Performance now will decide earning capacity

FOLLOWING their stated intent ion some months ago, the IRFU has made major amendments to the contractual structure for members of the Ireland squad for next season.

In doing so, the IRFU has handed those players currently playing in England the incentive to return home and earn more than £80,000 next season if they can establish a regular place on the national team. The same incentive is there for Irish players to stay at home.

Prior to the start of this season, an Ireland squad was named and the homebased players in it earned a basic £30,000 plus a car. They were given match fees of £3,000 per game and a win bonus incentive of £1,000. The bonus had to be paid just once, for the victory over Wales and some members of the squad failed to establish even regular places on the Ireland A side. The lessons of that have been absorbed.

The premise on which the squad will operate next season has undergone radical alteration and players form will be crucial in relation to their earning capacity. Initially there will be four categories. For those who get into category one and establish regular places on the national team, there is the incentive to earn well over £70,000, plus win bonuses for internationals and European Cup matches elevating the earning capacity to over £80,000. With six internationals to be played, there will be £3,000 a match appearance money and a win bonus of £1,000.

With each province due to play a minimum of six matches in the European competitions this will give additional earnings of £4,800, even if they do not progress beyond the group stages, and there will also be win bonuses available.

That all adds up to a considerable increase on the earning capacity compared to this season. But the cushion of squad membership for so many that existed this season, irrespective of the level of performance, has been altered.

The retainers (see table) differ appreciably in the four categories from a basic £35,000 plus a car in category one down to £12 500 in category four which will be confined to players who do not wish to play rugby on a full time basis. In framing the contracts as they have, the IRFU is in effect making them performance related with regard to what category a player will be in. No doubt that has been prompted by what happened this season when some of the contracted players just did not perform to even a reasonable level.

The details of the new terms on offer to the players, whose agents met with the IRFU contracts subcommittee last Thursday, were announced by the union yesterday.

The president of the IRFU, Bobby Deacy, said: "I am issuing this statement to rectify the misleading impression created by the circulation of partial and incomplete information in relation to certain aspects of the players contracts as discussed at the initial meeting between the IRFU contracts subcommittee and agents for the members of the Irish squad.

"On the recommendation of the national management team, 23 Irish based contracts have been offered at this point with further contracts to be offered following Ireland's Development tour to New Zealand, bringing the number of contracts offered to 35-40."

What the union has not stated is in what category players have been placed. This will mean among other things that those who go to New Zealand later this month will have a considerable incentive to earn a place in category one. It has been made clear that the incentive is there for promotion within the categories.

Even those in category four can supplement their income by as much as £38,000 plus bonuses if they win regular places on the national team.

It should be pointed out, too, that in addition to the four categories as outlined, there will be other contracts offered by the IRFU on a tiered structure including those who are based in England and younger players in Ireland who are not in the senior squad. The union had stated that it hoped to contract up to 100 players based on a tiered structure.