Ultan confirmed to be moving abroad unfortunately. Big loss hopefully we can improve Thornbury and Dowling injury record to try and take some of the slack
Been a great player for us
That's bad news! Wish him well. He's probably off to France. His salary is most likely going up.
Big loss but he owes Connacht nothing. Wish him the very best of luck .
Read on another forum talk of Tom Daly going South to replace DDA.
It's worth acknowledging that's two international quality locks we have lost from our squad recently next season. Ultan also an important ball carrier for us too.
There's Forde and Jennings coming through. They could look at one of Leinster's lads. Tommy O Brien or Conor O Brien.
There's no avoiding it, a team with our resources losing two international locks in consecutive seasons is a huge blow. Leaves us with one lock who I would argue is international qualify, if not capped (Thornbury), two decent URC players who may have the potential to progress (Murray = potential international, Dowling = potential decent Euro level), and some adequate backup in Fifita and Masterson.
Tbh I assumed Fifita was a short term fix and I haven't seen much reason to keep him on thus far, but with our depth eroding he may earn a contract.
Would like to see us go after Jack Dunne. Scrummaging, mauling, rucking tighthead locks are becoming the most sought after asset in rugby. There are few Irish players with the size to play the role, if there's an opportunity to snaffle one of them I hope we take it.
Loosehead
Denis Buckley (32) - Signed contract in 2021
Matthew Burke (25) - Signed contract in 2021
Jordan Duggan (24) - Signed contract in 2021
Tietie Tuimauga (28) - Signed contract in 2021
Charlie Ward (22) - Academy year 2
Tighthead
Jack Aungier (23) - Signed contract in 2022
Finlay Bealham (31) - Signed contract in 2021
Sam Illo (21) - Signed 2 year contract in 2021
Greg McGrath (25) - Signed contract in 2021
Dominic Robertson-McCoy (28) - Signed 2 year contract in 2020
Hooker
Shane Delahunt (28) - Signed contract in 2021
Dave Heffernan (31) - Signed contract in 2021
Jonny Murphy (30) - Signed contract in 2021
Dylan Tierney-Martin (23) - Signed contract in 2021
Declan Adamson (23) - Academy year 3
Eoin De Buitléar (20) - Academy year 2
Lock
Oisin Dowling (25) - Signed contract in 2022
Leva Fifita (33) - Signed contract in 2021
Niall Murray (22) - Signed contract in 2021
Gavin Thornbury (28) - Signed contract in 2021
Darragh Murray (21) - Academy year 2
Back row
Paul Boyle (25) - Signed contract in 2021
Jarrad Butler (31) - Signed 2 year contract in 2020
Eoghan Masterson (29) - Signed contract in 2021
Sean Masterson (24) - Signed contract in 2021
Conor Oliver (26) - Signed contract in 2021
Abraham Papali’i (29) - Signed contract in 2021
Cian Prendergast (22) - Signed contract in 2021
Ciaran Booth (22) - Academy year 2
Donnacha Byrne (21) - Academy year 2
Oisin McCormack (21) - Academy year 3
Scrumhalf
Caolin Blade (28) - Signed 2 year contract in 2020
Kieran Marmion (30) - Signed 3 year contract in 2020
Colm Reilly (23) - Signed contract in 2021
Will Reilly (u22) - Academy year 1
Outhalf
Jack Carty (30) - Signed 3 year contract in 2022
Conor Fitzgerald (24) - Signed contract in 2021
Centre
Bundee Aki (32) - Signed 3 year central contract in 2020
Shayne Bolton (22) - Signed contract in 2021
Tom Daly (29) - Signed 2 year contract in 2020
Tom Farrell (28) - Signed 2 year contract in 2020
Peter Robb (28) - Signed 2 year contract in 2020
Shane Jennings (21) - Academy year 3
Cathal Forde (20) - Academy year 2
Back 3
Mack Hansen (24) - Signed 2 year contract in 2021
Matt Healy (33) - Signed 2 year contract in 2020
Oran McNulty (22) - Signed contract in 2021
Ben O'Donnell (27) - Signed contract in 2020
Tiernan O'Halloran (31) - Signed 2 year contract in 2020
John Porch (28) - Signed contract in 2021
Peter Sullivan (24) - Signed contract in 2021
Alex Wootton (28) - Signed contract in 2021
Diarmuid Kilgallen (22) - Academy year 2
Josh O'Connor (21) - Academy year 1
IN:
OUT: Ultan Dillane (Lock, TBC), Sammy Arnold (Centre, Brive)
*ages as at 01/09/2022
Need someone with experience, Dillane & Roux had hundreds of appearances between them.
Murray & Dowling have prob 20/25 caps each, even thornbury is only around a few seasons. Someone like Jean Kleyn would be ideal albeit he may not want to leave Munster.
Kleyns skill set is something we lack in our squad but, and fully admitting I dont follow Munster as closely I used to, he has always come across as liable to give away 2-3 penalties a game (which to be fair, would make him similar to Roux on occasion). I would have thought he is a fairly regularly player in their 23 and with the rumours that both Snyman and De Allende might not be staying on I doubt he will go anywhere.
I like the above suggestion of Jack Dunne is he was available
Isn't Papali'i confirmed away as well?
Rumoured to be off to Brive too but nothing confirmed yet
Yeah I agree Kleyn is unlikely. Someone of his ilk would be good but not easy to find obviously. We will probably need to look overseas, I don’t see Jack Dunne leaving given Toner may retire and James Ryan & Baird regularly with Ireland.
On another note, Henderson & Stuart McCloskey are out for Ulster this weekend with injury.
Connacht v Stormers being switched from early January to February may be a good thing in that it gives two weeks from interpros to European games. Obviously drawbacks too as will be missing Bealham, Aki, Carty presumably and anyone else involved with Ireland.
If true we'll have gone from having loads of depth at centre to very little. Especially considering Farrell's injury troubles in recent years and Bundee being used sparingly.
Tough to lose Roux and Dillane in successive Summers I must say. Good young players there but you have to think they'll be a second row coming in but who knows? Looks like there will be a few holes to fill at the end of the season and given the budget they will have to prioritise positions.
Won't get too wound up about Daly until it happens, but I agree. Having guys in their prime with decent experience who can step into the first team with little drop off from the incumbents is so valuable. We have Bolton who is making a bit of an impression already and Forde and Jennings who are top tier prospects, but a first choice pairing plus a bunch of kids is not an ideal depth chart. Peter Robb could fill Daly's role to an extent (certainly not the covering 10 part), but experience is not much use if he rarely makes it onto the pitch.
That's depressing if true about Daly. He has become a real fan favourite. Really disheartening if he is going south as with Farrell's injuries over the last while, Daly is a first choice player.
No idea if the Daly thing is true although DDA is leaving Munster at the end of the season apparently so there would be an opening there.
I remember on the master of none podcast he said he was glad to get back to Carlow after being stuck in Galway for a couple weeks due to covid etc made me think at the time maybe he was not a big fan of Galway. Carlow to limerick thats around 1.30 hours so you could drive every day from home. Galway is a extra hour give or take? Tom was forever injured before the Connacht move so maybe the style of play helped or he just got a lucky run who knows.
In fairness nowhere is great during Covid. He was probably just glad to get back home for a while.
While the lads are big prospects no doubt I think it would be very disappointing for us to lose Daly who has proven himself to be one of our most consistent players to another province.
I thought we might not be too badly off losing Arnold if we kept the others and looked to bring through Forde/Jennings but if we lose Tom aswell that will leave quite a hole in the squad.
Coupled with both Ultan and Quinn leaving as others have said not easy shoes to fill, if Gavin and Oisin can stay fit it would help and Murray keeps improving as he is
My understanding is that provinces are not allowed to outbid one another for player contracts. Can someone provide more detail on this? How did this play with Henshaw?
Very sorry to see Ultan leave but understand it. He's put in many years of great service, no cause for complaint, hope he wins both glory and riches. Will assume for now that the claim about Tom Daly is a mix of ****-stirring and acquisitiveness given that it comes from Duncan Casey, i.e. Three Red Kings. Here is the article:
https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/rugby/arid-40770354.html
Henshaw didn’t move to Leinster for more money. That’s how it played. He wanted to be in Dublin.
I didn't intend to give the impression that he did, and FWIW I'm very fond of Henshaw, who comes across as an extremely unassuming person as well as a superb player.
But is it the case that his contract was required not to exceed what he was getting in Connacht? I would like to know the status and substance of the rule, or whether it its mierely a convention.
Henshaw got a central contract so he'd be on the same money regardless of where he was playing. He didn't move for money.
Provinces can’t out bid each other officially but there can be commercial influences, for example a couple of weeks after henshaw to Leinster was confirmed, he was unveiled as the newest ambassador of Canterbury rugby. Be pretty naive to think those sort of things aren’t a factor.
I think Were starting to see, that the IRFU are in real trouble with $$. were 2 years in to an unrcertain pandemic, I expect all the provinces to loose players, both in overall numbers and also some quality. The money just isnt there. We might be seeing it early in Conn, but France seems un affected and budgets are higher,
Ultan deserves his day in the Sun, He is everyhting good about Conn, but not really in the running for Ireland. I actually would feel worse loosing Daly, nb Arnold is a real loss.
IRFU have cash reserves of around 50 million and just got another 20 million from the Government, they even gave Ringrose a big 3 year Central contract recently. There is a reason the IRFU wont publish accounts like say the GAA. I saw a French report which broke down all the structures in Leinster be it from private school academy funding to Central contracts and Leinster were spending the most yearly in world rugby.
Private schools have nothing to do with Leinster. They’re private entities. So how can that be included in their spending? If you want to throw in private schools into the mix. How many of Connacht’s current squad came through private schools?
They play schools rugby under the Leinster branch. The Leinster player development pathway very much identifies players in schools and brings them through. The top schools players go into the Leinster academy. Yes, the schools are separate, but the money they spend on coaches, facilities etc benefits Leinster rugby. And later, if they don't make it, some of those players may sign for other provinces, and it benefits the other provinces too. The best players stay with Leinster so they get the greatest benefit. But to an outsider i.e. someone in France, they see a big spend on developing young players and while it may not appear on Leinster Rugby's balance sheet, they won't agree it has nothing to do with Leinster.
Leinster invest no money in the schools though. Any more than Munster do to the private schools down there. Yes it’s a benefit to Leinster in terms of player development, so is being based in the main population center in the country. The Private schools budget has absolutely nothing to do with Leinster.
I doubt very much any of the English clubs take into account the spend on private schools that they benefit from.
You don't seem to understand what i was talking about. The report was done on the structures of Leinster rugby. If a French club is to copy the Leinster model they will have to match the Funding from Privates school to Central Contracts etc etc. Funding on the overall Leinster product was the highest in Club rugby.
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