they speak,” said Vui, who plays for Bristol. “It would be great if we could have a bit more time together to prepare for these tier-one teams and give them a good go.

“There are a lot of great players that are playing in the Premiership at the moment and they are showing some form but they could not commit for personal reasons, or other reasons that I don’t know. But we’re here to play rugby and there are things outside of rugby that we can’t control. There are association representatives that are looking at the things outside of rugby for us and we trust in them to do their work.”

Samoa’s on-field struggles are such that England are expected to win handsomely on Saturday despite Eddie Jones making numerous changes to the side that beat Australia, with Sam Simmonds set for a first start in a rejigged back row and both Owen Farrell and Mako Vunipola expected to be rested. Cole also highlighted the importance of safeguarding the future of the Samoa international team.

“You want a strong global game and you want as many strong sides playing rugby as possible,” he said. “You don’t want just two or three superpowers playing – that will eventually harm the game. You want as many different international teams playing as possible.”