Ireland will have a pool of well over 100 professional players next season after the IRFU yesterday finally pledged its commitment to full-time provincial set-ups.
In addition to roughly 20 players who have been put forth by the Irish management for full-time professional contracts, each provincial squad will consist of at least 30 contracted players.
According to yesterday's statement, "the preponderance of these players" will be "contracted on a full-time basis". This is obviously to allow each province the opportunity of contracting some players who might wish to continue their professional careers outside rugby.
By comparison, this season each province was entitled to just six full-time players on a basic retainer of £25,000, plus 22 part-timers on £7,500 each. No details of the monies on offer have been divulged, but presumably they will be comparable to the £25,000 professional contracts for this season.
Similarly, the 20 or so home-based national contracts will be worth in the region of the "category one" (£50,000) and "category two" (£35,000) contracts on offer this season.
Peter Clohessy and Eric Elwood are already tied into three-year category one deals, while Denis Hickie (rumoured to be Oxford-bound) is on a one-year, category one contract. Ten other players fell into category two this season, and they were supplemented by Alan Quinlan, Conor McGuinness and Reggie Corrigan.
The advent of professional provincial squads makes it more likely that there will be an increase in the number of matches for the provinces from this season's tally of 11 or 12 (including warm-up games) to 15 or so.
In addition to the European Cup and the interprovincials, negotiations between the Celtic unions are continuing about a probable Celtic Cup for next season involving the four Irish provinces, the four Scottish districts and the eight Welsh first-division clubs. It is likely to be divided into four groups of four, and will take place in August and/or September. The interprovincial championship will be held later in the season, probably on a home-and-away basis. Irish clubs will baulk at these developments, but given they are being provided with professional players, they can't have it every way. Inevitably, either the AIB League will have to be trimmed or the clubs will have to resign themselves to being without their professionals for some of the time.
This palpable shift in policy tallies with new Irish coach Warren Gatland's stated desire to shift the emphasis towards a home-based international squad. However, to presume that English-based Irish players will now suddenly start returning in droves may be premature.
Although there may be limited scope for negotiating individually with players, as a rule the leading Irish internationals are on a basic salary of around £50,000. The tax band in England, at 25 per cent or 40 per cent for the top band, is also significantly lower. Besides, many are still contracted for next season or even the season after, while there's little hope of the Irish Lions and players of their calibre coming home.
Still, it should at least stem any future drain of players, while upping standards at provincial and, ultimately, international level. "It's a great boost for elite rugby players throughout the four provinces," said Leinster team manager Jim Glennon, "and can only have a positive effect on the fortunes of the national side in the medium term."
The cynically minded, of whom there is a growing number in Irish rugby, will take due note of the unerring timing, which is an obvious ploy to deflect criticism from a union under siege given the week that's in it. After months, indeed years, of feet-dragging, nothing concentrates the mind like turmoil, it would appear.
Exiled players such as Gabriel Fulcher, whose wife is based in England, will now have the professional training and playing structures, as well as a financial carrot, to return home. Of course, there's an element of placing a finger into the dam after the dam has burst. As one player said to me yesterday: "If they'd done this at the start of last season (when the game went professional), I wouldn't have left in the first place. And neither would a few others."
Meanwhile, Mike Ruddock, the Leinster director of rugby, is likely to remain with the province despite rumours of Kevin Bowring's imminent removal as Welsh coach. The Welsh union tend not to dismiss their coach until the eve of a World Cup in any case - witness the removal of Ron Waldron in 1991 and Alan Davies in 1995.
However, sources close to Ruddock have confirmed that he is far too au fait with the flawed structures and bitter internal feuding in Welsh rugby to want the job. In addition, his young family have only just settled in his wife's native country, and he still has over two years of an unfinished job at Leinster to fulfil.
Ruddock himself would only say: "As far as I am aware, Kevin Bowring is in charge until the next World Cup, and it would be wrong to comment any further on the matter." He said he had ceased his coaching involvement with the national side "by mutual consent" and wished Warren Gatland "every best wish as Irish coach, and I will do anything I can to assist him."
