Next stop europe for Ireland's golden generation
End of IRFU gravy train risks exodus of Irish stars
Perhaps now we know why leading Irish rugby stars like Brian O'Driscoll and Ronan O'Gara have spoken so endearingly of potentially leaving Ireland to take up lucrative contracts in France following next year's World Cup.
For, if the recent revelations are correct concerning the IRFU's scything of national contracts for older players coming to the end of existing deals, then the leading lights of the golden generation -- O'Driscoll, O'Gara and Paul O'Connell -- could be in for a rude awakening when they sit down with IRFU top brass to thrash out new playing contracts next year.
And you can be sure that clubs all over Europe and beyond -- Jamie Heaslip, for example, has spoken of his desire to spend a year in the Super 14 -- from Toulon to Toulouse and Leicester to Wasps, will have their ears pricked should Irish rugby's gravy train jolt to a shuddering halt.
The exact figures are difficult to discern, but amid the fraternity of the Irish international players, where comparisons and contrasts are percolated like gossip at Sunday mass, the percentage drop in basic income, already felt by up to 10 of Ireland's leading players, is anything between 30pc and 50pc.
Hence, the apparent reluctance of both Peter Stringer and Gordon D'Arcy to pen new contacts in recent weeks, now that it has become apparent that their contracts will no longer be funded by IRFU HQ.
They are among what is believed to be a significant minority of players who will see their basic incomes slashed for what remains of their careers in Ireland as the game wakes up to a financial reality many of their supporters have painfully endured following the collapse of the Celtic Tiger.
And, for others who are currently mulling over the radically reduced financial terms on offer for maintaining the rest of their limited careers, including players like Shane Horgan and Marcus Horan, the decision must now be whether to stay or go.
The example of Horan is an especially poignant one, given his incredible recovery from a potentially career-ending medical problem to recapture his starting position for both club and country.
Should he decide to remain playing for Munster, it seems like he will be forced to do so on vastly reduced financial terms.
The only alternative would be to seek alternative employment on foreign shores, either in France, where the budgets are multiples of the Irish provinces, or at somewhere like newly-promoted English outfit Exeter Chiefs, already home to an Irish colony of five players.
The writing for many of these players should have been on the wall when the IRFU announced earlier this year that the staff at Connacht were being placed on one-year deals; effectively putting the whole project on a one-year trial as they ruminate a putative downgrading of Ireland's perennially neglected, fourth proud province.
However, the IRFU have already managed to play hard ball with other leading Irish players of a thirty-something vintage, whose contracts expired over the last two summers, effectively managing to reduce their salaries by significant degrees.
It's not a new topic, as the IRFU have managed to do this from as far back as the mid-2000s. As the central contractor, they seek to reduce their exposure on players, particularly when they are approaching the end of their playing careers.
Like any professional outfit, it makes sense to offer a sliding scale of terms appropriate to both age and profile; hence the whopping deals available to the leading lights of O'Driscoll, O'Connell and O'Gara, who between them reportedly top a collective salary of €1m per annum before bonuses and personally negotiated endorsements.
However, what is intriguing is the timing of the current raft of pay cuts, arriving, as it did, before the IRFU went public in a highly emotional and personalised attack on Minister Eamon Ryan's proposals to re-designate the Heineken Cup as a free-to-air sporting entity.
The IRFU were at pains to demonstrate, via a variety of media cheerleaders, that some of Ireland's best talent could be forced to flee overseas should Ryan's proposals come to fruition.
And yet at the same time as the IRFU were complaining about an apparently unwarranted intrusion into their own financial arrangements, they were already immersed in a widescale measure of cost-cutting which would affect those very same players.
And that is not all. Already throughout the provinces, there is anecdotal evidence that the domestic game budgets are being targeted as the IRFU focus on a significant scaling back of the funding directed at this vital area of player development.
Although the IRFU announced a €2m surplus last year, it also indicated that the commitment to the new Aviva Stadium would require a capital commitment of some €77.5m, requiring the Union to go into debt until at least 2013.
slumped
Despite success on the field last season, thanks to the Grand Slam and Heineken Cup, advertising revenue did not match those achievements and commercial income slumped by some €560,000, while their pension liability rose startlingly from €6,000 to over €1m.
Hence, treasurer Tom Grace warned in last summer's Annual Report of potentially crucial decisions that may have to be taken in the months ahead.
"For the coming year and, indeed, subsequent years, the state of the Irish and world economies will impact on the Union and this and, indeed, all of the other risks facing the Union are carefully monitored and taken into consideration in the Union's financial planning and decision making.
"That said I am pleased to report that the Union continues to be on target to meet its medium and long-term financial goals especially in relation to the Aviva Stadium development.
"The Union are also carrying out a full cost review with the aim of reducing the Union's cost base without affecting current prog-rammes."
That current cost review is reaching areas seemingly immune during the golden generation of Irish rugby and, if the current financial outlook globally is taken as even a vaguely accurate barometer, the reductions may have to continue for some time yet.
Not even Irish rugby can escape the feral clutches of global recession.
- David Kelly
Irish Independent
