LAST UPDATE | 15 Dec 2020
PREMIERSHIP CLUB GLOUCESTER have confirmed the signing of Scotland out-half Adam Hastings from Glasgow ahead of next season.
Former England international Danny Cipriani has left Gloucester with immediate effect as a result of the signing.
Gloucester’s confirmation of the capture of Hastings means Glasgow’s pursuit of Munster academy out-half Ben Healy ahead of the 2021/22 campaign has become a key priority for the Scottish club.
As reported by The42 two weeks ago, Glasgow have made a strong offer to Healy, who qualifies to play for Scotland through his family.
Healy has been offered a two-year senior contract with Glasgow that would involve a major financial increase on his current academy deal, which expires next summer, while it’s understood that Scotland boss Gregor Townsend rates Healy’s potential.
The42 understands that Healy’s potential deal with Glasgow has improved over the past fortnight as a result of Hastings agreeing to join Gloucester next season.
Former Ireland U20 international Healy would be the first-choice out-half for Glasgow next season, while it’s understood he has also been given assurances of swift involvement in the Scotland set-up too.
The IRFU has put all contract negotiations in the Irish provinces on hold due to the financial pressures caused by Covid-19, meaning Munster can’t currently offer Healy a concrete deal. David Nucifora, IRFU’s performance director, has expressed his hope that contract talks will get underway in the New Year.
Munster seriously need to cop on now and start Healy consistently. Messing around with Hanrahan wont help anyone. Cant afford to lose Healy, hes the Irish 10 in waiting.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL: he is getting plenty of game time. The only problem here is the IRFU. The miserable academy contract he is on will be the primary excuse for moving. They need to make a priority of offering him a provincial contract before he is lost. Let Sexton off and his wages would pay 5 or 6 young players.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL: hes definitely one of the front runners for the irish shirt. There are loads of other players his age that are gunning for it and Harry Byrne is probably slightly ahead at the moment having a few more caps and being exposed to Irish camp already. I think Farrell should have Sexton Burns Healy and HByrne in the 6 Nations squad. Throw out the 2 young fellas for the Italy game and surround them with more experienced players to see how they get on. Play Sexton and Burns against the likes of England.
@John Buckley: according to Jim Denis O Brian pays sextons wages.
Anyway at the moment in the munster ranking, joey’s number 1 followed by JJ and then healy.
Can’t really see the irfu letting go their captian and best outhalf for a 3rd choice munster player.
@#JUSTICE4NOEL: While it would obviously be the clever move career-wise, (Pretty much guaranteed first choice at Glasgow, pretty much making him instantly 4th choice for Scotland) I can’t see the lad jumping ship, he is Irish born and bred so Munster and Ireland will have been his dream. Also the incumbent of the Irish 10 shirt is 35 years old. The young lad seems to have no shortage of confidence, and he will look at Carbery’s injury record and struggles of the rest of the 10s to establish themselves as Jonny’s backup and fancy his chances to kick on and jump the queue
@#JUSTICE4NOEL: I’m going to presume you haven’t watched Munster this season. If you did, you’d know he starts most matches.
@Rudiger McMonihan: You may be right but, in all honesty, having seen Harry Byrne’s last three appearances I just do not get the hype.
@Chris Mc: By the time Joey is ready to play again he’ll be like a new ‘young’ signing and he will have to play himself back into form and contention.
@Munsterman: Did he start against Quins? That’s the biggest game so far this season. Relax yourself bud.
@Chris Mc: O’Brien used to pay a portion of Sextons wages.
At the moment Joey is injured and has been so for a long time. There is not much between JJ and Healy.
Sexton is 35 and injury prone. At most he should only be offered a one year basic contract with bonuses for playing and success. That frees up money to give younger players a provincial contract. Time to prepare for the next world cup and not waste money on players that should not be there.
@Richard James: joey I feel might not be himself once he gets back after such a long period of time out it happens a lot where players come back and have lost that yard of pace and Joey being the ten he is needs that pace to be the next Irish out half we’ll see I suppose but Ireland need to look at Harry Byrne and Healy in my opinion
@John Buckley: seriously sexton will be on reduced money if he plays next season. The issue healy has is how he’s been delth with off the pitch. If they continue to pick JJ ahead of him then it will be munsters fault if he moves. Saying that the IRFU not doing contracts until the new year is daft on their part and not really fair on the players.
@Chris Mc: Healy is getting loads of game time with Munster so that certainly is not a reason for leaving. If he leaves it will be down to the IRFU and pay. As always you will try and blame Munster because you are a troll.
@John Buckley: he was selected behind JJ for the biggest game of the season,
If he feels like thats the order and if joey comes back soon he could be 3rd choice, at Glasgow he’s been offered a 1st team shirt and a fast track to their national side. Pay is a mess with the irfu no question. As for being a troll , telling the truth to a munster fan is trolling.
Healy would be a big loss, with his attitude and skill set, he might have the highest ceiling of all the young fly halves.
@Anthony James McLaughlin: might do but I think we need to calm down the hype just a touch. He has played well in pro 14 games but hasn’t looked a class apart. Hanrahan in the one pro 14 game he started looked head and shoulders above the rest, hence he started Europe. Munster have Crowley coming through and carbery to come back in. Don’t think they’ll throw the kitchen sink to keep him.
@Moneyrugby: did you watch the game against Quins? Particularly how Hanrahan performed compared to Healy? I agree people need to calm down a bit with the hype though!
@James: ye Hanrahan looked a bit flat and Healy certainly looked more dangerous and energetic when he came on but again didn’t set the world alight (other than that kick which was very impressive).
With over 50% of contracted players in Ireland coming out of contract in the next 6 months there’ll bound to be rumours flying and probably plenty of movement between the provinces instead of bringing in new players. Saying that though it’d be pretty lax by all involved to let someone like Healy move out of the system. He’ll command a relatively low wage compared to the senior players and he’s clearly got a huge amount of talent so I’d fully expect him to put pen to paper in jan when the negotiations open.
What might save the union a few bob would be to let the older guys seek their fortunes elsewhere and continue to select them while based abroad. A rethink of the current structure is needed I’d say.
@Jim Demps: We shouldn’t compromise our domestic selection policy. If that wasn’t in place, our provincial teams would be decimated and our player welfare programme would be dead. Remember the flogging Sexton got in France as the club rightly prioritised their requirement of him, not Ireland’s. Also, remember Wilkinson having to turn down the Lions because of Top14 commitments. Finally, we cannot guarantee players release to national training if they aren’t within our system. This selection restriction is one of the best things the IRFU have ever put in place and has played a huge part in Leinster and Ireland’s success of late.
@Jim Demps: it’s makes sense it increases our pool of players to pick from
@SomeGuy: how come the provinces weren’t decimated when we did pick players from abroad? If anything the provinces were more successful in the time leading up to the change in 2013 than after it.
@John O Sullivan: I completely agree. We haven’t got the size of player pool to be restricting who we select.
@Jim Demps:
Cash is king but it relates to both players and the IRFU.
This is a short term massive hit but the coffers will soon be filled again and the money will be available again for sufficient contracts to keep the players on our shores.
He has to decide if he wishes to represent Ireland or Scotland and after that the decision will be easy. If it’s a desire for money now, then he also leaves but I hope he stays and will get his chance in green soon enough and let’s face it there are not too many ahead of him.
Munster should develop him now to be ahead of JJ as he is in my opinion already a better player than JJ
Got to keep potential here and if need be sign off one or two senior guys to save cash and let them go abroad.
They should not be selected for Ireland while there though
@Jim Demps: two of munsters very best players are only there to play for Ireland. Neither bierne or farrell would have moved if Joe didn’t offer them international rugby to play for you.
@Chris Mc: and Ireland could have picked both if they’d stayed put along with Donnacha Ryan, Simon zebo, oil jäger, Jack Willis, Calum sheedy and whoever else might be irish qualified.
@Jim Demps: the reason the provinces were ravaged was because there wasn’t as much money abroad and there use to be a tax rule that if you retired in Ireland you could earn back a certain amount of tax for the years you played here. This has since gone.
Open to correction but read that in the times.
@Dan Jones: if you go back 10 years when Ireland could pick players abroad there was a greater spend by French and English clubs than there is now. There was more money spent on players back then, not less. There’s been a salary cap introduced in both England and France since then to stop the type of spending that was going on.
@Dan Jones: the point I’m getting at is that for some reason people believe the unions line about selection, in that it’s in someway protecting the clubs from some player exodus when in reality we only have to look back 7 -10 years to see that the clubs were arguably stronger and the national side benefitted from being able to select Simon easterby, Geordan Murphy and tommy Bowe amongst others. The sky didn’t fall down and by no means is our national side any better. The French and English sides can’t go hoovering up all our talent because they simply can’t afford to.
@Jim Demps: you bring this up every week. People explain the reasons to you again and again. You’re either trolling, are the most stubborn eijit alive or are friends with Zebo. If you had your way the provinces would be in the same state as the Scottish and Welsh regions.
@Rudiger McMonihan: hes right though.and the reasons people give don’t stack up, including the irfu.. you do know what they don’t have a written rule, right?. like he said the sky didn’t fall in when we picked Murphy, Bowe, Easterby and Sexton.. it’s an utter nonsense and worse trolling to say we would be like the welsh and Scottish provinces otherwise. We all ready have evidence they wouldn’t be.. it’s wrong that non Irish people can play for ireland after living there for 3years and someone who came through the system born and bred in the country can’t because they don’t live there…
@Rudiger McMonihan: nothing wrong with what I’m saying, if you think that picking foreign based players would regress the clubs to a Scottish or Welsh levels then I’d say you haven’t really thought about it. It’s not like we haven’t got 15 odd years of professional rugby where that was the case to base our opinions off of.
@Jim Demps: Murphy and Easterby were different cases as they never played for Irish clubs/provinces so were bonuses to the national team.
More generally, while the arguments are complex I look at the French squads last weekend and I don’t share your optimism that they can’t afford to hoover up the top layer of Irish players. I’m also surprised that, with Munster having discovered the first bunch of potential top class local talent for a generation, you don’t seem too fussed about a major change that might lose these
@Kevin Ryan: well yes they were bonuses to the Irish side and there’s no reason why we couldn’t pick up more players like that in the future, guys who might be quite happy to play for ireland but mightnt want to move clubs. Jack Willis was Irish qualified until recently and I’m sure there’s plenty more that the IQ system has identified.
As for losing players, you won’t lose anyone who we don’t want to lose if we pay them the going rate, exactly like what was done previously and even if we do then they can still be selected for ireland. From 98 – 2012 the Irish clubs were lording it in Europe under just those conditions.
@Jim Demps: You have a lot of optimism that I don’t share, Jim. I don’t see the conditions of 2006-12 as readily replicable now. (Nor IQ players that will materially improve our team, DR/Zebo issues apart). We are a small nation that cannot support a professional league of our own and rely on revenue generated by the mens’ international senior team to subsidise the rest of our structures. We’ve done remarkably well to achieve what we have at both international and provincial level – compare us with the Welsh or the Scots – and I think we should be cautious about radical changes in the hope that they will move us on to a higher plane.
2018 may, unfortunately, have been the peak of what is achievable
@SomeGuy: when did Ireland and Leinster last win something of note
@Jim Demps: Jim apart from Ryan I can’t see any of the rest been anywhere near the current squad and Ryan is going to be around for the world Cup so it’s not really a loss. But top players moving would be a massive loss for the provences.
@Jim Demps: the clubs were not stronger. The only club that was stronger was the one you support. Ulster have been at the top end in Europe with a final and a few quarters along with pro 14 finals conaught have won the league and qualified for Europe on their own steam and leinster have just won the league 3 times in a row.
@Chris Mc: theres been one Irish winner of the heineken cup since we’ve brought in that rule, 6 before it.
Some prospect for Healy now, a much improved wage, a senior contract, assurances at international level and hed likely start for club so plenty of learning available to him. With hanrahan still favoured for some reason, and harry byrne getting the look ins with ireland .. add to that crowley and Flannery hot on his heels for minutes at 10 and carbery to return it’s all looking a hell of a lot better option for him as things currently stand.
The only swing in Munster and irelands favour is the option to represent your home club and country but with what is in front of him is as reported it would be a very hard decision to turn it down.
Maybe JVG will put full faith in him in the coming weeks and the irfu might get the finger out and open contract negotiations but movement is surely needed.
@baw baw: Th
@baw baw: The only difference is he’ll actually win silverware for Ireland and Munster.
@Harry O’Callaghan: silverware with munster? Your gas
@Chris Mc: careful now Chris. We don’t want to upset our southern buddies haha
@Harry O’Callaghan: we just think yere Munster obsessed saddos
Ireland don’t need healy we have 35 Yr old jonny sexton let him off
Saw him play for Sale Sharks vs Munster and he was excellent on the day. Strange this is his 4th stint with English clubs albeit with Wasps twice. Must be some reason for the regularity he changes clubs.
Hastings quality replacement
Very tempting move for Healy. With Crowley and Flannery snapping at his heels, Carbery to return from injury, and Hanrahan the first choice in situ his pathway to money and games lies with Glasgow you’d have to say.
This would be awful for Munster if they lose him.
Now that puts the flirting in context re Healy. Where is Cipriani off too?
@Scott Crossfield: France probably. I’d say he was hoping for the England call up while he was at Gloucester but it’s not going to happen.
@Miguel Sanchez: Pay day time, decent player, but a total l00n, they love that s**t in France tho