Wasps director of rugby Dai Young calls for salary cap 'rethink' after European Champions Cup exit

Wasps director of rugby Dai Young has called for a salary cap 'rethink' after seeing his side knocked out of the European Champions Cup at the quarter-final stage by star-studded champions Toulon.

The Premiership side were outgunned 32-18 at the Stade Mayol with the likes of France centre Mathieu Bastareaud and former All Blacks lock Ali Williams running in tries for the hosts, who moved into the last four despite missing South Africa stars Juan Smith and Bryan Habana.

With French clubs able to spend a significantly larger amount on wages and thereby attracting the biggest names in the sport, Young feels the salary cap system imposed on English clubs may be due an overhaul.

The Welshman said: "The salary cap has produced what it was there to produce. But there probably needs to be a little bit of a rethink in terms of how important Europe is to English teams.

All the clubs have been sustainable for a long period, the threat of teams financially going to the wall isn't really there.

"On a domestic front it's achieved what it was set out to achieve, it's produced a lot of young English players because they are getting exposure at that level.

"But I suppose there probably needs to be a bit of a rethink in terms of how that leaves English teams when it comes to playing in Europe against French teams that pretty much have unlimited budgets.

"The reality of it is that it's pretty much out of the hands of all the directors of rugby. There are pros and cons for everything, why the salary cap is there, it's worked.

"All the clubs have been sustainable for a long period, the threat of teams financially going to the wall isn't really there.

"It's the most competitive league in Europe by any stats you'll see, there are more one-score games in the Premiership than any other league and there have been two or three different winners the last couple of seasons."

While the French national team struggles (Philippe Saint-Andre's side could only manage a fourth-placed finish in the Six Nations), their clubs continue to excel - 2013 runners-up Clermont-Auvergne trounced Premiership champions Northampton 37-5 on Saturday.