It's also the mechanism for how they can afford to keep these players in Ireland.
There would have been no way in recent years for Munster to pay Murray, Earls, Beirne & O'Mahony with their financial issues, without central contracts.
Obviously the same is true of Leinster with the level of players currently on central contracts there.
From a Leinster perspective too - it makes the situation where Furlong & Sexton for example barely played for Leinster in the 2 seasons leading up to the RWC more acceptable. If provinces are having to raise external money to pay these players, they will be less receptive to instructions on when to rest the players etc. It leads up to a potential situation more akin to the English model, with more scope for conflict between the individual branches and the central union.
that carrot of being able to represent Ireland is the factor keeping players in Ireland
all you have to do is look across the water at England and Wales and see that your statement above is demonstrably untrue.
when wages do not match in an open market, people WILL move to the higher money ahead of the prestige of playing for your country.
Central contracts are an accounting measure at the end of the day. They are given far too much weight by people.
New backs coach confirmed
https://www.irishrugby.ie/2023/12/21/andrew-goodman-to-join-ireland-coaching-team-in-2024/
Goodman is an interesting appointment. Very highly rated from his time at the Crusaders and was in charge of Leinsters excellent set piece attack.
There was more talk of Mike Prendergast and Noel McNamara than Goodman.
People have a significant dislike of them but the Independent journalists (Ruaidhri O'Connor and Cian Tracey) seemed to have the read on this one. Said Goodman was the only name they knew had definitely been approached and that Prendergast was happy in Munster and wouldn't be leaving.
Ah thanks I hadn't heard that Goodman was the favoured man. When it was first announced that Catt was departing the usual podcasts were suggesting Prendergast and McNamara.
Don't recall an in situ coach been lined up this far in advance for Ireland. Presumably he will be on the tour to SA with Catt.
Its a good move for him and Ireland. Keeps the continuity with a Leinster-centric approach.
Leaves Leinster in a pickle. I'm sure Nienaber as someone in mind!
I hope Nienaber doesn't. Who wants a coaching team of boks? Carolan or Richie Murphy would do nicely.
there is no reason to think Murray being selected while he was out of form had anything to do with central contracts. He was the incumbent and on from was miles better than anyone else. Joe gave him every opportunity available to play his way into form (perhaps mistakenly) but the more obvious motivation for that was that if he got back to his best he was one of the best in the world, never mind Ireland.
As someone says above those contracts are an accounting strategy for the IRFU to ensure that important players get the wedge to keep them in Ireland, and as a funding mechanism of the provinces. There are probably more equitable ways to do it to produce better outcomes for the provinces, assuming that keeping test players in situ is assured.
The RTÉ sports awards rugby montage perfectly encapsulates just how accepting and rewarding of failure the rugby media and fanbase in Ireland are. Absolutely embarrassing
I don't think anyone on here takes anything you say seriously these days.
Water is wet
Answer me this. Would you ever see the main public broadcasting service in NZ, SA, France or England, label failure to get past the last 8 as "good enough"?
The attempts by the mainstream media to spin our latest World Cup failure as some valiant, heroic effort is comical and embarrassing
would it be better if the media would label the players as complete failures to a level of almost personal abuse, as has happened in all those countries previously (I can only presume about France, I dont follow their media too much so maybe they are actually different)? the NZ reaction after 2007 for example, was particularly gruesome by all accounts
yes, i dont think the irish campaign was a success overall, of course it wasnt. but a grand slam, beating the current/future rwc champions in a competitive game, irish URC winner and Irish european finalist all point to the year not exactly being a complete failure for irish rugby
I think there is a real lack of analysis on why we lost the NZ game in the media.
However, it was undoubtably a successful year overall.
It was done to death across the media on podcasts. Not sure how many review you want to do?
Not on the ones i listen to. There has been more analysis on random urc games than on why we lost vs new zealand on the 42 podcast for example.
So basically Humphreys is effectively in the hot seat for Christmas and Nucifora is going home - Notwithstanding the contracts
I wonder does this pave the way for Joe Schmidt to become the new Wallaby coach?
It says he’s not going till august
Yes thats what it says.
But thats not whats happening!
would it be better if the media would label the players as complete failures to a level of almost personal abuse, as has happened in all those countries previously
I'd rather they labeled failure as failure. Of course I'm not advocating for personal abuse of the players, but don't try to dress up failure as success, as they have been doing. And maybe the fact that the NZ team were actually criticised after 2007 gave them motivation to succeed in 2011, which they did. Not one Irish player or coach has gotten any criticism in the media after their failure at the World Cup. So why should they aim to do better in 2027? They'll be treated as heroes no matter what.
The podcast like 42, molecast, offtheball etc done weeks of analysis to the point they even laughed they had to get off it onto another topic.
Only so many times you can flog a horse and talk about a leg width in losing a game
All during the World Cup when Ireland won it was always said with the "but we have done this before"
After the World Cup the majority I listened to said at least we put up a fight in the qtr, had a great win v SA but in the end we have got no further than before and this hurt more because we felt we could have wont he competition. So it was a failure and no other way to see it.
But we probably finally got the prep right for the World Cup but some tweaks instead of a complete overhaul whcih we had post most other World Cup
I'd rather they labeled failure as failure. Of course I'm not advocating for personal abuse of the players, but don't try to dress up failure as success
I think that's pretty fair, TRC.
But equally, I'd argue that too often, you try to dress up success as failure, when you make comments like "we lost when it mattered". It completely overlooks our actual achievements like, for example, our 4th ever Grand Slam.
Of course that matters.
There's a reasonable middle ground here.
Oh God no! Please!!
We're on to Australia 6N
It's not fair. No one has claimed the world cup to be a success so its a complete strawman.
The only ones refusing to look at reality are the curmudgeons who couldn't a enjoy a single god damn thing over the previous two years cause they're inherently miserable people who I don't even think like rugby. Pity about them.
I mean leg width to lose a game is not analysis. That’s the thing. If we had won that game by 3 points, the analysis would not have been we would have lost if his leg was wider.
You haven't listened to any of those podcast and are complaining that the media wasn;t more critical.
I didn’t say critical. I said analysis of why we lost beyond ‘well it was close and sometimes you lose by small margins’. There was lots of interesting things to talk about that were just not talked about. Like NZ mirroring our style and our abandonment of the game plan we used on tour as the game progressed. How NZ won the kicking battle. Exactly how did they change up their tactics?
Every podcast was just ‘shrug, small margins’ basically. If we had won by 3, it would have been a lot more in depth.
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