Well first of all. bear in mind that salaries fluctuate due to changing exchange rates. That said, on average, the best paid players are the ones in the French Top-14, where the clubs have a salary cap of 8 million Euros to spread amongst the 35-odd number of players on the first squad. That's currently about 11 million US. The English clubs have a somewhat lower cap of 4 million pounds sterling, or about 6.5 million US. The Celtic League club salaries are competitive with the English clubs, albeit (usually) a little lower. SH clubs are organized differently, as the player contracts are held by the respective national union rather than the individual clubs. Generally the salaries are significantly lower than those in Europe, which is why (of course) the more talented players tend to drift north later in their careers. Of course some players make a lot more than others. Generally the marque players make between 0.5 to 1 million US or the equivalent per season. Individual contacts aren't generally made public, but the current best paid salaried player is probably Sebastien Chabal, at about a million Euros per year. That's about 1.3 million US. In the SH, Richie McCaw and Dan Carter are paid a base salary by the NZRU of about 1 million NZ dollars per year. Sonny Bill Williams is making 575,000 per year -- significantly less than the 2 million per yearToulon reportedly offered him last year to stay in France
