{"id":551118,"date":"2026-07-30T11:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/551118\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T11:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T11:05:07","slug":"the-20-highest-paid-rugby-players-in-the-world-in-2026-page-2-of-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/551118\/","title":{"rendered":"The 20 Highest-Paid Rugby Players in the World in 2026 &#8211; Page 2 of 3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>14. Matthieu Jalibert \u2013 Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Estimated salary: \u00a3550,000\u2013\u00a3600,000 per year<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the Top 14\u2019s premier fly-halves, Jalibert is among the small group of players in France earning around or above \u20ac600,000 annually. His attacking ability and importance to Bordeaux justify his position among the game\u2019s leading earners.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>13. Gr\u00e9gory Alldritt \u2013 La Rochelle<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Estimated salary: \u00a3550,000\u2013\u00a3600,000 per year<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The France back-rower has been one of La Rochelle\u2019s defining players during their rise into a European powerhouse. French salary research has consistently placed Alldritt among the Top 14\u2019s biggest earners.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>12. Will Skelton \u2013 La Rochelle<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Estimated salary: \u00a3550,000\u2013\u00a3600,000 per year<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Skelton\u2019s enormous influence at club level has made him one of the most valuable forwards in Europe. The giant Wallabies lock is another La Rochelle star believed to earn at least \u20ac600,000 per season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>11. Jesse Kriel \u2013 Yokohama Canon Eagles<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Estimated salary: \u00a3600,000\u2013\u00a3650,000 per year<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kriel has established himself as one of Japan\u2019s leading overseas centres. A double World Cup winner and senior Springbok, his reliability, defensive quality and leadership give him considerable market value.<\/p>\n<p>10. Malcolm Marx \u2013 Kubota Spears<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Estimated salary: \u00a3600,000\u2013\u00a3675,000 per year<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Widely regarded as one of the finest hookers in world rugby, Marx remains a marquee name in Japan. Available estimates place his Kubota package at around $750,000 to $850,000 annually.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>9. Pieter-Steph du Toit \u2013 Toyota Verblitz<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Estimated salary: \u00a3625,000\u2013\u00a3675,000 per year<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The two-time World Rugby Player of the Year commands one of the largest forward contracts in Japan. Du Toit\u2019s reported package is close to $800,000 per season.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>8. Handr\u00e9 Pollard \u2013 Vodacom Bulls<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Estimated salary: \u00a3650,000 per year<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Pollard returned to Pretoria on one of the biggest contracts in South African rugby history. His package reportedly combines his Bulls salary with SA Rugby support and additional commercial agreements, keeping his earnings close to what he received at Leicester.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ruck.co.uk\/the-20-highest-paid-rugby-players-in-the-world-in-2026\/3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CONTINUES ON PAGE THREE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"14. Matthieu Jalibert \u2013 Bordeaux-B\u00e8gles Estimated salary: \u00a3550,000\u2013\u00a3600,000 per year One of the Top 14\u2019s premier fly-halves, Jalibert&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551119,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-551118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}