fourthirtythree wrote:The idea of central contracts is to reward provinces by taking wage bills off them? Are you on crack? That's nonsense. Utter nonsense. Fantasy.
Take a player like, oh I don't know, how about Sexton? He was made to play against Zebre (when we didn't want him playing) but rested against Munster. Or a guy like Seán O'Brien, or Rob Kearney: they play to get match fit for Ireland, not when Leinster actually want them.
It turns out the IRFU didn't feel the need for that control with Ryan (we may disagree, but we aren't in control of the cash), just as they didn't feel at one stage with Sexton (pure stupid: as clever as the look on Dylan Hartley's face when trying to find out how he could form a ruck), but Munster don't seem to want to pony up either. Could they do it? I don't know, but if the wage gap is as small as is suggested even a €60k* Saffer lock would cover the difference so the proof is in the pudding. Is a €60K* saffer lock a better investment for Munster than €300K on Ryan? Well they seem to think so.
When Heaslip was renewing I don't doubt that Leinster would have gone the full whack, or gone balls out to do so, to get him to renew on a provincial. Look at how many games he plays for us DESPITE being an Irish international. Not so sure they would have done that with Seán O'Brien. Or some other of the centrally contracted players who have bit roles for Leinster. The central contracts are servitude for the provinces, not rewards.
*Allegedly
*Allegedly
From the Cardiff thread.
hugonaut wrote:We have played 24 games this season [13 of them at home], and if you think of the players who are [in my opinion] nailed on Lions, they hardly ever play league games in the RDS:
– McGrath [7+5, 554 mins - 4 home starts/1 home league start: vs Ulster],
- Furlong [8+3, 567 mins - 5 home starts/2 home league starts: vs Ospreys, vs Munster],
- Sexton [7+0, 389 mins - 4 home starts/3 home league starts: vs Ospreys, vs Munster, vs Zebre],
- Henshaw [9+0, 696 mins - 5 home starts/2 home league starts: vs Munster, vs Zebre]
The 50+ cap brigade, the guys who are household names [in rugby houses, anyway] have played a little more often at home, but still not very often at all
- Heaslip [10+2, 838 mins - 6 home starts/3 home league starts: vs Ospreys, vs Munster, vs Ulster]
- O'Brien [7+0, 420 mins - 5 home starts/3 home league starts: vs Connacht, vs Ulster, vs Zebre]
- Healy [10+5, 659 mins – 6 home starts/6 home league starts: vs Treviso, vs Ospreys, vs Munster, vs Connacht, vs Zebre, vs Cardiff]
- R. Kearney [6+3, 503 minutes - 3 home starts/2 home league starts: vs Treviso, vs Munster]
- Cronin [8+3, 522 mins – 6 home starts/4 home league starts: vs Ospreys, vs Munster, vs Connacht, vs Ulster]
- Ross [5+9, 482 mins – 2 home starts/2 home league starts: vs Connacht, vs Edinburgh]
Considering that the Munster home game is played in Lansdowne Road and had 40k+ at it, it's a bit of an oddity and attendance clearly isn't a problem. Attendances at the Connacht and Ulster games were both good, listed as 18200. But for the most part, our biggest names and best players have played once or twive at home in the league in the RDS. And we have played 9 league games there.
We've one home league game left so those home league games starts aren't going to change much.
If you break it down.
There's 28 regular season games, 14 of which are at home. The CCs miss about 9-10 games of the regular season (Summer tour lay-off, AIs, 6N). Then they have to start all 6 HEC games even to the detriment of the team (SOB, Sexton vs Montpellier). They also have to play in any play-off games (Rob Kearney 2016 P12 final), depending on whether you make it to the knock out stages you may have to manage their game time further. But leaving that aside, there's 12-13 league games where there available for 8-10 depending on the player. Say half of them are home, adding up the HEC games you get to play them in half your home games. They play 5-6 for Ireland in a season. And your ability to use them for marketing is severely restricted. That's all before you factor in injuries.
This would have applied to Munster in a big way back in the day too. I'm not saying there's no benefit to them, but it really restricts the provinces ability to grow their revenue.
Ruddock's tackle stats consistently too low for me to be taken seriously as a Six Nations blindside..... Ruddock's defensive stats don't stack up. - All Blacks Nil, Jan 15th, 2014
England A 8 - 14 Ireland A, 25th Jan 2014
Ruddock(c) 19/2 Tackles