WITH THE CLOCK ticking towards 4pm yesterday, the news Munster fans had been impatiently waiting for landed.
Conor Murray and, to even greater relief, Keith Earls are staying with the southern province.
While the Ireland scrum-half had definitively stated his intention to remain with Munster before Christmas, Earls was a little more touch and go after a big offer from Saracens tempted him towards a move to the English Premiership.
This is majorly positive news not only for Munster, but also for Irish rugby. After the confirmed departures of Marty Moore and Ian Madigan, losing an even more experienced international player like Earls would have been hard to take.
The lure of the wealthy and competitively-strong English and French clubs will remain, but there are those who argue that moves for Madigan and Moore come nowhere near signalling an impending exodus of Irish players from Ireland.
Joe Schmidt – who alongside David Nucifora is the most influential figure in Irish rugby – is among that belief group. The Ireland head coach says he does speak with his players on these matters when they’re in national camp, Earls included.
Schmidt feels Irish rugby must continue to do everything it can to keep its best players at home.
“We do chat about things and I think one of the players who’s gone recently has genuine regret [referring to Moore],” said Schmidt. “But once you’ve made the decision and you’ve committed with your name on the paper there’s no going back; that’s the way the world works.
“The word ‘exodus’ has been bandied around in some of the media and by the very definition of the word it’s a mass movement of population and I don’t really see that happening.
“We’re always trying to keep our players. They don’t become unavailable to us [when they move abroad], but they become less accessible to us. Therefore, we’re always going to defer to the guys who are inside the country.”
While 28-year-old Earls has been convinced to stay on Irish soil for the next three years, Schmidt does believe the financial lure of England and France will remain strong in the short-term and long-term future.
However, Schmidt is heartened by the fact that a large number of Ireland internationals have rejected the advances of foreign clubs.
For me, people’s heads are being turned by more money,” said Schmidt, somewhat fittingly speaking at the prestigious Hurlingham Club in London. “I could tell you some amounts. I don’t know all the amounts, I try and stay out of it.
“I talk to players on an opportunity basis, on a playing for Ireland, on a longevity of their career, because they will get better looked after in Ireland than most other places because they will get well managed in between their Ireland commitments and their provincial commitments. Those are things I talk about with them.
“There are guys giving up good sums of money to stay where they are, to play for their country and play for their province. I think it’s one of the fantastic things that is still slightly amateur about rugby – that people still follow their hearts a little bit, not just their bank balance.”
Schmidt underlined his belief that the IRFU and the four provinces can add years to players’ careers if they remain in Ireland.
“I’d like to think that we also add value and that they also know they’re going to be looked after,” said the Kiwi.
“There’s more to making a decision about taking a contract or not, there’s more to it than that retainer value. There are some other advantages in staying in Ireland, whether they be player management, whether they be playing with the guys you grew up playing with and you feel a sense of identity with and therefore you want to play with.”
While he retains that confidence that the IRFU and the provinces have an excellent product to offer Irish players, Schmidt does concede that this season’s failure of Leinster, Munster and Ulster to advance into the Champions Cup quarter-finals is concerning.
Aside from the financial gain, clubs in England and France appear to offer players a better chance at trophy success in the European game.
“One of the real disadvantages of not having a qualifier – and I’m positive that we’ll have at least one, two or hopefully three qualifiers in the European Cup next year in that top eight – is that these players are competitive people, they want to win things,” said Schmidt.
“I’m desperately keen for the provinces to be as competitive as they can be, because players come into camp more upbeat, it’s easier to keep players in a place where they feel they have a chance of winning things because there’s a feel-good factor when you’re a competitive person and a non-tangible factor that’s not necessarily money.”
In a way I’m not all to worried about the predicament we seem to think we’re in. The players we are losing are not guaranteed first choice (Madigan, Moore etc). Which would lead me to believe that the main reason for leaving is not in fact the money (although I’m sure it makes it easier) is game time, which isn’t a bad thing either. If you consider the amount of game time and experience these younger players are going to get via this method and the attitude that seems to be there regarding picking pride and loyalty over money, then these players are going to go off get game time, money and in a couple of years come back to province. This can only be a good thing for the bigger picture and the Irish rugby playing population. Not all doom and gloom.
With Cittadini at Wasps and Beauxois at Bordeaux, it’s not like Moore and Madigan will be spending any less time on the bench there than at Leinster.
I’m sure that’s not what’s being pitched to them when they’re signing for these clubs. They’re obviously painted a far brighter picture.
Yes sam but here is where the money really kicks in, getting paid a lot more to sit on a bench with the same amount of game time is a no brainer.
Do you think these players actually think they’re going to be sitting on the bench?
In the case of Marty Moore I think you are right judged by his attempted turn around. In Madigan case he has been treated poorly by Lenister over the last year and a half, so he has nothing to lose and at the same time being paid a lot more to do so. There could be a lot more cases like this in the future, specifically relating to Lenister as they are producing so many good young players.
how was he treated badly? jonny came home. that’s all that happened to him. there are better players ahead of him atm in his 2 main positions. He should have gone to Munster where he would have been first choice, part of irish player management protocols and able to show joe on a regular basis that he was better than Jackson and ultimately jonnie. he chose not to do that and is venturing outside the wigwam because of money. best of luck to him but Jackson will be no 2 now unless there are injuries. schmidts comments on Madigan were interesting.
So by ur reckoning Jackson should be number 1 for ireland now seeing has he showed joe that he is playing better than sexton ! Madigan was imo treated very badly by leinster , sexton hasn’t been playing well in 3 years
Where did I say that. I think that joe rates Madigan higher than Jackson but won’t pick him once he is abroad bar injury. I think it’s started already with Madigan being released to play but only on bench. Sexton was brought home on huge money to play for ireland first and leinster second. he will always play at 10 when fit and available. that’s all I’m saying. that problem wouldn’t have existed for mads in munster. he faces a whole different obstacle now.
In other words , there’s lots of players turning down better offers because they are homebirds .
All I read in rugby articles is “offers this and offers that”. How much are we talking?, how much are they getting offered at Munster in comparison to uk/France?. Figures please
Probably about double the wages on offer in France/England. Madigan was supposedly offered 500k sterling per year by Bristol. And Sexton was not about 750k euro at Racing…..
The numbers I heard in Madigan’s case was that he was on a very modest €80k/year at Leinster, which Bordeaux offered to raise to €400k. I don’t know those numbers to be accurate.
One positive to take from that interview are the comments Schmidt makes about how important it is to him and hopefully the irfu that the provinces do well. There has been a very glum feeling around with a while now that the national side is all that matters and the provinces are being left to rot. At least he seems to share our concerns on this and his voice on it surely holds some weight with the blazers.