I agree and from his financial point of view a couple of yrs in japan is the best place for him taking every thing into consideration.

He's 28 in August and he's been test standard pretty much since he was 21/22, but he's only played in 35 Ireland tests to date and his physical condition is only likely to deteriorate further as he gets older meaning even less availability.

With OneF the IRFU offer has to be seen in context, how much of the last three seasons has he spent on the Physio bench unavailable for Ireland while receiving a hefty wedge from the IRFU? He is a star for sure, but central contracts are about maximising performance on the pitch not cashing in on image rights etc...

It is a central contract on offer but on vastly reduced terms. Similar id imagine to the one luke fitz was offered and turned down. He lost his as a result and is on a provincial contract since.

He's so injury prone maybe Japan is the only offer he's got (Ireland asides). Their season is very compressed (October-February) so if all goes well injury-wise he'd be available for a European team for the closing stages of the 2014 HEC.

I wouldn't think he's playing hardball like others have done, O'Mahoney has a central contract now so presumably is seen as the first choice 6, even if Ferris came back fit for a whole two years it would be hard for him to start for Ireland now unless they both had central contracts but since the number of contracts have been cut back substantially I can't see the IRFU offering two for one position?

Ferris is off to japan for a year if times is to be believed. Poor offer from irfu combined with huge earning potential there while giving his body opportunity to heal in a much less competitive environment are the reasons. Of course he could be attempting hardball with irfu. With his injuries it probably wont work and he is on record as ssying he will quit game early.

and glasgow have 12 players in the scottish squad for sunday and 2 in scottish panel unavailable through injury before we even discuss their own injury list. i thought the rte panel were both lazy and disrespectfull to glasgow in their researh for this game.
scotstoun looked a decent venue and good atmosphere. kicking aside they played very well. only 3 pts in it now. thats not good forr connacht as we have to play both at home.

It's poor from the IRFU but while there will be a big (and understandable) outcry it's hard to think this is as shocking as others will make out.

We demand more and more from the rugby world and it doesn't come cheap. The IRFU have in the past totally messed up Lansdowne Road ticketing strategies and other brain dead initiatives and aren't a financial bottomless pit. And the cash they get per International match isn't great after the ineptitude that settled on a 50K seater stadium.

Connacht are on equal IRFU funding now, and that money needs to come from somewhere. Agreeing a deal with the highest bidder is good financial sense, if not entirely good PR. Musgrave park is being redeveloped, some of that is IRFU money. The number of central contract has been reduced, probably because the numbers involved cost too much.

It's worth noting that the deal is for the November internationals. Traditionally three matches where Ireland plays one decent team, one average team and one team outside the world top 10. This is not a huge loss. If they want to be nice they should play their 'Ireland XV' match in Ravenhill if it'll help.

And while this has been described as the IRFU mistreating the NI fans it really isn't. At most they are inconveniencing them. And I say that as someone who has the BBC but doesn't have RTE, so I'm in the same boat.

My November will be in a pub watching the matches on Sky, which isn't great for my diabetes, but it isn't the end of the world and fans who want to rage about this are making a big deal out of something that isn't nearly as important as some would have you believe.

Claims by politicians that the IRFU are "effectively cut[ing] off an estimated one-third of the team's fan base" suggests nobody in NI has a sky subscription and nobody will go out to a pub and watch the games. That's patently not the case and that kind of comment is an attempt at histrionic emotional blackmail. Then again, it's a politician, so....

In the end, it's a wonder the IRFU actually stuck with RTE.

i see that the irfu have signed new tv deals for the international team. rte retain the rights in the republic byt sky have gotten the rights for the uk including northern ireland. bad form really.

could lead to some cross border shopping for saorview boxes!

salmson wrote:

connachtexile wrote: Good win by Ulster and Diack showing again that Kidney ignoring is one of his odder decisions. Marshall picked up an injury so it looks like he could be out of the running for the 12 shirt next week.

Diack? Seriously?

O'Brien, Ferris, O'Mahony, Henderson, Muldoon, McLaughlin and Browne all play primarily at 6. How would he ever be considered for a cap?

number 8 i guess. scored 2 trys yesterday

connachtexile wrote: Good win by Ulster and Diack showing again that Kidney ignoring is one of his odder decisions. Marshall picked up an injury so it looks like he could be out of the running for the 12 shirt next week.

Diack? Seriously?

O'Brien, Ferris, O'Mahony, Henderson, Muldoon, McLaughlin and Browne all play primarily at 6. How would he ever be considered for a cap?

connachtexile wrote: Fair play to Ulster beating a tough Castres team. If you consider the injuries they had and that they lost Roger Wilson after 30 mins you'd have to rate them as serious contenders.

Funny I was watching the Ulster game and it was a mirror image of our game against Zebre, we were both absolutely pants outside the set pieces and lucky to bring the results home in the end.

They're at the sharp end of the competition now and another performance like that and they will be focusing on the Pro12 only this season. They need to get Muller back toute suite,and Bowe...

sea_point wrote: Rossie, nothing to do with being an Ulsterman. Patterson is just plain sh*te, pure and simple...

Hilarious that after breeding some seriusly ropey referees over the last decade, they taken to importing them too... :evil

:

u

i agree but being a shit ref is one thing and being a shit ref fefereeing your home province is entirely another. it should never have been allowed to happen.not his fault though to be fair.

on the penalty try- i was multitasking at the time(cookin dinner lol) so may of missed a reset scrum so if i did my apologies mr paterson.

Rossie, nothing to do with being an Ulsterman. Patterson is just plain sh*te, pure and simple...

Hilarious that after breeding some seriously ropey referees over the last decade, they taken to importing them too... :evil:

connachtexile wrote: Just saw the Ulster vs Zebre game. Ulster won but it was a diabolical game. Zebre scored 4 tries and the Ulster defense was a shambles. I think that if the Zebre crowd had gotten behind her team and cheered them on they might have won. It was a lucky escape for Ulster.

The pro12 stand seriously indicted on their choice of ref for this one. Ive never been a fan of their policy of appointing a referee from the away teams home nation. In my opinion it compromises the integrity of the referee and the competition authorities should never do that. In this game they went one further and appointed an ulster man to referee an ulster game away from home. They may try to hide behind the fact that he is currently attached to the SRU but its far from a secret that he is ulster born and bred. He should not have been put in that position By the league full stop.

I only saw the final 30 min of the game and during that time the 3 big decisions he had to make went in favour of ulster. This amounted to 10pts and the win for ulster. Its extremely rare, and ive been watching rugby a long time, to award a penalty try at scrum time on the first penalty. The fact that he did so with 4 min left on the clock when ulster were down by 5 leaves him vulnerable imo. Even the home team dont get them on the first put in and definately not at the death of a game to decide the outcome. He also called a flat pass(imo) forward when zebre had broken the ulster line(and up 25-20) with a score likely.

He binned a zebre player for not rolling away when he made 2 attempts to roll away and stopped and lay still the first time to avoid interfering with the scrum half playing the ball from base of the ruck. Heaney failed to use the ball so the zebre player attempted to roll away again. Heaney, on seeing this, steps forward to play the ball making deliberate contact with the zebre player and immediatly called for a penalty. there was minimal contact and he wasnt prevnted from playing the ball but paterson awards the pen, which is converted and bins the player for not rolling away. It was obvious what heaney was at and no ref worth his salt should have bought it. He is extremely vulnerable on this decision also.

Home advantage was nuetralised for a team in bad need of a break by the appointment of a ref from the opposing province.

phatguerilla wrote: I think there's enough strength in that Ulster squad, and Zebre should be missing a few internationals?

theres only 2 changes to the zebre team from last game when they were apparently unlucky. dont expect a shock but it has to happen sometime.