Cotter has signed a three-year deal with the Top 14 club to take over from White

Vern Cotter will become the highest-paid coach in rugby union when he leaves Scotland to take charge of Montpellier next summer.

Cotter has signed a three-year deal with the Top 14 club worth more than €3 million (about £2.5 million), according to sources in France.

The deal makes him the first coach to break the €1 million-a-year barrier and puts him in the same bracket as the world’s leading players.

Cotter will take over at Montpellier from Jake White, the former South Africa coach whose contract expires at the end of this season, and his deal puts him above all the highest-earning coaches — Joe Schmidt (Ireland), Warren Gatland (Wales) and Eddie Jones (England) — on the global pay scale.

Cotter announced in August that