THE DEBATE AROUND the three-year residency rule in rugby well and truly burst back into life this week based on the searingly honest comments from Luke Fitzgerald.
Whether or not you agree with what the former Leinster and Ireland back had to say, his genuine answer to a question that has bothered so many in the game must be applauded.
There are many, many more people within the sport – particularly players – who share Fitzgerald’s opinions, but their hands are tied and lips sealed in terms of giving an honest opinion on the record.
The IRFU’s stance on the matter, underlined by performance director David Nucifora again yesterday, is simple.
“They’re the rules, so that’s what is set out for us,” said the Australian at the Aviva Stadium. “So like every other country, we all operate from the same set of rules. Whilst they’re there, we’re happy to abide by them, again, like every other country does.”
Nucifora was quick to stress that it is the provinces who identify foreign players to bring to Ireland with contract offers, therefore rejecting the notion that the IRFU is actively scoring the globe for possible project players to qualify for Ireland.
“I don’t think every player comes up here with that view [to play for Ireland]; players come up here to play rugby for a living. There are a lot of players who come up here who qualify, who aren’t good enough to play for Ireland.
“There are players who come up here and fill the required time frame, and over that three years and beyond they do prove that they’re good enough.”
Nucifora also insisted that “it doesn’t really worry me” if the recently-formed working group reviewing the residency rule on World Rugby’s behalf finds that a change is required.
While players like Bundee Aki are likely to continue to filter into the Ireland team after three years of living here, Nucifora says the IRFU is spending more time thinking about its development pathway for young players on this island.
“Our focus is on producing Irish players, hence that’s why our strong investment has been in the pathways to keep giving those young players the opportunity.
“When foreign players come up here, we look very closely – we just don’t let anyone come in. We look at how it effects the pathway, how it effects the succession planning, and a case in point is probably young Joey Carbery.
“Leinster would have loved to have had a foreign replacement when Ian Madigan left but we felt that they had the depth there and needed to give these boys an opportunity. And from that, look at what we’ve got now. We’ve got a player of genuine ability who has been given an opportunity, and now he’s in the national squad.”
Balance is the key for Nucifora, who pointed out that provincial fans get excitement from the signing of players from abroad.
“The foreign players will always be welcome. They fill a place in Irish rugby, as they do in every other country.”
The popularity of some foreign imports was made clear by the anger in Ulster at the IRFU’s decision to prevent them from re-contracting South African scrum-half Ruan Pienaar beyond next summer.
The decision continues to cause grievance in the northern province, particularly with many sharing the view that Ulster don’t have the necessary depth to cover his loss at scrum-half.
“I think it was a fairly clear-cut situation, to be honest,” said Nucifora. “Ruan has been a great servant for Ulster Rugby over seven years. Did we think it would be wise for him to stay nine years? No. I mean, that doesn’t fit in with any of our plans.
“So his role within Ulster Rugby, he’s done a great job, but it’s time to move on and as I’ve just referred to with Joey Carbery coming through, when someone moves on people think, ‘Gosh, we’ll never replace him, we’ll never find someone to fill that spot’.
“But there’s always someone who comes through once that opportunity presents itself. It may be uncomfortable for a short period of time, but I’m sure that someone will put their hand up now that an opportunity presents itself.”
As for the re-contracting of homegrown players, Nucifora is hopeful that the IRFU and the provinces will be able to make a number of announcements in the coming weeks.
There aren’t too many high-profile Ireland internationals coming towards the end of contracts this season, but the likes of Devin Toner, Donnacha Ryan, Darren Sweetnam, Dave Kilcoyne and others are.
“The good thing is we don’t lose too many players,” said Nucifora yesterday. “For the number of players who choose to go, our retention rate is pretty good.
“There are a number of players off contract. We are in negotiations with a number of them and things are travelling on pretty well. I’d like to think we’ll start to be able to announce a few players over the next few weeks that have re-signed.
“It is a busy period at the moment for the provinces and ourselves in that area. There is some good news coming, not too far off.”
Nucifora also underlined his pleasure at Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt ignoring the high levels of interest from elsewhere to finally sign a new contract with the IRFU through to the 2019 World Cup, saying that the Kiwi “actually had a lot longer to make a decision if he wanted to.”
With Schmidt and assistant coach Andy Farrell now locked in until the 2019 tournament, Nucifora and the IRFU will look to extend the contracts of their fellow Ireland coaches.
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“We didn’t let Leinster sign a 10 because we felt they had the depth there and now Carbery is in the Ireland squad. We won’t let Ulster re-sign Pienaar because they… well… surely SOMEONE will come along eventually after its ‘uncomfortable’ for a while.”
Doesn’t even sound as if he even believes his own nonsense.
My worry is that Nucifora stays here 7 years. It’s time to move on David Nucifora.
Aren’t you proving your own negative point. Carbery is SOMEONE since no one was pointing at him before
EXACTLY Rob.
@TREVOR JOHNSTON: Nucifora is doing a pretty good job so far. You may disagree with him on this point (and many others), but we’re better off having somebody like him in that position.
Perhaps when he refuses to renew. Nacewa’ s contract there will be a change of heart. Isa has been here same time as Pienaar.
Kelleher and Carbery case in point. Nucifora doing a stand up job at the minute.
Trevor Isa already got shafted by this type of rule. They wouldn’t allow him to resign. Also Leinster got told they couldn’t give Nathan Hynes a two year contract. So you point about Leinster is wrong.
@Rob Hall: People were talking about Carbery a lot actually. I don’t know of any potential scrum-halves who are getting as much talk as the young outhalf did last year.
@ Rob. Nucifora said in the article “we felt they had the depth”. Carbery was a rising star they knew was available to Leinster. He acknowledges immediately afterward that there’s nobody obvious on the horizon to play 9 at Ulster saying “someone will come along”. The difference between “they have the depth” and “someone will come along” is not equivalent at all.
Personally I don’t think he’s done a terrible job overall. But the Pienaar issue was bungled and it seems there’s some face-saving going on now that might set bad precedents in the future.
Exactly, well said Neil.
Having a league or competition that allows too many ‘foreign players’will weaken an international team.Take for instance France,its probably the richest league in the world and the international team have struggled for years because of home grown players not playing at a higher level in key positions that are taken by highly paid foreign players.It happened with England for years and they too suffered.The Welsh regions have suffered because of their players following the money.It happens in football too,English football is suffering now and before that it was Italy and Spain before them.Its a case really of putting a stop to it at club/inter provincial level.Whats stopping any of the ‘big schools’ from giving out scholarships and enticements to foreign students of a certain rugby standard and packing their teams for a bit of glory.When one school starts getting results and honours,the others will soon follow.Its wrong at all levels,but its a case of the rich getting stronger and the rest getting left behind.
@ Paul Murphy its a matter of conteacts and finances at the moment in our country.We’re not matching the French and English salaries so we’re not attracting the bigger profile player.If the tide turns those stats will change.That was the case before and it will happen again.As for the schools,its happening mainly where the schools will recruit locally,the better club players into their schools.The ‘foreign players’ are not in big numbers at that level…..yet.
It’s not a matter of money. It’s the IRFU that we have to thank for the high number of Irish players in teams. When signing a foreign player they always look at the strength in depth in that position nationally. They’ll only agree if they feel it will benefit the national team and certainly won’t allow it to take playing time from a high level Irish player. The munster attempt at signing Stephen Moore is a good example
Not money???
Ridiculous article and comments by Luke Fitzgerald. No alternative to this rule suggested so should we stick to only Irish-born players? In that case, we would not have had Ronan O’Gara, born in the USA or Jamie Heaslip, born in Israel. Very xenophobic comments and no place for them in modern Ireland.
There is a big difference between someone born abroad to Irish parents or even grandparents and someone with absolutely no connection to Ireland other than having lived there for 3 years.
Ah here Declan, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. Well not ever, but this is t’internet, so yer allowed exaggerate.
Deccan that’s a ridiculous comparison!
@Declan Moffet: What a ridiculous comment.. you’re falling over yourself to try to be pc taking aim at the wrong people. If you qualify for an Irish passport you can play for Ireland.
@Kevin McCarthy: It is a ridiculous comment but… ‘There is a big difference between someone with Irish grandparents as opposed to someone who’s lived here for 3 years’. I would say there is, but not in the way you’re implying…
I think there’s an even bigger problem with the rules if we’re happy to accept an Australian like Michael Bent straight off a plane to play for us on the granny rule but not someone who has captained Munster and played there for 4 years.
Does contribution to Ireland and Irish rugby count for nothing to some people so long as you have some shamrock blood from a few generations ago and don’t mind being photographed with a hurley at the airport?
No. International sport is about where you are from, not where you are paid to play rugby.
One thing that is not being discussed it the extra experience these foreign players bring
A player that was brought up through the NZ system will bring experience that can’t be underestimated and typically a skill set that we are only now are developing
I do not think it is any coincidence that Irish rugby is improving the more we integrate foreign players into our teams
Maybe the 3 year rule is a little short but if it means we can bring in players who can add to and improve the group mentality then it is a necessary evil
The more we bring in these players to improve our team now the less we will need them in the future
Carberry is a freak. A once in a generation natural player who will skew the stats but there is no reason to believe if we keep on growing and improving we can’t start producing players like him.
@reg gordon:
What a short-sighted solution – import experience!
thus ensuring Irish don’t get the acquired experience. May I remind you that a provincial side beat the All-blacks because they had the experience and the sense of blood ties
Blood ties – “you can’t beat that bonding”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOU3gDncP4k
@reg gordon “One thing that is not being discussed is the extra experience these foreign players bring” I think it’s more down to the foreign coaches and their emphasis on skills. Look at what Schmidt did for Leinster and Lam has done for Connacht.
Missing my point entirely there
The point is that we don’t have this experience at the moment so importing it is the only solution
Eventually it won’t be necessary as it filters through
In actual fact I AM thinking about the long term
Hopefully the rule changes after Bundee gets capped
“We’re playing within the rules” is very different to “we’re doing the right thing”. Jamison Gibson Park, CJ Stander, Tyler Bleyendaal, Bundee Aki and Jake Heenen are all examples of poaching by the IRFU. Each one signed at a very young age with a massive amount of potential. They were specifically signed to play for the international team as “project players”. This sort of “playing within the rules” might be legal, but its still dirty. Its turning international rugby into another tier of club rugby and defeats the entire purpose of it. If we’re going to just dance around the rules and recruit players from other countries we might as well just focus on club rugby and forget the internationals.
Nothing said when Strauss was capped , strange
I think the IRFU have a responsibility to go beyond simply ensuring they’re compliant with world rugby rules. They are responsible for developing and running Irish rugby and increasingly it seems that their strategy is to go and recruit people born abroad and developed by competitors, who have no connection with Ireland, to play for Ireland. There is, of course, a big difference between people migrating to Ireland – as Carbery and Adeleokun have, or Irish people born abroad as is the case for Heaslip, Murphy and O’Gara; and the active recruitment of young people from foreign academies. The IRFU are playing within the rules, as they say, but you’d really have to wonder about their vision for the future of Irish rugby if this is their strategy.
Read the article again. That is not their strategy
Fair enough. I’ll read the article a second time if you Google “irfu project player policy” and read a few other articles.
@Paul Murphy: Facts that support your argument are not allowed on the discussion boards, be off with you. Its actually 3 players though, Carberry is eligible as he’s been here since he was 11.
@Darren Byrne, @Paul Murphy: Ok, ok, point well made. Another way of putting this could be “there are as many project players in the 34 man squad as there are Connacht players – despite Connacht having won the Pro12″, or I could argue that when Ireland finished their most recent 6 nations match 27% of their players were project players, but any of us could select the facts to suit our argument and statistics are the third type of lie. The truth is that there has been an increasing number of project players recruited from abroad to play for Ireland. It is a pattern and it is due to a policy (project player). Stander, Payne and Strauss are the highest profile, but there are others who will qualify in the near future (Aki, Bleyendaal), and the reality is that recruitment – which was previously only a feature of the club game – has now become established as part of the international game. You may not view it as an issue and I may, but neither of us can deny that it is happening. That said, have a good long weekend!
Can Pienaar or Ulster not just go to the EU courts and challenge this if they really want. The IRFU are refusing to extend Pienaar’s contract based on nationality, which is discrimination.
I don’t believe this is a case of discrimination. No doubt he signs a fixed term contract with a first refusal clause inserted. The employer is under no obligation to extend that contract beyond the fixed term – regardless of nationality. When you sign a fixed term contract you do so in the knowledge that you are employed for that period of time, subject to mutual termination or extension.
@Ed Rennison: nothing to do with nationality. You could have a whole team of non nationals provided they had a parent or grandparent or just lived here for three years.
Discrimination based on nationality wouldnt remotelt stand up as an argument.
Now children……..!!
He’s doing a great job. Priority is the national team and successful provinces containing Irish qualified players are the best way to achieve that. Let the English / French blow themselves out with mercenaries, we’ll just trust and develop our own.
Bring them in get them signed up, can only lift the local game with competition & talent
When Rugby dropped “Amhran na bhFiann” to placate the Unionists it started a process of modernising. To me the Rugby and Soccer teams are just groups of professional athletes who play for the glory and money- not the shirt. I mean what links has the South Africans and New Zealanders with this country? Answer is money of course.