Hear har Sea Point

ummm, wrote: What exactly are the IRFU supposed to do, give us more money than they give to the other provinces? Where's the justification for that? Right now we're showing them just how much such an action would be pissing cash away.

The other provinces have more cash because they have more revenue streams. I have no problem with us looking for more money, but we're not looking in the right places. Now, I'll admit I don't know where those places are either, but I know it's not the IRFU.

That's assuming we went to the IRFU to talk about funding, maybe we went to complain about how we constantly lose players. That's something that Connacht and the IRFU <strong>can</strong> work together to overcome. I'm hoping that's why we were there.

And while they're at it, 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? And maybe the branch can explain why we were unsuccessful in securing him for that loan spell.

I mean, we did ask, didn't we?

If Saracens win the HEC, beating an Irish team in the final, we're all going to lose out.

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.

The IRFU systematically denied us funds to improve the grounds to a humane standard for the best part of a decade, money that has been handed over directly and indirectly to the other provinces without so much as a backward glance to us.

As can be seen by the bigger Pro12 attendences (despite some figure massaging) the major investment (sourced by the PGB) on facilities is encouraging people to come out to games even in poorer conditions. Without the covered terrace how many supporters would we have lost on recent matchdays?

The pot of extra money was very small when split between infrastructure and recruitment, as can be seen by the quality of our recruits we are still very much in targetting C Class players and hoping for the best. The signing of these players (including George) would not make a ripple in the International Rugby world. Vainikolo, Fa'Filli and George all are on a downward curve from a SH perspective, none had played Super Rugby for a few seasons. Yet we're expecting them to outshine teams rammes with A Class players (current Super Rugby adn International players)

This investment in infrastructure is a long term investment, and will only bear fruit if we can compete on the pitch. But right now we need short term investment to ensure that we are competitive, but no doubt if money is forthcoming it will not be sufficient to recruit a player or three of the right calibre to make a significant improvement...

Even if Stringer was ameniable to coming to Galway, would we have the finance to secure him even till season end? Realistically no, unless he was prepared to take a big paycut...

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.

“There is no doubt the losing of four starters – Hagan, Cronin, Keatley and Carr had a huge impact on us,” said Kelly.

He added: “If you look at the first weekend of the Heineken Cup only one of them got a game and that was Seán Cronin [off the bench for Leinster].

“We will be working with the IRFU to make sure that doesn’t happen in future.”

The last few lines of the article there would seem to confirm your right Ummm: rather than the main focus of the meeting being about additional funding it seems more to be about getting the IRFU to address the player loss issue.

It would make a lot of sense if Hago could come back to Connacht again even on a short term non HC non 6N deal until Leinster think he is worth putting in their match day squad. The Kiwi they signed in the summer is obviously their nr 2 behind Ross so why not let us have him back for a few games and build up his confidence and match fitness rather than wilting away in the Leinster A team. I take the point about strings but how can a 9 influence the game in a positive way when his whole pack is constantly on the back foot with the exception of lineout ball which is the only platform we can get off set piece. Would be an interesting stat to see how many meters we have lost at scrum time this season.

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?

ummm, wrote:
And maybe the branch can explain why we were unsuccessful in securing him for that loan spell.

If you were a hugely experienced, double HEC winning scrum half, would you go to 8-losses-on-the-trot Connacht or high-flying Saracens?

ummm, wrote:
I mean, we did ask, didn't we?

Your guess is as good as mine, but I'll venture it didn't even occur to us to ask.

Couldn't agree more Ummm. I think that's the kind of help the IRFU could be giving to Connacht. I know there were a lot of rumors of Quinlan coming to us for a year before he retired and we see it again now with Stringer. The experience that these players could bring to Connacht would be massive. These are players that are used to winning and getting a game over the line and passing on some of this knowledge to our younger players would improve our game no end. Not to mention having more household names on the pitch could help boost support numbers, it certainly wouldn't hurt them. Getting a scatter of academy players and AIL players to boost the size of the squad isn't the way to go. I think a lot of what we lack is the experience of winning. How many times this season alone have we seen our players panic when we get in to good positions. I think this is something that we should be looking to get more from the IRFU on.

What exactly are the IRFU supposed to do, give us more money than they give to the other provinces? Where's the justification for that? Right now we're showing them just how much such an action would be pissing cash away.

The other provinces have more cash because they have more revenue streams. I have no problem with us looking for more money, but we're not looking in the right places. Now, I'll admit I don't know where those places are either, but I know it's not the IRFU.

That's assuming we went to the IRFU to talk about funding, maybe we went to complain about how we constantly lose players. That's something that Connacht and the IRFU can work together to overcome. I'm hoping that's why we were there.

And while they're at it, 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? And maybe the branch can explain why we were unsuccessful in securing him for that loan spell.

I mean, we did ask, didn't we?

If Saracens win the HEC, beating an Irish team in the final, we're all going to lose out.

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

I agree that we can't keep trotting out the poor relation argument. We need to move on from this. In turn though the IRFU need to support us more in retaining players for longer terms especially home grown and irish players. Players should not be put in a position where they should suffer financial loss by not accepting an offer from another province. Ultimately the arm twisting that goes on where players more or less have no option but to leave needs to stop. We can't expect all players to have done what Muldoon has, he has opportunities to leave and get better exposure and money but he has chosen to stay but only because he is from Connacht. It is very hard for players from outside the province to have the same feelings for the team. This is where the IRFU needs to support us most I feel.

ummm, wrote: I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with the article in equal measure.

Take your point. While the facts concerning our relative poverty are correct it's full of non-sequiturs (exactly how is lowering the limit on foreign players going to make things harder on us, given that our foreign recruitment has been generally appalling?), and the tone is really defeatist. It's like we're looking for excuses going in to the weekend.

I found myself agreeing and disagreeing with the article in equal measure. Yes we need a bigger squad, the numbers comparing us to Leinster indicate that quite clearly.

But comments from the journalist such as...

Of 12 players recruited only two have started more than 50 per cent of the Pro 12 fixtures to date.

...are hardly the fault of the IRFU. They're entirely down to those who select the team for those fixtures, and those who recruited.

Obviously the recruitment issues would have a lot to do with us not being able to afford to attract the same kind of quality other teams can, but I've always thought Eric is the 'this is the way it is, get on with it' kind of guy who wouldn't be moping in the press. There is, however, always the possibility that he said a lot more than what was quoted, but Cummiskey has cherry picked the negatives.

Quite what Kelly expects the IRFU to do isn't clear. The time to complain about losing our 4 best players was when the one year contract situation was imposed that made their loss a fait acompli.

Our entry into the HEC has generated a lot of positive support for Connacht rugby throughout the country, articles like this won't help our cause.

www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2011/1207/1224308683471.html

I wonder if anything positive will come out of this?
At least they are up there looking for more, can't get if you don't ask.