THE fiction that the PRL salary cap is designed to create a level playing field is clearly exposed by the battle joined so far by only Bristol and Exeter to retain the scope to spend unlimited amounts on two marquee players. It is easy to understand the frustrations of wealthy backers of these clubs at the prospect of having tightened restrictions on how much of their own money they are allowed to spend in pursuit of their ambitions, but they refuse to acknowledge the inevitable wider impact of the existing arrangements on less wealthy clubs.
They are right to say that the cap imposes no re...