Coming 3rd twice in the 6N would confirm that they were losing games.
Didn't Farrell and Sexton come out 2 years before the World Cup and say they are planning for the World Cup
I'll never understand the logic of writing off losses as "prepping for the World Cup" and wins as "not prepping for the World Cup".
Doris has the jersey for life then ? bit ridiculous. No competition for the position? That can't be the mentality going forward. Everyone should have to fend off someone gunning for their spot, no exceptions.
oh hold on. leinster fan. gotcha... as you were.
I think the whole central contract situation is a bit of a piss take for exactly this reason.
Sometimes its like players are selected as they are on one and not selected on form.
Anyone have a breakdown of who is on a central contract per position and the end date and even the salary?
Off the top of my head, I'd expect it should be about 17.
Porter, Sheehan, Furlong,
Beirne, Ryan, Henderson,
O'Mahony, Doris, Van der Flier,
Gibson-Park, Murray,
Lowe, Aki, Henshaw, Ringrose, Hansen,
Keenan.
Anyone else I've left out?
Mod: Attack the post, not the poster.
Lowe, Gibson-Park and Sheehan don't have one. Doris is likely replacing O'Mahony's contract which is up at the end of the season. Sheehan will likely get one also
Murray and POMs are up at the end of the season. after that Munster Ulster and Connacht will have 1 each.
Leinster will have 10.
The IRFU really need to improve the coaching, S&C, video analysis for all the schools outside of leinster. just to compete with being able to produce professional ready players, as the leinster schools do.
I'm counting 9 Leinster (providing Sheehan gets one). Point does still stand thought. 9 CC's at say €350k a year is €3.1m that a province can use elsewhere. €350k average would be conservative too
You're right. We should have match by match rolling contracts for all just to be on the safe side.
This central contract crap is tedious and wrong. No one gets selected cause they're on one.
Fairly sure Lowe is on the same contract length and amount as makes no difference.
I'd expect Sheehan to get one soon, and I'd assume Gibson-Park will get one and Murray will come off one at the end of this season.
I think O'Mahony will come off one, and I'd say Hansen will get one then.
If Crowley cements himself as the next 10 (injury permitting) he will get the next one in the following 12 months or so.
So I'd guess in the not too distant future;
Leinster = 12, Connacht = 2, Ulster = 1, Munster = 1.
Henderson, Ryan,
Beirne, Doris, Van der Flier,
Gibson-Park, *Crowley,
Lowe, *Aki, Henshaw, Ringrose, Hansen,
*Crowley might only get one when Aki presumably comes off one at the end of next season.
not sure what side of the fence you're looking from. I don't care about central contracts or not. my stance is there should be constant competition for the jersey.
There is.
Doris is still overwhelmingly likely to be a mainstay of the pack for 5 years cause he's one of our best players. Saying "he will be the cornerstone of the pack" is a perfectly reasonable thing to say and doesn't need to be caveated with "unless he loses form or someone better comes along"
If POM continues playing beyond this season, I expect he may get a CC. Earls had one right up until he retired, iirc, even when he still clearly wasn't 1st choice.
"best players get selected to play international rugby shocker"
I think he will retire this summer, but should he play on then I'd move him to a provincial contract, if Munster need another central contract I'd rather it went to Crowley or Coombes or Nash, but obviously they'll need to start getting some starts for Ireland soon for that. The way Ahern is going he could be in the conversation soon too!
Is Stockdate still on a central contract?
I'd rather that we had some other good to go, beashhht that was deserving of one. But we need massive investment in schools rugby. Proper coaching, S&C, video analysis, to produce kids that are nearly professional going into the academy.
Saying that, POM to stick around for a year or 2, uninjured would be magic.
I believe when he was out injured for a while his expired and he had to go back on the provincial books.
No.
Probably no point engaging with you but a lot can happen in 5 years.
like a player fall out of form and not be selected?? yes of course it can happen, its happened a lot.
believe it or not, being on a central contract is not a shield against this.
Before the rest of my post I'm going to say I'm a munster fan.
If you had to pick central contracts right now there wouldnt be a lot of munster players. Beirne would be it.
Players should get central contracts based on their importance to Ireland and not their importance to their province. And that seems to be how it is judged.
Hansen, Gibson-Park, Sheehan and Lowe are not on central contracts.
So i believe it's:
8 Leinster (Porter, Furlong, Ryan, Doris, JVDF, Henshaw, Ringrose, Keenan)
3 Munster (Beirne, Murray., O'Mahony)
1 Connacht (Aki)
1 Ulster (Henderson)
I don't think their should be central contracts full stop. You're rewarding past performances. Appearance fees for internationals, like soccer, should be the way to go. If a players form falls off a cliff, they lose out. If a player busts onto the scene, they're rewarded.
We've heard the argument for years that when a player gets a central contract, they become undroppable.
I do recall reading somewhere over the summer that the IRFU have a review planned or on-going regarding the funding model for the provinces.
Dan Sheehan is the real outlier not being on that list but being a nailed on starter, you'd imagine that will have to be rectified soon. The window is passed for James Lowe to have gotten one I'd say.
And it remains utter garbage.
That people choose to continue making a false argument is irrelevant to whether or not central contracts make sense.
I think Central contracts made a lot of sense when there was games during international windows.
Now that provinces aren't stripped of their players the need for central contracts isn't there
I'm not saying that its true, but removing central contracts already removes that conversation. There has definitely been cases where it has looked that way though. Look at 2019 Conor Murray for example. Whether it was down to him having a central contract or there being no one else good enough, who knows.
I agree to an extent. People say that central contracts ensure the best talent stays in the country, I don't believe that for a minute. That carrot of being able to represent Ireland is the factor keeping players in Ireland. If they go abroad, they're not picked, simple as.
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