‘You want me to name the guys we’re after?’

WHILE professionalism is now well entrenched in rugby, John Kelly’s role for Munster Rugby has progressed from a decade as a paid player until the Ireland wing’s retirement in 2007 to that of a volunteer, albeit one a chair of a PGC responsible for the recruitment and retention of players as well as the hiring of the coaching staff.

This past week’s kerfuffle over JJ Hanrahan’s future has underlined the difficulties facing the Irish provinces in retaining some of their brightest assets when French and English clubs are luring them overseas with lucrative contract offers. Kelly and his committee, which also numbers Munster chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald, head coach Anthony Foley, team manager Niall O’Donovan, past branch presidents John Hartery and Denis Kelliher and former Shannon and Munster forward Andrew Thompson, also have find a way to successfully negotiate the increasingly complex global transfer market in search of that elusive marquee signing.

It’s all a far cry from the late 1990s when young Kelly was making his way in the game as a fledgling pro.