signings

raven136

something i cant understand and hopefully someone will sort out for me is the signings that irish provinces do or in fact dont make.take leinster and munster for example..at the end of the season last year both teams were knocked out of the heineken cup yet they only signed one big name player yet leicester while struggling in the english premiership signed seven top class players.could someone please explain why this happens

onedmc

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Trojan

Originally posted by onedmc
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Understand your POV but try and be a bit more responsive in your replies on the Rugby board in future, cheers,

Al.

raven136

so basically what you are saying is that the irish provinces dont have the money to sign players

Jilm

Originally posted by raven136
so basically what you are saying is that the irish provinces dont have the money to sign players

Not only can the english afford to sign more players, but soon could be buying whole clubs.

Something most fans wouldn't want to see introduced into the game.

tHE vAGGABOND

a lot of the big english rugby clubs are in big debt and are bank rolled by rich blokes..

Plus leicester, as your example, have a big old stadium and a full house every week etc

While Munster may sell out Thomand park all the time, its hardly a 25,000 all seater stadium - and how much of the revenue generated do they keep?

Anyway, I would prefer that young Irish lads got a chance to play with the provinces and not the english soccer situation where who teams go out and play with no english players, and thus the international team suffers..

raven136

i understand that but take leicester again as an example.when geordan murphy got injured they went out and bought the south african full back to replace him.what happens if leinster or munster lose a top player in the heineken cup...they are left with no pure quality backup.
yesterday was an example of this,when o gara went off he was replaced by holland and no offence to the chap he is not of the quality of o gara.surely there must be some quality back up players in every team but the simple fact is the irish provinces dont have quality back up players.that is something that needs to be addressed otherwise the irish will never win the heineken cup

tHE vAGGABOND

munster announced the signing of a top (irish) fly half last week, but he wont be there till next year, burke, the man who saw to connaught for 'quinns no less

I would still rather random 21 year old player got to be the squad player, getting experience, rather than has been kiwi x..

Dont forget, most players on Super 12/Tri-Nations squads get paid feck all..

Your talking of a average player on the fringe of the SA/NZ team being on a basic of only 30k (match fee's and all that on top..) (a good wage for people in those countries) - the stars may be on 80-100.

Compare that to the 300k BOD wants from English or French clubs? Or the 100 woodie was on at Quinns - why would they not, 2 or 3 season here and they can go home and buy a big house for cash

Hairy Homer

I believe the IRFU which owns the player contracts has a clause that limits the number of foreign players in an irish province on the field at any one time to two.

Of course foreign means 'note eligible to play for Ireland' so to take Munster's team on saturday as an example, Christian Cullen and Jim Williams were the only foreign players. Payne (South African) Henderson (English), Mullins (New Zealand) and Holland (New Zealand) all qualify for Ireland either on the granny rule or through naturalisation.

I'm all for keeping that rule by the way.

our provinces aren't doing too badly, even given that we have lost the likes of Andy Dunne, Trevor Brennan, Johnny O'Connor etc etc to overseas clubs.

GreenHell

Munster signed Mike Mullins up again on their own steam, doubt he took a cut in pay. I'd say sides with the popularity of munster have the cash to spend from sponsorship revenue, should munster get a big sponsor for next season they'll be taking in .7 million as apposed to .25 mil, I think thats what BOI were giving them.

I don't think Irish provinces should start bringing in to many foreign players, look at what happened Ulster. I know munster have been bringing through some impressive home grown talent, Koegh, Redden and Murphy.... Leinster have Burke and whoever else

bucks73

Munster have been in negotiations for new shirt sponsors next season with o2 and Vodafone.

Along with the sales of another new shirt they should be able to pay excellent wages to another couple of players like Cullen.

The squad definitely needs strengthening.

Where they do waste money is giving fringe players big wages. There are players around Munster who have decent contracts and might only make the bench for a few Celtic League matches. Thats a pure waste of money. If these players are needed for a fixture they should play for free and if their performances warrant a contract then look at it during the summer.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

bucks73

Take your pick:
http://www.munsterrugby.ie/playerprofilelistpage/33.html#a-e

All the players on that list have some sort of contract. When players only play 4 or 5 five games in a season and have received money for the entire season it is a waste.

Sometime last year when there was a thread on the Connaught situation I brought up about the waste of money by the IRFU. I told of a player with Shannon, now gone back down under, who had received a Munster contract worth 20 grand sterling for two seasons. He never played for Munster, played most of last season in the Shannon 2nds and was paid off for this season to get rid of him. He had been signed on the advice of someone and was so bad they had to get rid of him.

spanner

i agree with the irfu policy of capping the amount of foreign players in ireland, it definately allows irish talent to come up and gives it more of a chance for it to develop. i agree that the signing of some foreign players is needed and adds to irish rugby but as in the case of ulster(or south africa) not one ulster player has his place on the irish team.