Easterby blasts IRFU’s new foreign player plans

LEINSTER manager Guy Easterby has joined the chorus of criticism directed at the IRFU’s new policy on player succession.

From the 2013-2014 season on, the IRFU will only allow one foreign player per position to play in this country across the three provinces — Leinster, Munster and Ulster — but Easterby says he has no idea how this new ruling will work in practice.

There’s bound to be a scenario eventually when more than one province will covet a foreign player for the same position, and Easterby is in no doubt that will cause friction.

“There has been no talk about how it would work,” he says. “If that’s the way they are going to go about it, who gets first pick?

“Is the best way to do it to draw it out of a hat and sees who comes first, second or third?

“There’s more than one province that have got players contracted through to 2014 that are not Irish qualified so I don’t understand how the process even begins.

“It’s one of the things which we didn’t get a chance to discuss, it would have been something we would have brought up if we were involved in some meaningful discussions on everything that came out.”

The IRFU’s new policy will effectively reduce the number of foreign players that the provinces can have on their books by one.

Instead of having five foreign players and one special project — a player who in time will be eligible to play for Ireland — the provinces will now have to adhere to a 4+1 policy.

Easterby says the provinces have no major gripe with that limitation, and are far more frustrated by the small print in the new policy, such as the directive that when a foreign player’s contract elapses, he will have to be moved on and replaced in that position by an Irish player.

“It is not as though we can go out and sign who we want, it is 4+1 with all these add-ons, and they were add-ons that weren’t discussed with us so I think that is the frustrating thing.

“I think the lack of discussion is a major issue, and you have seen that right across the provinces. I know that Ulster mentioned it and we have been in long discussions with Munster as well, and that is the general feeling.”

Easterby says he’s fully supportive of the IRFU’s ambition to make the Irish international team stronger, but believes if the new policies weaken the provinces they’ll have the opposite effect entirely.

“We absolutely want Ireland to be successful, but if you ask anyone, any player, they’ll say if the provinces are successful it definitely has a knock-on effect on the national team.

“If you are turning up after ERC games into the Six Nations and one or two provinces have got through to the quarter-finals, then the players are feeling good about their game and they drag along the others.

“The real scary thing is that none of you are qualifying and you are all sitting there worrying about your rugby.”

Meanwhile, Munster’s youngsters will get another opportunity to shine after coach Tony McGahan named a relatively inexperienced 31-man squad for tomorrow night’s clash with Ulster at Ravenhill (7.05pm).

Back row Peter O’Mahony’s jaw injury keeps him sidelined while centre Danny Barnes is included but is likely to be rested after 11 starts and three substitute appearances this term.

With six front-line players — Donncha O’Callaghan, Paul O’Connell, Donnacha Ryan, Conor Murray, Ronan O’Gara and Keith Earls — ruled out by the IRFU’s player management policy, the likes of Ian Nagle, Paddy Butler and Luke O’Dea will be hoping to get the nod in their absence when the starting XV is announced at lunchtime today.

Meanwhile, Leinster and Connacht are both monitoring a number of injury concerns ahead of their New Year’s Day showdown in Galway.

Wing Fionn Carr notched a try in Leinster’s 42-13 defeat of Ulster on Monday but limped off with an ankle injury and is rated their biggest doubt, along with second row Steven Sykes (knee).

Mat Berquist (knee) and Dominic Ryan (ankle) are both still on course for January returns as they stepped up their respective rehabilitations in recent weeks.

Six Connacht players are nursing injuries following Monday night’s 24-9 loss away to Munster and were unable to train at the Sportsground yesterday.

Flanker Dave Gannon, tight-head Rodney Ah You and scrum-half Paul O’Donoghue are all struggling.

As well as the injured trio, Connacht trained yesterday without Johnny O’Connor, Eoin Griffin and Ethienne Reynecke after a bruising clash in Thomond Park.

Dave Nolan (broken leg), Andrew Browne (Achilles), James Loxton (knee) and Mark McCrea (hamstring) also miss out as Connacht try to end an 11-match losing run.

MUNSTER squad (v Ulster): J Murphy, D Hurley, S Scanlon, L O’Dea, D Barnes, S Zebo, I Keatley, D Williams, T O’Leary, T Gleeson, W Chambers, S Deasy, L Mafi, M Horan, W du Preez, J Ryan, S Archer, D Kilcoyne, BJ Botha, D Fogarty, S Henry, D Varley, B Holland, M O’Driscoll, I Nagle, N Ronan, Dave O’Callaghan, T O’Donnell, D Leamy, P Butler, J Coughlan. Unavailable due to IRFU regulations: P O’Connell, D Ryan, Donncha O’Callaghan, C Murray, R O’Gara, K Earls.

Picture: Fionn Carr a doubt for Leinster's Connacht clash