salmson wrote: You know, I think Macca made the correct decision in moving to Leinster, but Joe Schmidt's protracted (and completely out of character, compared to the straight-talking you usually hear from him) whine did finally put what actually sticks in the craw about this in clear perspective for me:

Does anyone in the whole world think that, say in 2007/08, when Ulster were at a low ebb (second last 5 points above us) that had Munster or Leinster tried to recruit a totemic forward from them - say Best or Ferris for instance - that the IRFU would not have thrown said player a central contract that kept him at Ulster? Knowing the inevitable result Leinster wouldn't have even looked at him.

Does anyone think Munster would try to poach players from the Connacht or Leinster academies?

Speaking as a Leinster fan, I would say the same thing about the comments (or "whine") from Sears. I thought it was very unprofessional, and I'm not surprised Schmidt isn't going to take a jibe like that lying down.

One of the positives from this unhappy saga has been the fact that Tom Sears has come out swinging and hasn't been afraid to defend the interests of Connacht Rugby with force and conviction.
Put it like this: the next time Joe Schmidt looks to poach one of top players he may now think again. Schmidt's inference at his press conference today that Macca approached Leinster rather than vice-versa is risible in the extreme and is unworthy of Schmidt, whom heretofore I've had a lot of respect for.

Learning from this week: no future messing with contracts. Sign people up on time - kudos on getting Henshaw re-signed yesterday. Secondly - we have a feisty CEO in Sears.

I'm kind of glad that Sears' comments are niggling at Joe, and Joe's response shows he knows they've been caught red handed. He claims they weren't pursuing McCarthy for ages then states that they tried to sign him two years ago, in an attempt to prove they hadn't pursued him??? Sorry Joe but ye've obviously been hurting at second row for a while and you've wanted McCarthy to fix that for a while. Just admit it.

I do find it interesting that there is a suggestion Elwood's leaving is a big part of McCarthy leaving, makes sense I guess.

If Leinster really did not offer McCarthy more money than Connacht as has been stated several times now from different sources, and if the club captain receives a higher wage/bonus as was stated on here/the macca thread a while ago, then I think Connacht missed out if they did not offer this bonus to McCarthy. If this is the case then to an extent the Connacht board have to shoulder some of the blame, unless of course Macca had pretty much decided he was ready to leave once Elwood said he was leaving.

You know, I think Macca made the correct decision in moving to Leinster, but Joe Schmidt's protracted (and completely out of character, compared to the straight-talking you usually hear from him) whine did finally put what actually sticks in the craw about this in clear perspective for me:

Does anyone in the whole world think that, say in 2007/08, when Ulster were at a low ebb (second last 5 points above us) that had Munster or Leinster tried to recruit a totemic forward from them - say Best or Ferris for instance - that the IRFU would not have thrown said player a central contract that kept him at Ulster? Knowing the inevitable result Leinster wouldn't have even looked at him.

Does anyone think Munster would try to poach players from the Connacht or Leinster academies?

ummm, wrote: Offering a full contract to a player on an Academy one elsewhere was, if memory serves, precisely how we landed Hagan in the first place.

Clubs want the best squads possible and will do anything for it which is fair enough but given the situation in Irish Rugby I think there has to be boundaries.

Munster or Ulster would have no real need for Henshaw and he would only get the odd game when they were down a lot of players.

He is on an academy deal, but that was only because he broke through unexpectedly fast. After he did break through it looks like Connacht were too slow to act which can't be allowed happen.

Hagan is a completely different situation, Connacht took him on when he was well down the pecking order at Leinster (which suited both parties), Leinster got him back 3 years later as a player with bags of Magners League and Challenge Cup experience under his belt. They didn't need him and the manner in which that happened was dissapointing but ultimately he was a Leinster player before he joined us.

I hardly think Ulster or Munster would be taking Henshaw on with the aim of developing his game for the good of Irish rugby, rather to fill a gap during the Autumn Internationals or 6 nations or more than likely B&I Cup games and his talent would go to waste.

Ultimately though rugby is now a cut throat professional sport, so we have to be professional in our contract dealings. We have to assume one of the other provinces will try and sign our best players and make decisive moves accordingly. We can't afford any mucking about with contracts.

You reap what you sow Joe

I couldn't care less about any of this nonsense going over and back. Best of luck to Mike McCarthy, its his last shot at a big contract and he's gone where (if his form holds up) he will be first choice and has a realistic chance at winning trophies.

I hope he gets no grief from anyone. He's put in a good stint at Connacht and has been influential in providing leadership and continuity while the squad was in transition. He could easily have moved 2 years ago when the other lads all moved on and we were left with a weak squad with little opportunity of progressing.

Whether we like it or not its a free market and good players will be targetted by the top teams, same as in any other sport.

Time to move on and use the funds freed up to bolster the pack for next season.

Need at least another prop, hooker x 2, 2nd row x 2 and no.8

Our 2nd row looks short on options now. Kearney has done well but Swifty is pushing on, Qualter is on the fringes, Gannon looks like he won't be back, Andrew Browne is being viewed as a back rower.

thescore.thejournal.ie/leinster-connacht..._source=twitter_self

Joe Schmidt comes out swinging in this one.

I dont see how Hines going to Clermont is anyway similar to this situation. Hines had to leave because of the new IRFU guidelines, he wanted to stay but couldn't. A bit different to the situation over the last few days.

Sinéad Kissane ‏@sineadkissane

Schmdt is 'massively disappointed' that the reputation of Leinster has been called into question.

The only thing that has been done over the last few days in my eyes is to reinforce Leinster's opinion of Connacht as a lesser province, there to serve them when it suits.

As for "massively disappointed" how the F*%K does Joe Schmidt think the fans of Connacht feel when we keep losing our top players each season. Massively disappinted doesn't begin to describe my feelings as a Connacht fan.

ummm, wrote:

Sinéad Kissane ‏@sineadkissane
Just out of Leinster presser where Joe Schmidt hit back big time at claims made by Connacht CEO Tom Sears over Mike McCarthy move.

Oh this could get very juicy...

If they'd nothing to hide you'd think they'd shrug it off. I thought they weren't allowed talk turkey to McCarthy until Jan 1. That said we seem to be at it too, lots of Sean Cronin rumours. Or is it 6 months from end of contract (which would be Jun 1 you'd think), in which case it was open season start of this month.

Sinéad Kissane ‏@sineadkissane
Just out of Leinster presser where Joe Schmidt hit back big time at claims made by Connacht CEO Tom Sears over Mike McCarthy move.

Oh this could get very juicy...

while he wasnt signed he was open to offers and he should have been signed up at same time as marmion if not before.

hes one of the most exciting talents this country has produced in recent times so leaving him dangling on an acadamy contract was always going to attract outside interest. connacht were lucky to have gotten away with it.

on the list of leinster players out of contract i think we should be interested in both browne and flanagan. that wud leave us with kearney, browne, flanagan, swift, with qualter and maybe nolan on dev contracts.

maybe tom sexton as well dep on whether we keep reynecke or not.

Not trying to take it out of context, the context is there for everyone to see. It just stood out for me when I read it.

ummm, wrote: You said they wouldn't be happy if we started offering (full) contracts to their Academy prospects. That's exactly what we did with Hagan. He wasn't surplus to their requirements.

I wasn't comparing it to Henshaw, or trying to be difficult, just pointing out that the scenario you mentioned has already happened.

No, with respect you took that sentence out of context with the rest of my post. We did not offer Jamie Hagan a contract when he was a first team regular at Leinster. He was surplus to their requirements at the time, why on earth would he have come here if he wasn't?

You said they wouldn't be happy if we started offering (full) contracts to their Academy prospects. That's exactly what we did with Hagan. He wasn't surplus to their requirements.

I wasn't comparing it to Henshaw, or trying to be difficult, just pointing out that the scenario you mentioned has already happened.

ummm, wrote:

menacethedenis wrote: Bet they wouldn't be too happy if we started offering contracts to their best Academy prospects instead of the ones they deem surplus to requirements.

This is the bit I was replying about.

I don't follow you Ummm. Hagan signed for us when we were very much seen as a development province. He was surplus to Leinster requirements at the time and was sent here to get games which he certainly got, he wouldn't have left them otherwise. Big difference to the Henshaw situation.