In the latest Rugby Australia annual report, Rugby Australia chief executive Phil Waugh trumpets the fact they have secured an increase of about 40 per cent in the new broadcast deal with Nine, the publisher of this masthead, making it valued at up to $240 million.

It’s easy to strip about $50 million out of that figure, however. The free advertising component of the deal amounts to about $30 million over five years, reducing the cash amount to $210 million, and subtract a further $25 million if the Wallabies and the Super Rugby sides don’t meet certain performance criteria.

In other words, the $240 million deal “value” is actually $185 million in real terms, with the potential of rising to $210 million if Australian rugby shoots the lights out over the next five-year period.

That is a far different figure to the one presented – far more sobering – but it is actually a far more helpful one for Australian rugby fans trying to make sense of the seemingly contradictory signals that keep emerging.

On the one hand, the apparent effect of cost controls is evident in the departures of players such Noah Lolesio, an extraordinary example of an incumbent Test No.10 heading overseas and putting his........

© The Sydney Morning Herald