Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Rob Baxter has a refreshing, and reasoned opinion on the matter...

Exeter boss Rob Baxter insists the Gallagher Premiership should aim to match Leinster’s ambition by developing their own ‘Fortnum and Mason’ recruitment policy.
The Irish province have pulled off a major coup by signing New Zealand’s brilliant centre Jordie Barrett while in the prime of his career as he has agreed a short-term deal for next season.
Baxter believes the 27-year-old’s sabbatical is valuable for European rugby and wants the English top flight to also become an appealing destination for overseas stars.

“It makes you a bit jealous that you’re not working in Leinster’s recruitment department!” Baxter said.
“I know (former Saracens, Sale and Worcester director of rugby) Steve Diamond once said it depends what shop you go shopping in: is it Waitrose or is it Aldi?”

Referencing an upmarket London department store, Baxter continued: “It might be Fortnum and Mason depending on how you want to look at it!
“If Irish rugby, Leinster and the United Rugby Championship can get their house in order to allow them to invest in players, their programme and their coaches like they do, you have to say fair play.

“My response would be, ‘let’s not try to say it’s not fair and limit Leinster, let’s look to ways we can get to that level of competition with them’.
“You can look around and say, ‘let’s stop everyone else doing it because we can’t do it’. Or you go, ‘what are they doing to develop that level of interest and finance and why can’t we do it?’.
“I don’t think it’s bad for these competitions to have world-class players. What we want to find out is ways that we can do it as well.
“You have to work to make the competition look attractive and the way the game is played look attractive.
“To get that deal in place to sign a player you have to get a lot of financial bits and pieces right – and that runs right from the top of the game to the bottom in the country.
“There’s a lot we have to do to get to that level, but why shouldn’t we be aiming for it? That’s what we should be trying to do.”
The Premiership has defied its critics by supplying two teams to the Investec Champions Cup semi-finals in Northampton and Harlequins, with Leinster and Toulouse completing the line-up.
Baxter believes that has been managed even though the league has temporarily been reduced to a “developing competition” due to the financial implications of the pandemic and lack of funds in the English game.
“Two sides in the semi-finals is obviously fantastic. We want to expose the Premiership to as many new viewers as we can, for obvious reasons. Whether we make it a regular occurrence, that’s the challenge,” the director of rugby said.
“The Premiership is expected to be a developing competition again. We’ve had to do a lot of things around Covid and the financial situation in the country.
“We’ve had to make some adjustments but we will hope as a competition that we will regrow ourselves over the coming period as well.”

Go ahead. Ask away.

I agree, it’s gas to see the hoops some posters will jump through. You’d think Jean Kleyn was the South African Dupont on here sometimes. He’s a decent player and hopefully he manages to get back from his eye issue which sounds concerning to me. Even now, I don’t think Farrell would be starting him ahead of Ryan, McCarthy and Beirne. There’s an argument that he’d be vying with Iain Henderson as a squad depth player given Henderson’s recent form.

But Jean Kleyn won a World Cup I hear some say. So did Marvin Orie. I wouldn’t be picking him for Ireland either.

let’s just all agree to disagree and cheer on the success of each others provinces!

So you're just using that most annoying politician tactic:

1. Stoke up flames of resentment about a huge problem that you claim to exist - Huge inequity between the provinces where they'll never ever be able to catch Leinster unless something is done by the IRFU
2. Say you favour a magical solution, where the huge problem is solved but it involves no one taking any significant pain - the playing field needs to leveled but not in a way that drags back Leinster
3. Refuse to propose your own magical solution - Claim in your post other solutions are needed but have only giving us the gem of sharing Barrett's 6 month salary across 3 provinces
4. Get annoyed when those in power do not have the magical solution that resolves the issue - we haven't gotten to this part yet but I presume we'll see it post the CC review process

again, a bizarre scenario.

We have more players than we can use and people hate the national coach and team for it

Mod: Can we leave the Kleyn talk, it's been done to death. There's a dedicated Kleyn NIQ thread if people want to discuss it further.

You continue to say that it is a huge problem and that you want it changed but at the same time you claim that you don't want Leinster 'dragged back'.

That is absolutely impossible and at this stage you know it full well by the fact you aren't even able to suggest one solution that would even scratch the surface of a huge inequality.

Come on, just be honest. Even if you want there to be, in the real world there isnt a magical solution that can cover you talking out of both sides of your mouth.

Leinster are on course to win both competitions this season. They are due to be stronger next season.

Imo, even without Jordie Barrett and Snyman, I'd expect Leinster to be favourites for both competitions next season.

If the funds used for those players, which is only freed up next season due to the change in Central Contracts isn't "dragging them back" this season, there's no reason to think it'd "drag them back" next season.

Straight question. Do you think the imbalance in the Central Contracts is a potential issue for the IRFU that could have further ramifications?