salmson wrote: Edit: BTW I'm not saying he won't go; what I'm saying is whether he goes or stays it will be his choice (possibly helped by a whisper one way or the other from Uncle Joe). Of course that means if he does go we can't kid ourselves about some IRFU conspiracy: it'd be a massive no-confidence vote in Connacht from our homegrown superstar.

The buck stops with Nucifora if Henshaw is on a central contract, and he has talked before about distribution of players being part of his brief, so I doubt the decision is entirely up to Henshaw. Nucifora's bargaining can be influenced by uncle Joe and the blazers in the other provinces.

So maybe he can't give a different salary based on province, but he should be in a position to see the depth chart and contract situation in each province and make his offers/forecasting based on that. It is then his responsibility to replenish the Connacht squad with a centre if he allows Henshaw to move to Munster (for example... Leinster and Ulster already have a good number of players at centre). I'm sure he has some other incentives up his sleeve too, whatever they might be - like appearance bonus, scoring bonus, rest days etc.

swift4prez wrote:

Evil_g wrote:

Why does he keep saying he hasn't talked to the IRFU yet? That surely can't be possible.

Ruling out leaving the country before even talking to them would be a strange negotiating tactic.

He keeps talking about all his options, but if he's gonna stay in Ireland there are only four options.

Anyway, get on with it lads and get back to us when ye know what's happening.

I agree. I find all this very strange. Players usually keep banging on about getting offers from France to get bigger contract from Irfu.
Robbie is ruling France out for couple of years.
He won't have a bidding war between two province between Irish player. Not doing his bank balance any favours

I love Robbie but he's not exactly the best speaker/interviewer, he comes across as a very shy 22 year old (which is entirely reasonable), and has no idea how to act cool for the media.

wp_rathead wrote:

salmson wrote:

menacethedenis wrote: Also, unless something changed recently, the provinces aren't allowed to outbid each other for Irish players, so if he goes to Leinster it won't be because of a salary issue.

That's completely correct about the bidding rules but not relevant in this case as Robbie will be moving from a provincial to a national contract (i.e. his wages will come out of the central IRFU pot rather than provincial budget). What province he is attached to is down to him.

Can the IRFU say Central Contract be worth X at Province A and worth Y at Province B?

Can you imagine what Munster and Ulster would say if Leinster/IRFU tried to pull that one?

Edit: BTW I'm not saying he won't go; what I'm saying is whether he goes or stays it will be his choice (possibly helped by a whisper one way or the other from Uncle Joe). Of course that means if he does go we can't kid ourselves about some IRFU conspiracy: it'd be a massive no-confidence vote in Connacht from our homegrown superstar.

pinky wrote:

salmson wrote: That's completely correct about the bidding rules but not relevant in this case as Robbie will be moving from a provincial to a national contract (i.e. his wages will come out of the central IRFU pot rather than provincial budget). What province he is attached to is down to him.

Aren't they allowed to get top-up payments directly from sponsors now though? So a sponsor could offer him a package conditional on moving to the team they sponsor. I presume that wouldn't be covered under the no-outbidding rule?

That's the way it goes but so far there has been precisely one of those deals, for the not exactly princely sum of 100K from Denis O'Brien to bring Sexton home. There's almost zero possibility of that happening though: according to Gerry in the Toimes last week Leinster's financial situation isn't the best, so any such sponsor would most likely be directed towards helping out with resigning Sean O'Brien and Cian Healy.

www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/european-...rom-europe-1.2438647

salmson wrote: That's completely correct about the bidding rules but not relevant in this case as Robbie will be moving from a provincial to a national contract (i.e. his wages will come out of the central IRFU pot rather than provincial budget). What province he is attached to is down to him.

Aren't they allowed to get top-up payments directly from sponsors now though? So a sponsor could offer him a package conditional on moving to the team they sponsor. I presume that wouldn't be covered under the no-outbidding rule?

salmson wrote:

menacethedenis wrote: Also, unless something changed recently, the provinces aren't allowed to outbid each other for Irish players, so if he goes to Leinster it won't be because of a salary issue.

That's completely correct about the bidding rules but not relevant in this case as Robbie will be moving from a provincial to a national contract (i.e. his wages will come out of the central IRFU pot rather than provincial budget). What province he is attached to is down to him.

Can the IRFU say Central Contract be worth X at Province A and worth Y at Province B?

menacethedenis wrote: Also, unless something changed recently, the provinces aren't allowed to outbid each other for Irish players, so if he goes to Leinster it won't be because of a salary issue.

That's completely correct about the bidding rules but not relevant in this case as Robbie will be moving from a provincial to a national contract (i.e. his wages will come out of the central IRFU pot rather than provincial budget). What province he is attached to is down to him.

swift4prez wrote:

Evil_g wrote:

Why does he keep saying he hasn't talked to the IRFU yet? That surely can't be possible.

Ruling out leaving the country before even talking to them would be a strange negotiating tactic.

He keeps talking about all his options, but if he's gonna stay in Ireland there are only four options.

Anyway, get on with it lads and get back to us when ye know what's happening.

I agree. I find all this very strange. Players usually keep banging on about getting offers from France to get bigger contract from Irfu.
Robbie is ruling France out for couple of years.
He won't have a bidding war between two province between Irish player. Not doing his bank balance any favours

His agent may be doing the early negotiating and he hasn't been brought in yet. Also, unless something changed recently, the provinces aren't allowed to outbid each other for Irish players, so if he goes to Leinster it won't be because of a salary issue.

Evil_g wrote:

Why does he keep saying he hasn't talked to the IRFU yet? That surely can't be possible.

Ruling out leaving the country before even talking to them would be a strange negotiating tactic.

He keeps talking about all his options, but if he's gonna stay in Ireland there are only four options.

Anyway, get on with it lads and get back to us when ye know what's happening.

I agree. I find all this very strange. Players usually keep banging on about getting offers from France to get bigger contract from Irfu.
Robbie is ruling France out for couple of years.
He won't have a bidding war between two province between Irish player. Not doing his bank balance any favours

Robbie had interview with Newstalk Breakfast
Pretty much sounded like he on his way East tbh
Would been nice for Yates to ask Robbie more about the positives of staying in Connacht than the positives of moving to Leinster (he referenced bigger crowds and champions cup rugby) - but Ivan isn't a sports presenter so I'll let him away with it

So it's Leinster or Connacht basically. If he goes, I wonder would Reid or Ringrose come the other way, I doubt either would be impressed by another centre arriving.

I'm getting pretty bored of this already, but anyway, Robbie Henshaw update:

The42.ie: ‘I’ll have to see what’s best for my career’ – Henshaw addresses talk of Connacht exit

“I suppose, in terms of the French teams in the Champions Cup, their players are obviously being paid a significant amount of money, but I suppose I’d love to play all my rugby in Ireland at the moment. I’m still quite young so I wouldn’t be thinking of leaving for a while. Further down the line it could be an option but at the moment I don’t think so.”

“We haven’t talked with the IRFU but I’d imagine it’s more my call than theirs because I’m out of contract. But I suppose they could kind of guide you towards where they might want you playing. I’m not fully sure on that.”

Why does he keep saying he hasn't talked to the IRFU yet? That surely can't be possible.

Ruling out leaving the country before even talking to them would be a strange negotiating tactic.

He keeps talking about all his options, but if he's gonna stay in Ireland there are only four options.

Anyway, get on with it lads and get back to us when ye know what's happening.

Evil_g wrote:
Franno shouldn't count.

Franno can rot in hell.

menacethedenis wrote: A pro-Connacht article in the Indo? Is it April 1st?

It's more of an anti-Leinster article really. Any praise of Connacht is purely incidental.

menacethedenis wrote:

Evil_g wrote:

menacethedenis wrote: A pro-Connacht article in the Indo? Is it April 1st?

Not trying to be a complete contrarian, but the Indo's coverage of Connacht over the last few years hasn't been bad at all. they had a whole section dedicated to Connacht every Friday last season.

We must be reading different papers. The Connacht 'section' only started when they joined as sponsor and it's basically just interviews with players and articles by ex-players. The contempt held by their staff writers for Connacht has been blatantly obvious for years.

Franno shouldn't count.

Evil_g wrote:

menacethedenis wrote: A pro-Connacht article in the Indo? Is it April 1st?

Not trying to be a complete contrarian, but the Indo's coverage of Connacht over the last few years hasn't been bad at all. they had a whole section dedicated to Connacht every Friday last season.

We must be reading different papers. The Connacht 'section' only started when they joined as sponsor and it's basically just interviews with players and articles by ex-players. The contempt held by their staff writers for Connacht has been blatantly obvious for years.