Glad we got Henshaw on a contract but hate that there always seems to be a mini crisis surrounding things like this. We should never have to be racing to give a kid a contract to keep the other provinces away. This makes Sears comments about poaching the other day ten times more relevant.

What bothers me almost as much as the actual poaching is the way the other provinces quickly forget where a player comes from especially if they do well and especially if they were younger players, we are forever hearing about Ulster's wonderful growing academy the last year or two, let them find their own full back/centre prodigy. Makes me worry for almost all the other younger players of talent coming through, it will be hard to protect them all.

Meanwhile if a player underperforms when they leave connacht (ie Carr) leinster fans cannot get rid of them 'across the shannon' quick enough, that's our player, our failure in their eyes, not their problem.

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.

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.

Was he a first team regular at the time? No.

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.

Delighted for Robbie, he has been an absolute revelation. It's disgraceful behaviour from Ulster and Munster to try and poach an Academy produced player who has nailed down a first team spot. I was absolutely disgusted to read that. There has to be a line drawn in the sand here. 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. Did anyone hear Sears on Off The Ball last night? You can get it on podcast if not. He was excellent, I've been very impressed with him so far. He has absolutely no IRFU baggage. No disrespect to Gerry Kelly but he would never have released a statement like yesterdays.

No wonder Sears is speaking out about this the way he has in recent days . No club has any right to players for eternity but to try and poach young players from academies is a low act. It is different if players are dropped or realeased from academies then they are free to do whatever with whatever club but there should be a little bit more decency from the other provinces towards Connacht. I sickens me to hear of this type of crap from the other provinces.

Best of luck to Macca, he is a legend and gave us everything. He is out of contract and wants to try and win some medals, he doesn't owe us anything. I'm not saying it doesn't annoy me that we build a team around some key players and when they are peaking the other provinces raid the cookie jar.

The attempt to take poach players from the academy is disgusting though. Shame on Munster and Ulster. Not only do they expect us to survive with losing our key experienced players but then when we get a crop of young talented players coming through OUR academy they think they can take their pick there too.

Connacht is not an academy for Leinster/Munster or Ulster and we do not play in the league simply to let the other provinces get a good look at our players so they can take their pick. I hope the boys use the two big games over the Christmas to send a strong message to the other "proud" provinces.

Examiner says Ulster and Munster tried to poach Henshaw:

www.irishexaminer.com/sport/rugby/connac...mccarthy-216860.html

This is bad form. He's in our academy, it's not like we passed up on him (like McSharry and many other playres that come to us).

Henshaw signs until Summer 2015.

www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/he...rn-woes-3324997.html

Apparently the new Director of Rugby position can intervene to stop players moving between provinces so will be interesting to see if this happens with senior players in the future.

P.S. All these boys are up for contract at Leinster so Tom should get poaching!

Andrew Goodman
Heinke vd Merwe
Quinn Roux
Brendan Macken
Damien Browne
Devin Toner
Dominic Ryan
Fionn Carr
Jack McGrath
John Cooney
Mark Flanagan
Tom Sexton
Ben Marshall
Darren Hudson
Jack O'Connell
Jordi Murphy
Noel Reid
Sam Coghlan-Murray

RogueXV wrote: The IRFU's concern is the betterment of Irish rugby and in pursuit of that goal IMO there should be times when they step in and say this move or that move is not in the best interest of Irish rugby. This is not one of those times. Yes, the case can be made that weakening Connacht with this move is bad for the national setup long term, but I'll be shortsighted and allow that to be put aside and say McCarthy going to Leinster is a positive for Irish rugby therefore the IRFU didn't need to step in. But as with Hagan, the IRFU should put a stop to a province grabbing a pivotal player from another province and then burying them in their depth chart. That kind of move is detrimental both short and long term.

Agreed. I can't see Macca being on the bench at Leinster, that is the difference.

The case of the IRFU stepping in to bolster up the pay packet offered at Connacht to counteract a higher price offered by Leinster, it doesn't seem logical to me why they would want to do that.

I think this move highlights that Eric's replacement needs to be named sooner rather than later. They'll need time to start assessing what areas need addressing and firm up who from the current squad should or will be around next season.

Funk It wrote: Lets be realistic, Leinster are a big time club who are going to be in with a shout of silverware for the next few seasons at least, which must be a big factor asides from the financials. Leave the IRFU debate for another day, it shouldn't be their problem to insist on players staying with Connacht. I don't blame Leinster, the IRFU and certainly not Mike, we need to swallow this bitter pill and keep setting the bar higher for our own achievements. I would be very surprised if Leinster were the only club to come with an offer, and to put a positive spin on it, it is probably best that at least he is going to another Irish province.

The IRFU's concern is the betterment of Irish rugby and in pursuit of that goal IMO there should be times when they step in and say this move or that move is not in the best interest of Irish rugby. This is not one of those times. Yes, the case can be made that weakening Connacht with this move is bad for the national setup long term, but I'll be shortsighted and allow that to be put aside and say McCarthy going to Leinster is a positive for Irish rugby therefore the IRFU didn't need to step in. But as with Hagan, the IRFU should put a stop to a province grabbing a pivotal player from another province and then burying them in their depth chart. That kind of move is detrimental both short and long term.

columoc wrote: Some posts today seem to have a victim mentality about Connacht -it's Leinster and the IRFUs fault etc. Imo Connacht are not victims, nor is there a conspiracy by Leinster against all things Connacht. If we assume the role of victims Connacht can never progress, because it is always someone else fault and no one will repsect us. Fact is, we are a small club; Leinster are a big club. Players are ambitious and go to big clubs. It happens in every sport. So too with Macca. Good luck to him.

If Connacht want to hold onto players they need to do 2 big things; become consistent in results, and develop a real professional set up that players want to join because they will improve.

Apart from a few annual high profile wins we fail to get results consistently at the meat and veg games in the Rabo. There is nothing so demoralising as getting beat. We should be beating Welsh & Scottish clubs at home; we should be winning away a couple of times a season; we need to get a consistent performance at all games; and we should be aiming to get a HEC plac by our own results. Despite a good finish, 13 losses in a row does not encourage palyers to stay; this year we have lost 7 already. A performing team keeps its players, gets the TV coverage and gets the better refs. Simple to say, but hard to do.

Do you not see how we are facing an uphill battle to find consistency if our best players are being taken away? There is no better Irish qualified lock available or Leinster would already have him, so how are we supposed to replace McCarthy and expect to stay at the same level?
Is it really that surprising that we have found it nearly impossible to find consistency at hooker when the second choice Irish hooker left? We are already thin at lock, Swift will retire soon, now Macca will be gone, where do you find consistency in a situation like that? It only takes the signing of two or three quality players from a small squad like Connacht to completely fuck any chances of consistency, we have seen a new quality 12 emerge this season that many Leinster fans are already licking their lips at the thought of snatching up when darce retires, what good will our growing consistency at centre do when the cause of it vanishes?

im not happy about macca but if he wanted to leave then thats that.

we all knew leinster wanted him but we all hoped he would stay. players need to stay for others to stay aswel. if cronin and keatley stayed im sure carr would of too.
we need to keep our best players and sign new ones in the summer. for example muldoon could of left but he stayed and since then we never need a number 6. same with duffy and JOC when they came (ok they have a heineken cup medal).

this year i was thinking we have props, needed back up for swift and back row is good, if we keep george. so then the plan was to get a good hooker and backup for swifty. now that plan is changed, we need 2 locks.

i seen people here saying, oh we dont care when crap players leave. of coarse i dont. NOC for example left, we had nikora who finished the season well and parks was coming in. this year i dont care where grace or anderson goes. they have nothing to give to the team.

we have enough players to be looking for to improve us without losing the good ones we have.

columoc wrote: Fact is, we are a small club; Leinster are a big club. Players are ambitious and go to big clubs. It happens in every sport. So too with Macca. Good luck to him.

If Connacht want to hold onto players they need to do 2 big things; become consistent in results, and develop a real professional set up that players want to join because they will improve.

I'd agree with your general statement above but disagree with almost everything else you said:

No conspiracy? It's less than 10 years since the other 3 provinces tried to do away with us altogether.

The key appointment is the coach? Nonsense, a bad coach might get somewhere with fantastic players - Lievermont & Mancini for example - but no matter how good the coach is bad players will never become good.

Local heroes and lack of professionalism? I'll bet that euro for euro the Connacht setup delivers more than the Leinster one, but Leinster have a lot more euros to throw around. This is nothing to do with the IRFU - just last year an anonymous benefactor threw 2.5 million at them to fund their new training base in UCD.

And finally, the big one, the coaching being better in Leinster? Sean Cronin arrived at Connacht as an AIL player. He left as an established international. At Leinster he has improved his throwing somewhat but dropped from 2nd to 3rd choice for Ireland. Tell me again how good the coaching staff at Leinster have been for him, as compared to that at Connacht.

But your main point is right: Macca is guaranteed HEC rugby at Leinster and that will protect his international place; he'd have been less than the player we know him to be if he didn't go.

And we need more and better consistency, results, professionalism, players. But that is (seasonal variations asides) solely a factor of money, which is in turn solely dependent on growing our supporter base.

Some good points there colum. Since we startedhelping ourselves 2 seasons back we have come on in leaps andbounds.

Maccas departure is a setback, we can whinge or use his wages budget to get a decent replacement.

As you said the most important signingnow is the manager. Hes the one who will lead us from here on. I would also like to see him start immediatly.