BLESSING IN DISGUISE
Worldwide financial woes will make it easier for IRFU to keep hold of top stars despite wage cuts
FEW certainties will be left unaffected by the turbulence of these times. The business of sport is, like every other facet of society, facing tremendous pressures.
The IRFU were quick in stressing the gravity of their situation as a result of the Covid19 pandemic.
It is almost four months since a statement was issued announcing a wage deferral, in which Philip Browne warned of ‘uncharted waters’ and ‘daunting financial challenges’.
Financial pressures are, for now, a short-term problem for every rugby nation in the world, and the fervent hope throughout the game is that they remain a grave but temporary pressure.
In the longer term, however, how the game is managed will change, within countries but in an international context, too.
The extent of the change will be determined by the financial effects of the current crisis.
Browne has spoken extensively about how the Irish system might adjust, including an acknowledgement that the dependence on gate receipts from sold-out days at Aviva Stadium must be lessened.
The exhaustive negotiations with Rugby Players Ireland over pay cuts are indicative of one obvious change that could be imminent.
Ireland’s best players are extremely well remunerated, but some of the most talented of them could, over the years, have earned more if they’d moved to France.
That most stayed, though, was down to a system which relied on luxury and sacrifice.
The player that committed to the Irish system might earn a few hundred thousand less a year than he would at Toulon or Racing, but in Ireland his playing time would be managed, he would receive the necessary rest periods, and his wellbeing would be a priority.
The sacrificial aspect applied to his Test career: in almost all cases, a player going overseas was giving up their Ireland place.
The obvious exception was Johnny Sexton, whose critical importance to the national team saw his place in the Ireland No 10 jersey kept safe throughout an ill-fated move to Racing.
He was the exception, as Simon Zebo discovered – and Donnacha Ryan before him.
When Zebo’s move to the Paris team was announced in October 2017, his Ireland career ended in an instant.
He was left out of the November series the following month, and his last Ireland appearance came against Japan earlier that summer.
In an interview over the weekend, he talked of his frustration at the system that sees an Irish player lose their Test career if they go abroad.
That may not be explicitly made clear by the union, but it is how business has been done for most of the past two decades – the most successful, it should be noted, in the history of Irish rugby.
‘I don’t think you should be denied the right to play for your country just because you’re not playing at home,’ said Zebo, who indicated that his Ireland ambitions have not fizzled out.
This wasn’t the first time he’d shared his frustrations, and it is understandable.
The brutal truth, of course, is that Zebo was not as important to Joe Schmidt’s Ireland as Sexton, and so he was dispensable.
It is possible to enforce a tough policy when the cost is not damaging to Ireland’s prospects.
Jordan Larmour and Jacob Stockdale were emerging as back-three talents as Zebo sought new adventures in France, and Schmidt and the IRFU decisionmakers reckoned they could live without him.
Ireland won a Grand Slam in 2018 and, while 2019 was wretched, the absence of Zebo was not decisive.
That is because Ireland’s collapse in form last season was so pervasive, but nonetheless a player of his experience and talent is not one a country with this country’s resources should lightly overlook.
The logic, though, was that a message needed to be sent out: leaving the Irish system carried a big cost.
Zebo is being paid a fortune to play for a club that are one of the wealthiest in the world.
His salary on signing was reported to be €700,000 a year – about twice what Munster had offered him to stay.
That should set him up for life, and there are only a select few Irish stars who can expect that sort of attention. The impact of Covid-19 means that the IRFU could have to rely more than ever on the vaunted care it takes of its stars off the pitch if it is to keep more of them out of the Top 14. Even more caution can now be expected around how the union do their business, and reduced salaries will be inevitable for
Ireland’s biggest players, as a result of the current cost-cutting but also in future; few expect the Irish economy to rebound quickly from the looming downturn, and
that will have consequences for sport.
So too, of course, will social distancing requirements, and packed-out evenings at Aviva Stadium seem an awfully long way away.
These factors will be reflected in the deals made with players in future, and this could, in turn, have consequences if a big club in France is interested in a Test star.
Should the Top 14 heavyweights retain the financial power to offer big contracts, then it could be very difficult for Irish players offered reduced terms to stay here, to resist.
There is only so much compensation in a top-class strength and conditioning system, after all.
However, what could help the IRFU’s position is the effect the pandemic has had on the French giants. In May, for instance, Montpellier were said to be interested in signing South Africa’s brilliant flanker, Pieter-Steph du Toit.
The salary was reported to be €1.2million a year, for three years.
Montpellier are owned by a billionaire, Mohed Altrad.
‘I’m interested in Du Toit, but until now I haven’t had any contact with him,’ said Altrad. ‘And right now the moment isn’t right to talk about recruitment.’
‘Transfers, recruitment are pretty much at a stop,’ a senior official at Stade Francais said around the same time.
The best French clubs retain serious financial heft, compared to their English peers who are in various states of disrepair, and being owned by a billionaire does offer a certain amount of protection from the buffeting of financial ill winds.
However, as doubts remain about when rugby restarts and vital issues like crowd size, and as the world economy plunges, even the most extravagant of the Top 14 superpowers are exercising caution.
That could prove a blessing for the likes of the IRFU, as they try and husband precious playing resources.
Keeping talent on reduced terms is a difficult business, but it helps if the lure of foreign leagues is dulled by circumstances that spill into every aspect of life in every country on the planet.