AIL 25/26

I think it is the dominant sport in South Dublin, but it is noteworthy here too how strong GAA continues to be, and how much hurling in particular has grown. I saw this announcement of the Dublin minor hurling panel a few weeks back:

and thought it was hugely noticeable how on a 41-player panel, there were 14 guys there from 'traditional' rugby schools, including multiple players from Gonzaga, Blackrock, Terenure etc.

The rise of the likes of Cuala and the continued strength of Kilmacud Crokes is obviously a big part of this.

McKeever has taken Ballyclare forwards coach Aaron Playfair with him, and apprently trying to take a few players as well.

Louis Ludik gone from Instonains, replaced by Ricky Andrew.

Neil Doak new Banbridge Head Coach, after getting Harlequins relegated from the AIL…

Graeme Eastwood moving from Dromore to Rainey OB replacing Tim Barker

John Andrew, Marcus Rea, Matty Rea and Dave Shanahan all going to Ballymena to play next season.

Shanahan still on ulster contract do you know or he leaving this season ending? He being there years

Any rumours on coach/player movements in Munster clubs?

I'm pretty sure some of O'Leary's team were there for the play offs. Certainly Scott Deasy was.

Do you mean Ger Bourke PBC coach is with UCC full time next year?

YM really are turning into Munster "A"

I saw on a different thread that last night. Certain clubs are offering 20k and accommodation, sorting jobs for lads etc. Is this true? This breaks soe rules ya? What should the IRFU do to stop this? Genuinely concerned as back in the 90s some clubs nearly went under trying to keep up with the early days of pro rugby

It goes right down the divisions, in Dublin anyway. I played for a junior club for 1 year who were paying more than the club I moved from and back to after the year. My normal club was in 1B and 5 or 6 lads playing for that junior club would have agreed to join for more money than they would have been getting for playing in 1A or 1B. It worked in fairness for them as the club are now playing AIL rugby.

Accommodation, jobs has been going on forever. Apparently Jordi Murphy received a brand new car, given by a sponsor/alikadoo, for signing for Lansdowne back in the day etc.

I think you're just thinking of the same Shannon example he used.

Shannon were unlucky with that - they brought in a Kiwi half back as cover, paid for his flights and told him they'd find him a job and accommodation. There was some loose agreement he'd repay them for the airfare etc (probably bullshit in fairness).

He played for them 5 or 6 times, mostly for the seconds, and never in the AIL. He then returned to NZ, and made a decision he was staying there instead of coming back. Shannon contacted him asking for the money back, and refused to sign a player release form for him, and he wrote to the IRFU.

IRFU, who have turned a blind eye for decades to clubs all over the country paying players, had virtually no option but to act given the player literally wrote to them and provided evidence of how he'd received financial reward from them, and they fined Shannon and deducted them AIL points - the initial fine was €6k with an 8-point deduction, but was reduced after appeal to €3k (initially suspended I believe) and the points deduction was just a single point. Shannon actually got relegated that season.

I personally got paid to play AIL rugby, and anyone I know who played in a higher league of the AIL got paid to some extent for it, and I remember at the time I was leaving college there was a bit of shopping around amongst AIL clubs to see where you could get the best offer. Remember hearing stories of some clubs sending helicopters to fly certain players back for games etc during Celtic Tiger era etc.

It's not as open and up front as it was around 2010 or thereabouts, but it's still happening without a doubt.

With the exception of a number of Dublin clubs where it is an open secret that there are sign on fees for school leavers and decent match fees with a few top players on full retainers, clubs in Munster generally cant afford to pay players.

I know of one player in particular who turned down a contract with an English Championship side as they couldn't match what he was getting from a Dublin Div. 1 club.

Some clubs in Munster promise match fees and then delay payment or stop paying after a few months. These clubs are notable for a lot of player turnover. You hear of talk of teams in 2A or 2B paying match fees of €100 or €200, which is ridiculous. That would be minimum €2,000 up to possible €4,000 every Saturday. This is not sustainable. There is one 2C club I know that does pay €50 a game but they tend to get it back again in the bar after games. There are much smaller gates in Munster and team sponsor money is a lot smaller than people might think. The IRFU club supports are minimal and would barely cover one overnight trip up north.

A few clubs in lower divisions do pay "player coaches" some of whom might be turning up for the odd underage session. You would be surprised at how many lower level clubs have extra "skill coaches" and more 20s coaches than a pro team. These are often foreign players who might get a local part-time job as well. Other than that, retainers are rare in Munster.

On the IRFU, they have zero interest in policing Reg 6 which bans any payments to players including money's worth like accommodation.

There are very few clubs in Ulster paying players, certainly wouldn’t be paying full match day squads. Hinch, Inst and Rainey with then a few junior clubs would be all.

There won’t be much movement in Ulster player wise. Rumours of Marcus Rea, Dave Shanahan and John Andrew playing for Ballymena next season.

thats the one

John Andrew and his brother Ricky are going to Instonains as forwards/player coach and backs coach.

ya great idea, might be a shop window for players also to impress.

You would imagine Leinster would win handy.

But for example players could return to province of origin, clohessy at terenure would be eligible for Munster for example

There's a few fallow weeks in the AIL season.

A 3 or 4 week break after the end of season then a 3 match inter-pro i'd say it would be popular