=1 Connacht, Ulster 47
2 Munster 42 (+1 incoming)
3 Leinster 41
I'm not sure just what it is you're trying to show with this salmson but you've missed missed one very important point. As pointed out by EvoGeo, 28 out of Leinster's 41 senior pros are internationals and you can be sure that the wage bill for those 41 is far higher that Connacht's 47.
But when you look a little deeper and add in quality players from their star studded academy like Ross Byrne, Joey Carbery (Already Int.), Max Deegan, Hugo Keenan, Rory O'Loughlin, Andrew Porter & James Ryan to name but a few and the picture becomes a little clearer. These are all players that would be pushing for regular starting positions in Connacht & even Ulster if more was done by the IRFU to encourage them to move province in order to gain playing time & experience. But here again Leinster's interests are best served by keeping them in the academy longer thereby reducing the number of guys on senior contracts, leaving more money available to pay individual players more leading to an ability to sign top quality players and prevent their best players moving. Good as the Connacht academy is, they like most clubs in Europe are light years away from Leinster.
And please don't give me that old nugget about not being able to force players to move against their will. The IRFU control every aspect of professional rugby in Ireland. They utimately pay every players wages and decide if and when a player gets to achieve what's supposed to be the ultimate goal of every player i.e. to play for their national team so a little encouragement from Nucifora would go a long way in encouraging players to move provinces.
This in turn would free up the massive long jam of quality players in Leinster playing A game rugby or competing fo places on the bench while their internationals are away. But while this would be in the best interests of the Irish national team, it is contrary to the best interests of Leinster and given their huge conveyor belt from their schools system into their academy and the fact they provide the bulk of the players for the national team, they currently hold all of the power and are not afraid to use it to strengthen their position in any way they see fit. So young players are told it's in their best interests to stay in Leinster rather than move & players like Henshaw, McCarthy, Carr, Hagan ect. ect. are told they need to be playing for Leinster if the want to play for Ireland.
Yea I know they're all adults and the final decision rests with them but they're also young guys often blinded by international ambition and when you see guys like O'Halloran, Matt Healy, Adeolokun & Denis Buckley being constantly ignored by Ireland and even largely Marmion living off scraps for the most part and not even deemed to be as good as an injured Conor Murray against Wales, you can see how easily their heads can be turned.
Munster's academy seems to have largely been allowed to fall into disarray over the last few years and we all know about the huge €9 million debt to the IRFU the remains not only unpaid but without any prospect of being paid in the foreseeable future. Connacht on the other hand have gone from almost extinction to Pro12 champions, with an academy that's the envy of many much bigger and richer clubs and are producing many international class players available for selection to the Irish national team. This is all the more remarkable given the numbers of people playing rugby in comparison to Leinster & even Munster.
But in Connacht we loose our head coach, and regardless of the money offered by Bristol, the 6 month termination clause inserted into his contract by the IRFU (Meaning he effectively only ever had 6 months job security) meant it'd have been a no brainer for him to leave even if Bristol had only offered to match his current wages. I'm speculating now but I think it's fair to say Rassie & his team didn't come cheap to an already debt stricken Munster and given that he was recently able to resist overtures to return to SA as Springbok head coach, I'd be amazed if he had the same 6 month clause in his contract. Then add in their new €15 million centre of excellence in Limerick, the whole Saili/Taute affair, the fact that they're able to sign a player like Jean Kleyn (not yet capped at international but still didn't come cheap given his undoubted potential) while having a 58 cap Aus international lock as well as IQ players like Donnacha Ryan, Dave Foley, Billy Holland, Dave O'Callaghan, Darren O'Shea, John Madigan & Sean McCarthy available to them and now they're allowed to sign another springbok international lock who once again wouldn't have come cheap even on a 3 month contract. Any game he plays will be to the detriment on one of their IQ locks and once again it leaves a very bad taste in the mouth.
I fully accept that we can't realistically expect equal funding to the likes of Leinster given the fact that their monetary contribution to the IRFU is always going to be much higher than Connacht's through the much larger schools system feeding into their academy and the fact that their population & fan base is so much larger providing a far larger revenue stream. But if last year showed anything it was to prove what can be achieved with more funding and in turn a more professional support team. This year was an opportunity for the IRFU to push it even further, increasing their assistance (Not just extra funding but other aspects like access to the Leinster log jam) to help grow the game of rugby in Connacht thereby greatly increasing the player base here in the future. We can all see how much potential revenue is not being currently realised even from small things like a guy not being able to buy Connacht gear for his 2 year old. Small things you might say but they all add up & Leinster & Munster don't miss a trick in the commercial dept.
But instead the IRFU's entire focus this year seems to be on doing whatever it can to make Munster successful again so that the so called faithful will return to the monetary black hole that is Thomond park and Munster might then be able to repay the €9 million it owes to all of Irish rugby. Great for Munster, but not so great for Connacht & even Ulster whose best interests are cast aside in pursuit of this ridiculous exercise in throwing good money after bad.
"Champions aren’t made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: a desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill." Muhammad Ali
