Saints 'stand behind' Myners Report salary cap recommendations

The Premiership Rugby board has given its unanimous support to adopt the 52 recommendations set out in the review of the competition's salary cap regulations.

Myners' recommendations include stripping titles for serious offences, and greater accountability for clubs, players and their agents.

When asked about the recommendations at Saints' online season ticket holders' forum, Darbon said: "There are 50-odd recommendations in the report and it's been a really interesting process.

"Myself, Julia Chapman, our financial director, and Paul Shields went down and met Myners and they asked us for our suggestions.

"What was nice about the report was that it was largely consistent around what we had discussed in our meeting with Lord Myners.

"We felt there needed to be more structure and clarity around loan arrangements, where players go and play for other clubs.

"We felt the declaration process should have more involvement from players and agents as well as the club.

"There are clearly discussions around the role marquee players have and we stand behind the recommendations."

The subjects of the marquee players system and the salary cap ceiling still need to be discussed.

And when asked whether the club intends to continue spending up to the salary cap, chairman John White said: "We do very much intend to always spend up to or around the cap.

"But the cap at the moment plus two marquee players is having a lot of attention applied to it because in this new world all clubs are losing money, with the exception possibly of one.

"We need to be sensible around that cap, but wherever it finishes up, our intention is that we continue to spend up to it as much as we're allowed to."

When speaking about the Lord Myners review, Premiership Rugby chief executive Darren Childs said: "I am immensely grateful to Lord Myners for his thorough, diligent and robust approach to conducting this review.

"It's a credit to our clubs that they have acted so quickly to support these recommendations and take the Premiership Rugby salary cap into a new era.

"We want to create the gold standard for delivering sporting integrity, financial viability and competitive balance.

"The next stage is for us to consult with our clubs, RFU and RPA and to enshrine these new regulations for the start of the 2020-21 season, which will be created for the long-term benefit of our sport."