Central Contracts - who has one?

PlayerTrader13

Every contract is with the IRFU but some players have the special "central contracts" from what i can gather these are those players.

BOD - 2014
Jamie Heaslip - 2014
Gordon Darcy - 2014
Paul O'Connell - 2014
Donnacha Ryan - 2014
Keith Earls - 2014

Peter O'Mahony - 2015
Rob Kearney - 2015
Tommy Bowe - 2015
Andrew Trimble - 2015
Mike Ross - 2015

Cian Healy - 2016

note - appears DOC is on one too but his new contract he signed is not one.

Half of them end this year.
BOD is done.
Darcy and Earls are unlikely to keep their central contracts.
It appears POC is likely to resign until post WC.
Ryan and Heaslip are currently in negotiation.

Players who are looking at getting "central contracts": Murray, SOB.

Anyone else out of contract this season who you think is in with a fair shout at one?

Down the line the prime candidates right now are Henderson and Marshall.

Fireball07

Murray and SOB have to get one surely... if they don't leave. Tie them down for as long as possible, preferably.


How is Andrew Trimble on one? Good player but is seemingly well down the pecking order- particularly until 2015???

You'd have thought Rory Best would be on one, if D'Arcy doesn't get a new one, maybe Marshall will get one? Probably a bit early for him.

PlayerTrader13

Fireball07 wrote: »

Murray and SOB have to get one surely... if they don't leave. Tie them down for as long as possible, preferably.


How is Andrew Trimble on one? Good player but is seemingly well down the pecking order- particularly until 2015???

You'd have thought Rory Best would be on one, if D'Arcy doesn't get a new one, maybe Marshall will get one? Probably a bit early for him.

I think a central contract should be three years.

Marshall's deal with Ulster is until 2016.

Best's is up this season so he might get the bump up.. can't see him leaving the farm and Ulster..

crisco10

Trimble looks very weird on that list! Especially give Murray, Best, SOB aren't on it...More so because Trimble has never really been first choice for a prolonged period of time?

awec

Trimble has a central contract because he got it before they started to reduce the number of them.

former legend

awec wrote: »

Trimble has a central contract because he got it before they started to reduce the number of them.

No, he only got it renewed last season.

I think it was more because when Wallace lost his, that would have left Ulster with only Bowe and Best on central deals, i.e. fewer than the other big provinces, so IRFU needed to balance things up a bit.

Edit; I see from the OP that Best isn't on one - is that correct?

awec

Oh yea, forgot about that!

bilston

I'm surprised Best isn't on a central contract. I'd have thought Earls would get a CC renewal as well.

If they decide to stay in Ireland you'd think that Murray and O'Brien would be next on the list after that would be Simon Zebo, Luke Marshall and maybe Fergus McFadden but certainly in Marshall's case he is contracted to Ulster until 2016, don't know about the other two.

awec

bilston wrote: »

I'm surprised Best isn't on a central contract. I'd have thought Earls would get a CC renewal as well.

If they decide to stay in Ireland you'd think that Murray and O'Brien would be next on the list after that would be Simon Zebo, Luke Marshall and maybe Fergus McFadden but certainly in Marshall's case he is contracted to Ulster until 2016, don't know about the other two.

I'm not sure in terms of wingers. Central deals should be for players who are completely indispensable, I am not sure of all the wingers we have who would deserve a contract over who.

Earls and Bowe are the obvious first choice pairing.

Tox56

awec wrote: »

Earls and Bowe are the obvious first choice pairing.

If you're talking about an on-field pairing don't think anything is obvious on the wings right now (in a good way)

errlloyd

I was sure D'Arcy wasn't on one / had turned it down. SOB turned his down right. Preferring a leinster contract

awec

"We are delighted to announce that Conor Murray has signed a new 2 year deal with the IRFU to stay with Munster."

PlayerTrader13

awec wrote: »

"We are delighted to announce that Conor Murray has signed a new 2 year deal with the IRFU to stay with Munster."

as expected, if he was staying it would be on a central contract.

Nialler15

Are they not all central contracts with different levels?

The International contract being the top?

jm08

Nialler15 wrote: »

Are they not all central contracts with different levels?

The International contract being the top?

Wigglesworth explained it as the IRFU made a contribution to everyone's contract, including the NIQ players. The clubs then topped them up.

What I assumed is for those on international central contracts, the IRFU paid everything and they were kind of on loan to the province from the IRFU rather than the other way around for everyone else when it came to national camp.

awec

The centrally contracted players don't get a match fee for playing for Ireland. The rest of the players do.

I also believe there are differences around image rights etc.

jm08

awec wrote: »

The centrally contracted players don't get a match fee for playing for Ireland. The rest of the players do.

I also believe there are differences around image rights etc.

Yes, the IRFU include the image rights. Andrew Trimble gets used a lot, I presume for that reason! Its likely Sexton won't be appearing in any ads in the future.

Winters

Just to clarify that all rugby contracts in Ireland are central contracts. There are two types, International contracts are negotiated by the IRFU and provincial contracts are negotiated by the branch.

bilston

jm08 wrote: »

Andrew Trimble gets used a lot, I presume for that reason!

Well he has a lot of time on his hands when Ireland are playing these days!