Leinster 15/16

[Neill_M]

3 match ban for Fergus. Can play again in the final

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[Dave]

Does McMultiplayer's ban cover all the positions he plays?

[Russ]

Does McMultiplayer's ban cover all the positions he plays?

Guffaw
Guffaw
Guffaw
Guffaw
Guffaw

That's 5 guffaws Dave

[Setanta]

Does not say much positive about the referee!!

[BaggyTrousers]

Does not say much positive about the referee!!

Actually Santa I'm a bit surprised that he has been given the equivalent of a red card, I very much doubt any ref on the planet would have red carded him for that. The ref would have done him a favour by yellow carding him which is probably what it was worth.

He started low and came up, it looked worse than it was, he hurt himself & not the other player who got up and ran on and to me it was more clumsy bad timing than an attempt at anything malicious.

Furthermore despite him being the subject of ridicule here for having the temerity to say he thinks he's not a bad player, I have it on sound advice that he is actually a very good guy.

Harsh I believe, though it does Ulster a favour given Mexico aren't exactly coming down with backline talent. MInd you probably not much to chose between him, Kearney Minor and Sideshow Bob.

[BaggyTrousers]

Interestingly I read today in the Irish Examiner, in an article by Mannix that:

Over the course of the next two day,s in a sequence of IRFU meetings in Dublin, next season’s operational budgets for the four provinces should be finalised. There are strong indications that Grace and his committee, at Munster’s instigation, will offer a cash injection of close to this season’s reported deficit, with very few onerous strings attached, to kick-start a revival in the provinces fortunes.

Leinster, Ulster, and Connacht are sure to fight their corner as, apparently, Munster aren’t the only province facing potential losses this season. Right now however, there is a recognition within the IRFU that Munster’s plight needs to be addressed for the good of the game in this country.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/colu ... 95256.html for full article.

Given Ulster's crowd figures and wringing as much as can be wrung from Stadium advertising and ground naming, it's not going to be Ulster reporting a loss you'd say & with Connacht apparently sticking like glue to their long term strategy and with record crowd figures they surely must be on track, which leaves Mexico with their diminishing number of enthusiasts, just over 10000 of whom turned out to watch the league leaders in their second last home game.

Mexico are a strange one, they above any province produce a flow of homegrown players, their NIQ signings tend to be solid rather than high profile so presumably less "high maintenance" than Ulster's, yet they nor the IRFU own the RDS and from memory are hugely committed to improvement work and all of a sudden, bang goes their fan base. Take out the 43000 at the Aviva for the Munster game & they have averaged just about 12000 at the RDS

Money doesn't grow on trees and you would expect the national management to want to hold the line on NIQs, but it is becoming more and more obvious that crowds across the country are dependant on success. Ulster will not buck that trend forever. Some imagination needs to be brought to all of this and a one size fits all strategy may now be redundant.

The IRFU need to tread carefully and ensure that the best efforts are put to returning the provinces to a position of being competitive. If that compromises the Irish team that may have to be a price that has to be investigated, for years of no team hitting the knock-out stages in the Soupa Doupa and potentially Weegies dominating the Pro12 for some years for I see them most likely to win it again this season. No success is already showing as a major crowd issue in Mustard & Linseed.

I suppose in all this talk of filthy lucre, we should be cognisant that financially at least, Fit has presided over some damned decent housekeeping. Pity about the bullshit, preaching & mainly crap coaching/jobs for the boys associated with his period in charge.

[Russ]

Ulster may post a loss this year. Logan must go

[Amiga500]

yet they nor the IRFU own the RDS

Indeed.

Look across at the English Premierhype and you can split the finances into more or less 3 groups.

1. Those that own their own stadia,
2. Those that don't,
3. Saracens.


The first group run a tight ship and are financially afloat. The 2nd group try hard to but can't quite bail all the water out. The 3rd group are nothing but a shower of c**cúnts.

[Rooster]

Ulster may post a loss this year. Logan must go

Twas Leinster and Munster who posted losses this year

[UlsterNo9]

Ulster may post a loss this year. Logan must go

Twas Leinster and Munster who posted losses this year

All adds up..... wouldn't laugh too hard Rooster whether we like it or not we're all in this communist IRFU system.

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/e ... -1.2438647

Extract

An early exit would be a damaging if certainly not fatal blow to Leo Cullen’s new regime. Yet the implications – both sporting and financial – from what would be to all intents and purposes Leinster’s earliest exit since the ’90s, could be significant.
Leinster have become increasingly self-sufficient, with an annual turnover of about €15 million, excluding monies from the IRFU towards the cost of provincially contracted players. The union pays €90,000 towards 17 of these contracts, and €50,000 toward the remainder.
In Leinster’s case, this amounts to 27 of their 34 fully contracted players, and the IRFU committee was informed that the €2.3 million the union contributes towards these contracts is about €300,000 down on the comparative figure in 2006-07.
Hence, the province’s need to generate their own monies has been accentuated. However, not alone would there be no financial spin-offs from appearing in the knockout stages, much less with a lucrative home quarter-final, the campaign to promote ticket sales for the marquee fixture against Toulon at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday December 19th upon the full-time whistle last Sunday in the RDS sounded like a particularly hard sell.
Ticket sales for that game are supposedly in excess of 35,000, but they will be a harder sell still if they lose today and to Toulon away six days before hosting them; all the more so with Paul O’Connell hors de combat. Viewed in that light, Leinster would assuredly struggle to match the 43,000 tickets sold for last season’s December fixture in the Aviva against Harlequins, and that was for an unsuitable 7.45pm kick-off. The Toulon game kicks off at a more spectator friendly 5.15pm.
The province’s marketing department would have an uphill task to emulate the 47,370 which attended the Northampton game at the Aviva in December 2013, or the near 49,000 tickets sold for the return meeting with Clermont in December 2012.
In the longer term, were there no Pro12 quarter-finals to look forward to when Leinster host Munster in April at the Aviva, that fixture would also lose some more of its lustre.
International contracts
Then there are the potential implications for the IRFU’s negotiations with Seán O’Brien and Cian Healy, the two Leinster players whose international contracts expire at the end of the season.
All of this and more is being underlined to the IRFU at the moment. At the union’s behest, the chief executives of Munster and Leinster, Garrett Fitzgerald and Mick Dawson, presented the full IRFU committee a breakdown of their current well-being and their prognosis for the future.
Ulster, Connacht and Munster have been bailed out with lump sums over the years, but all the provinces have seen their funding reduced. Munster appear financially the worst off, with an estimated debt to the union from the redeveloped Thomond Park of around €9 million.
With the region, and especially Limerick, hardest hit by the recession, and crowds dwindling, they are apparently making little or no imprint on that remaining debt. Moving between Limerick and Cork is another financial albatross around their necks.
Their under-age/academy structure is also contributing far less to the Irish under-20s than of yore, while emigration has contributed to a huge shift in the balance of power at club level from Cork and Limerick to Dublin.
Nor are Leinster and especially Munster supplementing their ranks with the same quantity or quality of overseas signings as when dominating European club rugby.
Where Leinster had six overseas players when winning their first Heineken Cup in 2009, they have four now. Munster have six, and Ulster five, but David Nucifora (who ratifies all signings) and the union are now far less inclined to approve foreign imports.
Leinster’s reduced funding from the IRFU toward their overseas’ players applies to the other provinces as well. The union now pays roughly €150,000 less to each of the provinces toward the salaries of their foreign imports compared to 2006-07. Compared to then, the provinces also play their foreign players’ PRSI, and bonuses over a certain mark.
Furthermore, where there used to be 30 central IRFU-contracted players in the high of 2006-07, this season there are 13 players on union-funded international contracts. All this comes at a time when the IRFU’s dividends from the Six Nations, the ETC/EPCR pot and the Pro12 have consistently been increased.
Leinster have been hardest hit by this reduced funding, in several ways. Although they supplied 17 of Ireland’s original 31-man World Cup, which was further supplemented by late call-ups for Mick McCarthy and Isaac Boss (as well as losing Zane Kirchener to South Africa), Leinster only have seven players under IRFU international contracts – Rob Kearney, Johnny Sexton, Seán O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip, Cian Healy, Mike Ross and Devin Toner.
For all the denials from the likes of Jordi Murphy and Kurt McQuilkin, the flatness of last Sunday’s performance must have been partially due to a World Cup hangover, along with the disjointedness from having a revamped side and a host of injuries.
Empowered
As happened in France, some of the English clubs have been financially empowered by benefactors with wallets to match their egos and a new television deal.
There’s little doubt within the corridors of the IRFU that five European Cup triumphs in a seven-year period from 2006 to 2012 by Munster and Leinster giving way to back-to-back Six Nations titles is a fair trade-off, even if the provinces’ golden era also embraced a Grand Slam in 2009.
Of course, it is a delicate balancing act, but the union would need to be careful where they tread here. The 2009 Grand Slam was backboned by a core of Munster players who had won the Heineken Cup in 2006 and ’08, in teams featuring Trevor Halstead, Shaun Payne, Federico Pucciariello, Doug Howlett, Rua Tipoki, Lifeimi Mafi and Paul Warwick.
The back-to-back Six Nations titles of the last two years were backboned by a core of Leinster players who had won three Heineken Cups. This sequence began in 2008-00 when Rocky Elsom, Isa Nacewa and CJ van der Linde were bought to supplement Felipe Contepomi, Chris Whitaker and Stan Wright, not to mention the enormous contribution of Brad Thorn to the 2012 success.
Their impact on their indigenous team-mates was immeasurable. But that kind of foreign infusion is a far cry from nowadays. You reap what you sow.

[Rooster]

Thing that baffles me is if they have got increased money from leagues etc why are they not putting it back in?
The old saying that "you speculate to accumulate" seems to have been forgotten. Plus you really do have to ask if the money spent on Healy and O'Brien for contracts is actually worth it? What the heck Sean Reidy even took Jamie Heaslip out of his back pocket at the end of the match on Saturday

[Aird]

I used to think that Ulster supporters were particularly Paranoid but reading Babbling Brook makes me think that we are really only novices.
Apart. From the weeping and nashing of teeth in some quarters over Clancy's excellent decision on Saturday they have the gall to take Connacht to task for recruiting one of their Accademy players who they have hardly used all season.
They seem to have had a mass memory loss that they have recruited Henshaw from Connacht.
Ulster having exposed the weakness in their back line , they are talking about the need to strengthen this.
Having gone through their academy and found he candidates wanting they're suggesting Nelson who just happens to be under contract to Ulster.
Also running through the general theme is criticism of Nucifer for wanting to balance out the resources between all the Provinces.
This is of course wrong as the rest of us lesser Provinces should be channeling our resources to keep Leinster top of the pile.

What's more they are capable of believing that this's for the good of IrishRugby.

[Rooster]

I used to think that Ulster supporters were particularly Paranoid but reading Babbling Brook makes me think that we are really only novices.
Apart. From the weeping and nashing of teeth in some quarters over Clancy's excellent decision on Saturday they have the gall to take Connacht to task for recruiting one of their Accademy players who they have hardly used all season.
They seem to have had a mass memory loss that they have recruited Henshaw from Connacht.
Ulster having exposed the weakness in their back line , they are talking about the need to strengthen this.
Having gone through their academy and found he candidates wanting they're suggesting Nelson who just happens to be under contract to Ulster.
Also running through the general theme is criticism of Nucifer for wanting to balance out the resources between all the Provinces.
This is of course wrong as the rest of us lesser Provinces should be channeling our resources to keep Leinster top of the pile.

What's more they are capable of believing that this's for the good of IrishRugby.

What is even worse is the suits in D4 probably think the same way

[Neill_M]

Leinster v Treviso - not on TV #supersaturday

Leinster: 15. Rob Kearney 14. Isa Nacewa (C) 13. Garry Ringrose 12. Ben Te'o 11. Daverage 10. Johnny Sexton 9. Eoin Reddan
1. Jack McGrath 2. Richardt Strauss 3. Mike Ross 4. Devin Toner 5. Mick Kearney 6. Rhys Ruddock 7. Jordi Murphy 8. Jamie Heaslip

16. Sean Cronin 17. Peter Dooley 18. Tadhg Furlong 19. Ross Molony 20. Dominic Ryan 21. Luke McGrath 22. Cathal Marsh 23. Noel Reid

Benetton Rugby:15 Jayden Hayward 14 Ludovico Nitoglia 13 Tommaso Iannone 12 Alberto Sgarbi 11 Angelo Esposito 10 Luke McLean 9 Edoardo Gori 8 Abraham Steyn 7 Alessandro Zanni ( C ) 6 Francesco Minto 5 Filo Paulo 4 Marco Fuser 3 Simone Ferrari 2 Ornel Gega 1 Matteo Zanusso

16 Luca Bigi, 17 Matteo Muccignat, 18 Salesi Manu, 19 Marco Lazzaroni, 20 Andrea De Marchi, 21 Alberto Lucchese, 22 James Ambrosini, 23 Enrico Bacchin

[Russ]

Leinster are so good right now