Leighton wrote: Slightly OT but is there any truth that the IRFU are paying Peter Stringer to play for Saracens?

Depends how you define "paying him to play for Saracens" I suppose. Stringer is paid by Munster (he's not centrally contracted by the IRFU any more) and depending on the loan arrangement Munster might well still be picking up a proportion of his wages.

This is common practice in football across the water, for example Man City are effectively paying Emmanuel Adebayor to play for Spurs, as the loan deal does not cover his wages in full.

To get back to your point though, since a large proportion of the wage bill for provinical players is also covered by the IRFU, and *if* the loan agreement doesn't cover all his wages, then you could argue that they are (indirectly) paying Stringer to play for Saracens.

But this is (1) speculation as we don't know the loan doesn't cover his wage entirely and (2) if it did happen it's Munster you should be annoyed at and not the IRFU.

Slightly OT but is there any truth that the IRFU are paying Peter Stringer to play for Saracens?

salmson wrote: The IRFU can do nothing about players wanting to leave. They'd finished their contracts. There are such things as employment laws and freedom of movement.

And from a practical level, if they had refused Leinster permission to sign Hagan what would stop him signing for an English team?

Maybe the IRFU cannot force a player to take a job somewhere, but they can influence their decision. It certainly has been made clear to the players that if they fancy being selected for Ireland their chances will be greatly enhanced if they play on the island. The IRFU's role is to make Irish rugby as strong as possible and they are paying some of the bills and I don't see Leinster or Munster passing up their money just yet. So there is leverage on that end as well. If they are concerned about the development of these young players they have to be involved in their movement. Sometimes it will be better for them to be playing the understudy at Leinster or Munster and sometimes it will make more sense for them to be getting game time at Connacht.

salmson while i take on board most of what u say i think the problem wit the new ruling is that it will force munster in particular to look to connacht more and more to strengthen squad positions wit irish qualified players whereas they currently have been looking abroad for these players mainly. for instance everyone knows that they are looking for a quality 12 and 13 for a while now. traditionally they looked southern hemisphere. now they will have to look locally to fill at least one of them. They will also b looking for back up th and lh props and may have to look local here as well. Ronan ls performances lately mite make him attractive to them esp as archer appears to strugle scrum time. same applies to wilk as horan is 35 now.

The big worry is when they come calling where will connacht go for replacements. Are irfu going to allow us to go niq and if they do wheres the logic in that from their perspective given policy for other 3 provinces?

The one saving grace is that munster as a brand is far too valuable to irfu to allow it to deteriorate. Wigglesworth has already stated that exceptions will be made where the quality of irish qual player available isnt up to teams required by province they wil be allowed to sign niq that is. This implies that in munsters case if archer/ryan or other irish qual signing dont come up to the mark a player of bothas quality cand be retained/signed.

By the way i mainly mention munster as i think they will b most likely suitors of our players. Leinsters acadamy is very strong and should provide most of what they need. Ulster always seem to do their own thing and it will b interesting to see if that changes.

Edward Eagle wrote: Just heard the RTE sport interview with Gerry Kelly, found it v banale

no surprise there then

Edward Eagle wrote:
the new rule maybe being the death knell of us as all our better Irish players will be taken by the other provinces

I'm getting right sick of people harping on about this being the death knell for Connacht. There are only approximately 18 NIQ players signed to the big 3 (I say approximately because as I write this Ulster could be bringing Jermey Guscott or Francois Pienaar out of retirement), and first effect of the new rule will result in the shedding of props, as there are 5 across the 3 provinces. Seeing how we got turned over by teams playing second and third choice props this Christmas, I don't see them solving this conundrum by hiring west of the Shannon. We may lose Wilkinson in 2013, but seeing how he's Irish qualified and been here for ages, that's still a strong possibility if this rule is rescinded tomorrow.

Edward Eagle wrote:
we are not even viewed as an Irish province by the IRFU

An exaggeration, but it being they've had one and a half goes at killing us off, not entirely unfounded

Edward Eagle wrote:
why we aren't being "developed" like a true development province along the lines of the brumbies.

We're not a devlopment province any more, the review that led to the creation of the PGB and so on also means we get the same professional (i.e. wages) funding (3 million according to Gerry Kelly in a recent press conference) as the other provinces, not the 60-70% of the what the others got we previously had to survive on. Of course when you take into account ticket sales, corporate packages, superior sponsorship deals, IRFU loans for stadium builds/renovations and private benefactors our wage bill is probably less than half that of the other provinces and the total spend smaller in comparison again.

There's a strong argument that they should give us MORE than the other 3 provinces to try to level the playing field after a decade of shafting, but let's get our whinge right!

Edward Eagle wrote: didn't mention the IRFU "sanctioning" movement of the core/ spine of our team to other provinces during the summer with most of these are not getting games

The IRFU can do nothing about players wanting to leave. They'd finished their contracts. There are such things as employment laws and freedom of movement.

And from a practical level, if they had refused Leinster permission to sign Hagan what would stop him signing for an English team?

Edward Eagle wrote: GK kept coming back to the supporters staying with the team as squad improvements etc will happen over the next couple of years as stage 1 was improvement of structure and facilities which I think is an overall valid point so we can look forward to major squad improvements!

There was an interview a few weeks ago (Galway Independent I think) where the head of the PGB basically admitted they'd dropped the ball on the recruitment side while they (of necessity, in fairnessv) addressed the stadium and finances. Let's hope they don't let us down!

Obviously we are not important in the IRFU's plans but as time progresses we can certainly influence the development of top class Irish players. There are four provinces. Whether the IRFU like it or not we exist in the hierarchy of Irish rugby. If they choose to persistently relegate us to the position of second class rugby citizens we will not go away. There is a huge body of Irish rugby supporters west of the Shannon and eventually they will have to take cognisance of this fact.
We will not retire into the background. Strategically it make sense for us to be ''developed': the future of Irish rugby depends on an all Ireland approach to the game. Last time I checked, we are an integral part of Ireland. The sooner the IRFU recognise this and financially support Connacht rugby and 'refer' developing players to us the better for Irish rugby.

Just heard the RTE sport interview with Gerry Kelly, found it v banale with no in depth discussion of the disgraceful and disrespectful treatment by the IRFU of Connacht in terms of funding and resourcing, the new rule maybe being the death knell of us as all our better Irish players will be taken by the other provinces, even the fact the we were not mentioned in this "new" rule shows that we are not even viewed as an Irish province by the IRFU but last time I checked my passport I am Irish and born/ bred in Galway! or why we aren't being "developed" like a true development province along the lines of the brumbies. Interview kept going on about our bad streak at present but several of these matches have been lost by 1 score but didn't mention the IRFU "sanctioning" movement of the core/ spine of our team to other provinces during the summer with most of these are not getting games. GK kept coming back to the supporters staying with the team as squad improvements etc will happen over the next couple of years as stage 1 was improvement of structure and facilities which I think is an overall valid point so we can look forward to major squad improvements!