Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

This witch hunt looking for stuff to criticise Humphreys is weird

Unfortunately, when 20s coaches move into provincial roles, it's difficult to fill the gap. For example: Peter Malone nearly got the 20s relegated one year when he was appointed to replace Carolan after he got a gig with Connacht. We barely beat Japan that year.

After he left, McNamara came in and look where he's ended up. Should Nucifora have been put to the sword for appointing Malone? No, absolutely not. That'd be a ridiculous suggestion

I could just as easily argue that you are demanding it doesn’t change because you know that Leinster - with the lions share of the CC’s - will be the beneficiaries, without any thought for the good of rugby in Ireland. I could even go as far as claiming “self-serving nonsense” too.

The broader point here is why the IRFU and Humphrey’s brought in this change? Hint: the answer isn’t to appease Twitter accounts, as has been asserted on here by a number of other posters.

They obviously think it is for the long-term benefit of Ireland. Maybe they think being overly reliant on a handful of Dublin schools is not a good long-term strategy. And that giving the other provinces some financial assistance towards that development will reap long-term benefits.

We’ve heard plenty over the last few weeks or how Leinster have been one of the best teams in Europe over the last decade. And they have.

But let’s for the vast majority of that, they didn’t have a 10:1 Central Contract ratio advantage over the other provinces either.

Yet we’re now supposed to believe this is some sky is falling in scenario?

There is always a risk to changing the operating strategy for any business or team. But the trend lines were obvious, more and more of Ireland's playing and rugby resources we're being gobbled up by Leinster (I'd argue thats primarily because the schools deliver them the best players) and that situation wasn't sustainable for Leinster or Irish rugby. This is an effort to rebalance the game on the island. There are indications that it is making a difference to Connacht and Ulster, we'll see how it plays out.

You have continually pushed this theory here that the changes to the CC model is because of Ireland failing to hit its KPIs, when that hasn't been reported or claimed anywhere.

Leinster fans aren't giving out that we're being "not being spared" - they're pissed off because Munster, Ulster & Connacht's abject failure to actually produce international quality rugby players over an extended period is actually being rewarded by changing the financial model and leveraging a c. €2m a year tax onto the one province that actually delivered on what it's supposed to do; and letting the former Director of Operations for the England & Wales Cricket Board decide how to piss that away, with zero declared KPIs or metrics around it.

Leinster's squad has indisputably gotten worse as a result of this, and the trade off is the fluffy idea that we're going to see performance pathways improve in the medium to long term elsewhere, when there is nothing anywhere to suggest they have a clue how to achieve this.

Because:

• the system became so lopsided
• to a point that was never intended
• that could have further ramifications for Ireland and the provinces if nothing was done.

That’s not rewarding the other provinces. It’s changing policy from a position where it became untenable.

I get why Leinster fans don’t like it. But the notion that it’s only being done to appease other provinces fans because of their whining…?

And said without a hint of irony too.

The IRFU's job is to allocate their resources to achieve the best outcome for all of Irish rugby

Absolutely - but it has to be allocate and manage resources. Simply giving more money to a poorly-run organisation is rarely a good idea. And we don't even know how much more money anyone is getting.

That's what bugs me about the whole thing. If this is just an accounting exercise to close the deficit that the IRFU is running, I think I'd rather they just told us that.

When you change the model mid-stream to effectively punish a province for doing what they were supposed to do, and know the financial impact of that decision, it has all the form and effect of a tax.

Per James Tracy - James Lowe was on a 1+1 contract, with an option to extend on both sides. While he was keen to do the additional year (taking him through to the RWC), Leinster/the IRFU refused the option, then tabled a new deal to him on half the money he was on (with the IRFU PONI top up substantially cut).

Irish Times reporting that the IRFU were "unwilling to offer Lowe a top-up as a PONI".

I'd love to know what Farrell thinks about this. Maybe he's OK with it because he is going to rebrand Hansen as a left wing, relying on Baloucoune/TOB for the right, but it's still limiting his options a year out from the RWC which I can't believe any coach would be happy about.

You keep saying they changed the model “mid-stream” as if there were some pre-defined start and end dates during which the IRFU vowed not to change things.

Can you let us all know what these start and end dates are?

Might shed some light on things, and when a policy change might be acceptable…

He's very unlikely to storm off in a huff over one player, that doesn't mean he's happy about it.