Central contracts

padser

Question on central contracts (I have searched on Bing / Google and cant find the answer)

Are all Irish players at provinces centrally contracted? Or are only some players on central contracts? If so does anyone know where I can get a list of who is on central contracts and who is not?

theKramer

Basically, all Irish qualified players are on central contracts. Then, those that are part of the Irish international are on International contracts, which is worth more.

All non-Irish qualified players, e.g. Doug Howlett, Stan Wright are paid for by the provinces own money. They dont get any money from the IRFU for their wages.

padser

Hmm - that's what I always thought but I have seen some stuff recently (including threads on here) suggesting that some Irish players don't have central contracts - e.g. Marcus Horan, Isaac Boss

bamboozle

i thought central contracts were for the international squad players, provincial contracts are given out to others, the likes of BOD, POC etc then have 2 contracts both central and provincial, whereas the like of Howlett only have a provincial contract.

theKramer

All Irish qualified players are "owned" by the IRFU, hence why they are able to implement the player management scheme. They are all centrally contracted.

JustinDee

theKramer wrote: »

All non-Irish qualified players, e.g. Doug Howlett, Stan Wright are paid for by the provinces own money. They dont get any money from the IRFU for their wages.

The four provinces are branches of the IRFU thus are funded by the union that they are part of.
The single biggest earner for the game in Ireland is revenue earned via the national team. The flagship team more or less funds the sport here.

padser

bamboozle wrote: »

i thought central contracts were for the international squad players, provincial contracts are given out to others, the likes of BOD, POC etc then have 2 contracts both central and provincial, whereas the like of Howlett only have a provincial contract.

Yes thats what I think as well - but in addition to Howlett, Irish qualified, but non international players would also not have a 'central' contract - e.g. Dowling

To quote some sources that seem to suggest this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A62810237
"We know that Boss is not getting a central contract next year. He was told that last year"

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056024217&page=4
(posted by TheHighGround
"Horan lost his central contract"

JustinDee

Central contracts are different to provincial contracts.
Same employers but wholly different tenets.

padser

theKramer wrote: »

All Irish qualified players are "owned" by the IRFU, hence why they are able to implement the player management scheme. They are all centrally contracted.

The Irish Independent has learned this week that the IRFU are reducing the number of centrally contracted players directly paid by them from 30 to 21 -- however, not all the players have committed to remain in Ireland.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/top-rugby-stars-face-up-to-50pc-cut-in-pay-2199944.html


They can't all be centrally contracted if there are only 30 (or 21) - far more Irish qualified players in the 4 provinces.

danthefan

Do players ever get selected for national teams (Ireland or Ireland 'A') on the basis of the contract they're on?

thomond2006

danthefan wrote: »

Do players ever get selected for national teams (Ireland or Ireland 'A') on the basis of the contract they're on?

I wonder if having an 'international' contract makes you effectively nailed down in the Irish 22 for the season?

It would explain why Hayes was never left out of the Irish side in the Six Nations.

Just speculating is all.

padser

thomond2006 wrote: »

I wonder if having an 'international' contract makes you effectively nailed down in the Irish 22 for the season?

It would explain why Hayes was never left out of the Irish side in the Six Nations.

Just speculating is all.

One of my links above suggested that Stringer was picked ahead of Boss for Ireland A because he was on a central contract.

To be honest it doesn't really make sense to me though, IRFU have central contracts so they can get the best out of players when they play for Ireland (and it potentially comes at the price of provincial success and dominance, especially in the ML) - why would they undo that good work by then using it to mess with team selection.

JustinDee

thomond2006 wrote: »

I wonder if having an 'international' contract makes you effectively nailed down in the Irish 22 for the season?

No, it doesn't.
Only people involved in squad/team selection are the team management themselves.