Defeat at Twickenham carries £2m price tag

England and Wales will be playing for high stakes in next Sunday’s Six Nations eliminator at Twickenham.
Thematchwillbeworthup to £4m in prize money to the winner. For the loser, the price of defeat will be exorbitant at more than £2m – the difference between finishing first and fourth.
Under the Six Nations’ bonus system, a total prize fund of around £14m is divid- ed up according to where the Six finish.
At £4m the champions will be £1m better off than the runners-up and more than twice better off than the team finishing fourth.
The four contenders are competing for greater rewards this year, mainly because none of them qualifies for the special bonus rewarding Grand Slam win- ners with an extra £1m at the expense of the five other teams.
When Wales achieved the last Slam, two years ago, it was worth almost £90,000-a-man. England’s players would have topped that with more than £100,000-a-man had their Slam not disintegrated in their rout by Wales at the end of last year’s tournament.
Wales’ captain, Sam War- burton,will find out this week whether he will be on his own as the only one of six players offered a central contract with the WRU to sign.
Three others – Alun-Wyn Jones, Scott Williams and Rhys Priestland – subsequently opted to stay with their regions. A fourth, LeighHalf- penny, signed for Toulon instead, leaving only one of the six to make up his mind.
Adam Jones, due to play his 99th Test at Twickenham the day after his 33rd birthday, is to meet Ospreys‘ directors tomorrow amid speculation that the Lions tighthead will opt to stay with his region.
Ospreys had feared they would be outbid by the WRU, claiming the Union had topped their offer by £50,000.
Alun-Wyn Jones rejected the WRU deal in re-signing for the Ospreys because of his uncertainty over where he would be playing his domes-
tic rugby next season. The regions’ umbrella organisa- tion, Regional Rugby Wales, has a rule prohibiting the use of centrally contracted players, as does their English equivalent, Premier Rugby Ltd.
PETER JACKSON