The IRISH RUGBY thread

[AZOffaly]

Champions Cup Draw

Pool 1
Racing Metro 92
Glasgow Warriors
Leicester
Munster

Pool 2
Connacht
Wasps
Toulouse
Zebre

Pool 3
Saracens
Toulon
Llanelli
Sale Sharks

Pool 4
Leinster
Montpellier
Northampton
Castres

Pool 5
Exeter Chiefs
Clermont Auvergne
Ulster
Bordeaux

[Dinny Breen]

A draw I'm sure O'Gara didn't want. Opportunity to impress none the less, going about his coaching career the right way.

[Walter Cronc]

Tough draws for all the Irish sides but getting out of the group is certainly achievable. Leinster with the best draw. Madigan wont fancy it on a wet Friday night in Ravenhill

[AZOffaly]

I'll be shocked if Munster get out of that group. The other 3 have decent shouts.

[Walter Cronc]

I'll be shocked if Munster get out of that group. The other 3 have decent shouts.

Yeah on 2nd thoughts!!

[seafoid]

Luke Fitzgerald has retired from rugby on medical grounds

"My family were sick of it" – Luke Fitzgerald reflects on injury-ravaged career
The 28-year-old was forced to retire from the game last week after one injury too many
about 15 hours ago
Gavin Cummiskey

2


Luke Fitzgerald was forced to retire from rugby last week after a career ravaged with injuries. Photo: Morgan Treacy/Inpho
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Luke Fitzgerald played his last game of rugby, the Pro 12 final at Murrayfield, with no feeling in his left arm and a torn medial ligament in his right knee.
Normal enough 80 minutes for Fitzgerald. The neck went again. Worse pain than ever before.
"After the scans the doc [Ashley Poynton] said I can't play anymore. I probably would play (on). My mum is happy I'm not. She is sick of it.
"My dad as well. My family is happy for me to call it a day because they have seen the brunt of what a 10 year career can do. I've had a lot of injuries."
A freakish amount, charting all the way back to a badly damaged collarbone in sixth year. Still, he returned to play the schools final at Lansdowne road on St Patrick's Day 2006.
That's the concern because within five months of his Leaving Certificate he was capped for Ireland. Aged just 19.
But every opinion that mattered 10 years ago felt Fitzgerald was physically ready for the man's game.
"It's hard to keep a player back when they are physically able for it," says Brian O'Driscoll. "Normally you have to invest two, three years before you get capped but it just happened that Lukey was a child prodigy...Different bodies break down in different ways...
"Even at the end of this season he showed what he can add to a team.
"Leinster and Ireland are going to miss that, they are going to miss having a game changer."
That is why this went on for so long. Fitzgerald was a wonderfully balanced player not too long after his father, Des, the former Ireland tighthead prop and current chief executive of EBS, dropped a rugby ball into his cot.
There is no need to sift into his scar tissue. Suffice to say these wounds would have crippled another person. But Fitzgerald looks like a 28 year-old-elite athlete. It is what happened on the inside that denied him what seemed a certain ascent to greatness.
Still, capped as a teenager, he made the Lions Test team to face South Africa at 21 before the ruptured knee ligaments in November 2009 began constant interruptions for the Leinster left wing.
Maybe, it is suggested to him, if they had of held him back, kept him in check for a season or two, until he grew accustomed to the hits, as they do now with Ireland under-20s captain James Ryan and all those he recently led to a World Cup final, it would have been different.
Fitzgerald never played AIL. Never played Ireland under-20s. Straight out of school his outrageous talent screamed that he was ready.
"I know where you are coming from but it is really hard to say, really hard to gauge. I probably got a little unlucky in the initial couple of years. If you look at the training now the set-up, the training is so much better, so much more streamlined, people know way more.
"But like Drico said I was ready for the training, I was way stronger, more powerful, way more balanced than a lot of guys coming out of school. I had good principles coming from my dad and access to Dave Fagan, who is doing the Leinster sub academy now, from an early age.
"So I was ahead of the posse. Although, I did get an injury in my final year in school which did set me back. I broke my collarbone, a compound fracture, which is serious enough. I never got that strong again, throughout my whole career. My upper body was strongest when I was 18! I'd say that might have had a bigger effect than you would be able to quantify."
That is what makes this Fitzgerald interview, the exit interview so to speak, so interesting. He is one of the second generation of professional rugby players in this country, having been capped alongside the now 32 year old Jamie Heaslip and enormously powerful Stephen Ferris against the Pacific Islanders in November 2006. Ferris is gone a few years due to terrible injuries. Heaslip plays the game with remarkable footwork that allows him, at the very last moment, to avoid the full brunt of contact.
"But look at a guy like (Andrew) Porter. He is in there squatting 350 kilos in the gym. Like, how do you tell a fella like that 'you are not strong enough to get in the game.'"
Leinster have done just that. Porter is only entering year one of the Leinster Academy this summer.
"But considering how physical the game is and how much better the athletes are it is probably no harm keeping a guy back a year or two but the problem is you get to accelerate your learning by getting access to training and playing with guys at the top level."
Michael Cheika gave Fitzgerald a choice on the first day of his first pre-season: Want to train with Felipe Contepomi, O'Driscoll, Denis Hickie, Shane Horgan and Gordon D'Arcy or the Academy?
It was no choice at all.
"I never even played an A game for Leinster. Are we the guinea pigs?
"Yeah, it's a young sport. Does it take anything away from the experience for me? It doesn't. I just feel I was unlucky."
He was, undoubtedly, unlucky, yet now his time has passed the regrets seem too few to mention.

[seafoid]

Flannery O'Connor
"Where you come from is gone, where you thought you were going to was never there, and where you are is no good unless you can get away from it.

Concussion will have to be produced at home

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/international/irfu-chief-does-not-believe-munster-can-make-debt-repayments-1.2723985

Philip Browne does not expect the Munster Branch to be able to meet repayments on the €9 million they owe the IRFU.
The union's annual general meeting reported an increase of almost €6 million in player and management costs arising "in large part" due to Munster's malfunctioning professional wing, both administratively and on the field, in recent years.
"One of our provinces is experiencing financial difficulty and one of the main reasons for this is poor match results," said IRFU honorary treasurer Tom Grace. "It is no secret that the increased revenues available to French and English clubs are having a serious inflationary impact on player remuneration."
'No repayment'
Grace did note, during his speech at last night's agm at the Aviva Stadium, that the Ulster Branch have repaid "in full" their loan to redevelop Ravenhill into Kingspan Stadium.
"There was no repayment received this year in respect of the Munster loan which relates to Thomond Park, " said Grace.
A €200,000 payment was due last April with €4.2 million due in April 2017 and €500,000 to be paid every year until 2026 with a final lump sum of €761,778 expected in 2027.
"I am pleased to report the Ulster Branch loan in respect of the Ravenhill development has been repaid in full. Well done Ulster."
Unlike the FAI who still owe €34.75 million on the Aviva Stadium, the IRFU paid off, up front in 2010, the amount they owed for the stadium redevelopment following the successful sale of corporate boxes and 10-year tickets.
However, the Munster debt remains a serious concern as the radically changing nature of the northern hemisphere club scene threatens to reduce Irish provinces to second-tier competitors.
Browne was asked if it is realistic to expect Munster to be able to make a payment of €4.2 million next April?
"At the moment probably not," he responded.
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Can he see the €500,000 being repaid annually over the next 10 years?
"At the moment that is probably not possible.
"But in fairness [Munster CEO] Garrett Fitzgerald, [director of rugby] Rassie Erasmus, [IRFU high performance director] David Nucifora and Philip Quinn, the accountant, are all working together to try and manage the cost base, to make sure whatever decisions that are taken provide value for money.
Bail out
"But the one thing for certain is we have to collectively live within our means.
"By the way, this could happen to any of the provinces," said Browne. "It could happen to Leinster, less likely, but if performances drop and people decide to spend their money doing something else. We have had to bail out Ulster in the past, we have had to bail out Connacht in the past. Munster are where they are now."
But Browne, in his chief executive's report, appeared to draw a line in the sand when writing "the IRFU can no longer be the 'lender of the last resort' for the professional game as the governing body does not have the capacity to absorb ever increasing player wage inflation."
Browne rejected the suggestion of poor management at all levels in the Munster Branch.
"I don't think it is a case of them running their business very badly," said Browne. "There is a serious problem but the reason why there was a cash flow [issue] this year was due to a number of reasons.
"The first was they had to run the Pro 12 up against the Rugby World Cup. That had an impact on their gates. Secondly, because of the broadcast nature of the Pro 12, where you have multiple broadcasters, Munster ended up with a number of matches where they played on a Friday night, which just doesn't work for Limerick because people in Cork can't get there. So, that had an impact.
"The third part of it was the performance of the team. Effectively, by December, they ended up in a situation where their two home matches in Europe were effectively dead rubbers so their gates just fell away.
"The gates only picked up towards the end of the season when they were fighting for (Champions Cup) survival."
As a result Munster gate receipts dropped by €2 million from one season to the next.
'Set of circumstances'
"The economy doesn't help either as it has not picked up in Limerick like we have been fortunate to have experienced up in Dublin.
"But to say it is badly run is wrong. It was a set of circumstances. Yes, the performance of the team was not like they would have liked or we would have liked. We have addressed that. You can have the best administrators in there but if people don't turn up for matches you got a problem."
All four provinces received an unbudgeted sum of €250,000 from the IRFU to help cope with "difficulties experienced by all in the player contracting market".
Grace added: "The union's response to this is to increase the player funding going forward for the provinces but more significantly to invest greater amounts into our player development pathways from the grassroots game upwards. In our budget for 2015/'16 an additional €3.2 million was allocated to elite-player development and €800,000 to the domestic game. For 2016/'17 we have enhanced the domestic game investment by a further €1.2 million.

"It is the view of the union that these investments in our game represent the most effective way forward for the union given the financial constraints under which we operate."
Overall, the message coming from Lansdowne Road is the days of recruiting southern hemisphere players like Brad Thorn, Isa Nacewa, Ruan Pienaar and Charles Piutau is coming to an end.
"The provinces simply can't go out into the global market place and expect to pick up world-class players with the budget that they have," Browne stated. "They have got to live within their budgets, which is why it is better value for us to invest in the pathway. To produce our own players. We simply can't compete with what is happening in France. "

[Walter Cronc]

Looks like Joe Schmidt has committed to 2019. Great news!!

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/international-rugby/joe-schmidt-poised-to-stay-on-as-ireland-head-coach-until-2019-reports-34992328.html

[AZOffaly]

Bad news from Limerick this morning is that the out half I had such hopes for, Johnny Holland, is forced to retire due to injury. He's had two injury plagued seasons, but any time I saw him he had serious potential. Only turned 25, this is an awful pity for Munster, and an almighty blow for the lad himself.

[Declan]

That's rough on him alright. Tenuous nature of professional rugby

[seafoid]

Stuart Lancaster is in as a prop for Leo Cullen
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/pro12/stuart-lancaster-aims-to-make-leinster-a-dominant-force-in-europe-again-1.2780087

[Dinny Breen]

Stuart Lancaster is in as a prop for Leo Cullen
http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/pro12/stuart-lancaster-aims-to-make-leinster-a-dominant-force-in-europe-again-1.2780087

Can't see him challenging Jack McGrath..

[seafoid]

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/neil-francis-our-game-needs-to-rid-itself-of-heavy-gang-150kg-props-are-a-parody-of-the-way-rugby-is-going-35031393.html

What am I advocating? I am saying that at professional club and international level tight forwards cannot exceed 120kgs (19 stone). Back-row forwards 110kgs (about 17.5 stone) and nobody in the back line over 100kgs (15.7 stone). Anyone over those levels can ply their trade at the world wrestling federation. I reckon it is as easy to lose 10kgs as it is to gain it.
We know the game as it is currently played is too dangerous. We have become desensitised to the perils of concussion and catastrophic career-ending injury. We look at the rubbish rugby being produced in the Top 14 and Pro12 - games of bash. Huge forwards running into each other and yet slavishly continuing down that line when evidence from the best team in the world tells us to go a different way. New Zealand are always light years ahead.

[seafoid]

Sir Anthony O'Reilly's furniture to be sold at auction in pub
Contents of Castlemartin House to go under the hammer in effort to reduce bank debts

Michael Parsons

He was once Ireland's richest man and chief media baron, but now Sir Anthony O'Reilly's furniture is to be sold at public auction – in a country pub — to help repay his multi-million euro bank debts.
The furniture was removed from the 80-year-old businessman's former home, Castlemartin House – a 26,000sq ft mansion on a 750-acre stud farm in Co Kildare – and put into storage. The house itself has already been sold on the instructions of AIB Bank. Last year, Sir Anthony was declared bankrupt by the Supreme Court of The Bahamas where he is resident for tax purposes.
The Co Kilkenny-based auctioneering firm Mealy's Fine Art told The Irish Times that it had been asked to sell "the contents of Castlemartin including furniture, antiques and items of decorative art" which will go under the hammer next month. The auctioneers said they were "acting on the instructions of the trustee in bankruptcy appointed by the Bahamian Court".
A "trustee in bankruptcy' is similar to a receiver and is responsible for administering the financial affairs of the bankrupt person and distributing assets to creditors.The auction is the latest chapter in the ongoing disposal of the assets of Sir Anthony, a former billionaire, who once owned the Irish Independent and Sunday Independent newspapers and the crystal and china company Waterford Wedgwood. His business empire unravelled following Ireland's economic crash in 2008.
Tax exile
In High Court proceedings in Dublin in 2014, Mr Justice Peter Kelly revealed that Sir Anthony, and companies personally controlled by him, owed various Irish and international banks an estimated €195m.
Sir Anthony was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2001. He is one of Ireland's most prominent tax exiles – based on his residency in a beachside villa called Lissadell near Nassau, the capital of The Bahamas. He, and his wife Lady Chryss [nee Goulandris] O'Reilly also have a chateau at Deauville in France.

In addition to the sale of Castlemartin for€26.5 million, Sir Anthony has also sold his Dublin townhouse at Fitzwilliam Square for €3.2 million and his west Cork house Shorecliffe in Glandore for €1.5 million as part of efforts to repay his debts.
Mealy's said the auction of the Castlemartin contents would take place on October 4th in a temporary saleroom in The Long Man of Kilfane – a rural pub near Thomastown, Co Kilkenny. The venue was chosen because the auctioneer had already planned an auction there of the contents of nearby Kilfane House for another client. A catalogue for the auction will be published shortly.
Mealy's said their auction does not include Sir Anthony's art collection which is believed to be the most valuable private collection ever assembled in Ireland. Earlier this year some minor paintings and sculptures from the collection were sold, discreetly, by an unnamed vendor at auction in England and realised approximately €440,000. But the whereabouts of much of the O'Reilly collection is unknown.
It includes a painting by French impressionist Claude Monet which Sir Anthony bought for $24.2 million 15 years ago and several major paintings by Jack B Yeats which were shipped out of Ireland during the past decade

[Walter Cronc]

Wasn't sure where to place this link but its a topic that is continually swept under the carpet

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/37340730