Big bucks.

London Irish are not messing around ahead of their return to the Gallagher Premiership next season. The newly-promoted side have spent big, and have no intentions of going straight back down this time.

They’ve brought in a wealth experienced internationals in Wallabies Curtis Rona, Nick Phipps and Adam Coleman, as well as Ireland internationals Sean O’Brien and Paddy Jackson – as well as the small matter of All Blacks winger Waisake Naholo.

And as you’d expect, these guys don’t come cheap. But you might be a little taken aback by the reported salary of former Ulster outhalf Paddy Jackson. According to RugbyPass, Jackson is on close to £500k-a-season.

To put that into perspective – if Jackson was still with Ulster, there are only a handful of Ireland internationals on that kind of money. £500k would bring up in line with the likes of Tadhg Furlong and Peter O’Mahony and not far behind Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray. Not bad at all.