Very interesting article in the Galway News.

www.galwaynews.ie/23131-it%E2%80%99s-all...ney-%E2%80%93-elwood

This is more or less the interview from the IT, but nothing about meeting with the IRFU. It's as if there were two things mentioned in the press meeting, one being IRFU discussions and the other being cash. It's not the case they were linked.

The GN article gives a whole different slant to the IT piece.

The IRFU would probably be all in favour of HEC qualification being based on the Pro12 table, in all fairness, it would be a money spinner and they'd always be in favour of 4 HEC provinces rather than 3 and 1 Amlin.

But there's no way in hell the Italian and Scottish unions would agree to endanger their automatic qualification.

eastcoastconnacht wrote: This situation is a constant frustration to me and I have a million thoughts on it. What we have seen this season is that there is a appetite for top class rugby in Connacht with our inclusion the H Cup and the large increase in crowds. This is also due to the improved facilites at the sportsgrounds which is welcome. With the present system of qualification for the H Cup I fear that in a few years time it will be a case of "remember when we played Toulouse in the Sportsgrounds" though. If we are to grow as a club and improve we need to be getting in to the H Cup say 2/3 times out of a 5 year cycle or competing realistically to win the Amlin. To do this though we are going to need to recruit a higher level of player, retain home grown players and have a number of centrally contracted players. To do this we need money and support and the IRFU need to step in here. Can you imagine if Ulster were out of the H Cup for say 3 years in a row how much revenue they would lose and how this would affect their ability to attract local investment and top class players. Afoa or Pienaar would have laughed at going to Ulster if they weren't in the H Cup so how are we supposed to attract quality to Galway. I bet the IRFU would step in to support the game in Ulster if it looked in decline.
Connacht has the greatest potential to grow of all the provinces and the IRFU need not just in financial terms to support us and not use us as a feeder team. Last year I was one of nearly 20,000 Sligo people go to Lansdowne road to watch Sligo Rovers play in the FAI cup final and Sligo Rovers regularly get 3-4 thousand at home games in a town 1/6 the size of Galway. There is a passion for sport all over Connacht but that wont migrate to rugby if the team are average and have lost 8 games in a row.
The IRFU need to stop the lip service and make give us the support we need after so much neglect.

They need to inject a good amount of capital and human resources into the branch for a few years to get it up to speed. They also should be lobbying for HEC inclusion based on position in the Pro12 table as well. We need a real investment to get the ball rolling and that's just he way it is.
Unfortunately despite it being in the best interests of the IRFU to do this, it is not in the best interests of the provincial branches to do that, and they control the IRFU.

What I want to know is, why is there an article on Connacht meeting with the IRFU but no announcements on what exactly was discussed and what the result of the meeting was. At this point we're all just discussing ifs and buts.

This situation is a constant frustration to me and I have a million thoughts on it. What we have seen this season is that there is a appetite for top class rugby in Connacht with our inclusion the H Cup and the large increase in crowds. This is also due to the improved facilites at the sportsgrounds which is welcome. With the present system of qualification for the H Cup I fear that in a few years time it will be a case of "remember when we played Toulouse in the Sportsgrounds" though. If we are to grow as a club and improve we need to be getting in to the H Cup say 2/3 times out of a 5 year cycle or competing realistically to win the Amlin. To do this though we are going to need to recruit a higher level of player, retain home grown players and have a number of centrally contracted players. To do this we need money and support and the IRFU need to step in here. Can you imagine if Ulster were out of the H Cup for say 3 years in a row how much revenue they would lose and how this would affect their ability to attract local investment and top class players. Afoa or Pienaar would have laughed at going to Ulster if they weren't in the H Cup so how are we supposed to attract quality to Galway. I bet the IRFU would step in to support the game in Ulster if it looked in decline.
Connacht has the greatest potential to grow of all the provinces and the IRFU need not just in financial terms to support us and not use us as a feeder team. Last year I was one of nearly 20,000 Sligo people go to Lansdowne road to watch Sligo Rovers play in the FAI cup final and Sligo Rovers regularly get 3-4 thousand at home games in a town 1/6 the size of Galway. There is a passion for sport all over Connacht but that wont migrate to rugby if the team are average and have lost 8 games in a row.
The IRFU need to stop the lip service and make give us the support we need after so much neglect.

rossie wrote: Forgot to comment on player issue.

29 fulltime players(excluding development players) is pretty much similer to aviva squads and represents 2 per position or should. It appears tho that eric doesnt trust some of the 29 recruited tho and thats on him and his recruiters.

Reality in professional sport is good players move on to better teams and dont always get a game when they do. Look at Man CIty or United for examples.Thats the world of sport.Its just a pity it happened this year for us.

Leicester have a squad of 45
Sale 44
Quins 36, but remember they have Nick Evans on huge money


The smaller premiership squads tend to have some big name players that take up alot of their budget. We have no internationals as such, and our payscale would be the lowest of any clubs around. Factor that in a with a small squad and you've got a problem. If all 29 of our players were capable for this level then there'd be no problem. But because of the lack of money we end up having to sign bottom of the market players who may not be up to this level

rossie wrote: lads a reality check is needed here!

Connacht have a players wage bill of 3m euro and generate how much?
Until this year it probably fell short of this figure.

PROFESSIONAL RUGBY is a business and in this case the IRFU are the main investors in all four provinces. The difference between connacht and others is that they are pretty much the only investors and have viewed it as a bad investment for a while now.THey can point to the success on and off the field of Munster, Leinster and the National Team as rebuttals for any p;ayer development argument that can be put forward. Taking rhis into account this is a significant investment by them and we will be doing well to hold on to it!

We need to be given a chance to succeed and generate our own money. With an improved and more succesful squad we can keep the season tickets at a decent level and bring in more. There are only 3 automatic Heineken Cup spots and the way things are financed we will never get one of those places. What we need is a fighting chance, as it is, we're cut adrift without a prayer. If your're investing in a business you don't give it pittance and expect it to succeed. You commit to it with a decent amount of money for a certain of period of time and hope after that period of time that it can start generating its own cash and become more self sufficient. This has not happened

I wouldn't say no to a massive poster of Rita Hayworth

ConnachtCows wrote: We try what Andy did in the Shawshank Redemption, and write the IRFU a letter every week, until they give us extra money, and then start writing two letters a week

Very intersting CC but don't think improved Library facilities are exactly what we need right now . :lol:

Forgot to comment on player issue.

29 fulltime players(excluding development players) is pretty much similer to aviva squads and represents 2 per position or should. It appears tho that eric doesnt trust some of the 29 recruited tho and thats on him and his recruiters.

Reality in professional sport is good players move on to better teams and dont always get a game when they do. Look at Man CIty or United for examples.Thats the world of sport.Its just a pity it happened this year for us.

lads a reality check is needed here!

Connacht have a players wage bill of 3m euro and generate how much?
Until this year it probably fell short of this figure.

PROFESSIONAL RUGBY is a business and in this case the IRFU are the main investors in all four provinces. The difference between connacht and others is that they are pretty much the only investors and have viewed it as a bad investment for a while now.THey can point to the success on and off the field of Munster, Leinster and the National Team as rebuttals for any p;ayer development argument that can be put forward. Taking rhis into account this is a significant investment by them and we will be doing well to hold on to it!

I think others will be looking at this and saying its hard to feel sorry for us. Our recruitment has been very poor in the last couple of seasons and our record in the Southern Hemisphere is appalling.

I never mind us bringing in Irish players and if they prove not to be good enough so be it but the likes of Ezra Taylor, Fa'aili, Vainikolo etc. (might see something yet hopefully) have taken huge chunks from our budget with no return. Lots more like this during Bradley's time as well.

I think the IRFU should provide the assistance required to mean an Irish player isn't losing out financially coming west but with the stipulation that Connacht have a maximum of 2 NIQ's. They should first of all enforce their own agreement whereby we'd get players from the other provinces, rather than last summer where our 10 went to Munster with no-one coming the other way.

Really in the main its up to ourselves, Connacht is a professional outfit, we need to raise more of our own finance, which we are starting to do this season but also we need to start setting down our own targets not waiting for targets from the IRFU. There has to be someone who will hold the management team accountable for results. The PGB are only there to develop revenue streams.

There needs to be proper business decisions made about results on the pitch and not the nonsense we witnessed under Bradley. No-one wants to see it go the way things are in soccer with managers coming and going every few months but at the start and end of every season a real evaluation has to be done on results and where the team is going.

There was no way Stringer was coming to Connacht on a short term deal this season. Connacht have three healthy scrumhalves, just because the two Eric has been using are not working out is not justification for bringing in a 4th. It's abuse of the transfer system and wouldn't guarantee Connacht any more wins.

Now when the season is over and he is looking for a new team then Connacht can pursue him and hopefully the IRFU would assist financially or otherwise. This would help Connacht and keep a great servant to Irish rugby in Ireland.

salmson wrote:

ummm, wrote: maybe the IRFU can explain why they're ok with a hugely experienced, double HEC winning scrum half being loaned out to an English team to help them with their HEC campaign?

What would the IRFU have to do with it? He's not centrally contracted, so Munster and Munster only say where he goes. Maybe we didn't have the dosh to pay his wages for 3 months and Saracens did? And Munster have not exactly been encouraging players to move to connacht over the years, have they?

I know he's not centrally contracted, but I really think the IRFU should have some say in any contracts that result in Irish players leaving the country. They already have says in things like contracts for out-halfs, regardless of it being a central or provincial contract.

There are probably all sorts of 'restraint of trade' reasons why it might be a bit of a nightmare to enforce, but some form of incentive that rewards Irish players helping Irish provinces, rather than a competitor union, would be nice.

sea_point wrote: Hang on a second guys, we all know damn well that we're caught in a vicious circle. We don't get enough money to entice the calibre of marquee player that would strengthen the squad significantly and certainly not a player anywhere near the calibre that Leinster, Munster and Ulster have been able to sign regulalry over the years on the back of significant IRFU funding.

I'd ammend that to 'significant funding', the IRFU are not the only revenue stream. Signings the likes of Howlett are possible because of Toyota, not the IRFU. I doubt we would have managed to get George back if it wasn't for Mazda (just guessing, though.)

sea_point wrote: And that's symptomatic of where we find ourselves, so I'm all for getting the hand out to the IRFU. They still bloody owe us for the best par of fifteen years of mismanagement and underinvestment.

Morally they owe us, but we can hardly justify a larger slice of the (IRFU only) pie at the moment.

I wouldn't say no, though

Stringer has to finish his rugby in Ireland. He needs the best ten years tax back as do all of the big earners of the professional era.

As far as I am aware you need to be a professional rugby player for a year. Shane Byrne did this by being paid €1 by Blackrock.

I am not comparing them. Stringer keeps coming out saying he ahs a lot to offer. he obviously was not happy in Munster. Leinster have Boss & reddan. Ulster have Piennar. If he wants starting rugb its on a plate and whether he will sacrifice his pay in order to save his tax is the next question.

I think it is a possibility.