Viva la France.

Salaries in rugby have become a huge talking point in recent years as increased revenue across the top leagues in Europe, have resulted the player market exploding.

There was a time when players made the move up north from Super Rugby as their Test careers came to an end, but with the increasing wages on offer particularly in England and France, players are making the move younger and younger each year.

This has had a huge effect across Europe for both domestic and foreign players, with salaries continuing to rocket up. But would a highest paid starting XV look like in Europe by competition?

Last week Esportif International, a rugby talent management agency, produced some numbers to reveal on average, what positions demand the highest salaries across the three major European leagues – the Guinness PRO14, the Top 14 and the Aviva Premiership. This week they’ve put together a highest paid starting XV, with some interesting findings.

The PRO14 is represented just once on the entire XV (fullback) with this largely due to the huge salary being paid to Ulster’s Charles Piutau. This however, as we know, will change next season, with the New Zealander set to move to Bristol and nearly double his wages.

The rest of the positions are completely dominated by the Top 14, with 12 of the 15 positions taken up by France’s top competition. The Aviva Premiership has three spots on the XV (scrumhalf, lock, loosehead prop).