Munster want 'big name' star but IRFU policy making recruitment difficult

Having retained their own marquee players this year Munster are still eager to recruit a top-level foreign player who can make a “big impact”. But a former Ireland international believes the province's hands are being tied by IRFU policy.

John Kelly, the former Ireland winger, now sits on the province’s Professional Game Board (PGB) and in an interview published on Munster’s website he underlined that retaining Conor Murray, Keith Earls and Zebo is seen as a huge success even if supporters are eager to see fresh talent brought in from the outside.

However, despite legal concerns raised three years ago about the IRFU’s proposal to restrict Non Irish Qualified (NIQ) players to just one per position across all four provinces, Kelly acknowledged that the policy was in place and as a result Munster’s hands have been tied when it comes to recruitment.

“You have to look at our restrictions, there’s a perception out there that we can just sign a player no matter what his nationality or wherever he’s from which isn’t the case,” said Kelly in regard to the four NIQ players and one project player allowed per province by the union.

“If you have Ruan Pienaar in Ulster it means that the other provinces can’t sign a NIQ No 9 so there’s a restriction on you straight away that you have to go after Irish players or players who can become Irish for the No 9 slot.

“The IRFU has a big input on who you can sign and in what positions you can sign. If you’re looking for what we call the marquee player, and Frankie Saili would be in that marker, he’s an All Black, we would have to go and get permission to sign a centre and in particular a 13 and because of that no other province don’t have the permission to sign a 13.”

It was thought that the union’s plan to use the position restriction had been quietly put back in the drawer after complaints from the provinces and the concerns about whether it contravened Article 45 of the Treaty on the Functioning European Union which relates to direct and indirect discrimination based on the nationality of workers.

Kelly also said that while the provinces are trying to work alongside David Nucifora, the IRFU performance director, in order to facilitate the union’s own succession plan for the national team, Munster are constantly on the look out for that big-name player who can be a game changer in the red jersey.

“We’re always looking at our own succession plan and asking where do we need something special or a marquee player because when you go after a marquee player you’re not just filling a gap with somebody who’s slightly better than an Irish player, we want to go out into the market and get a player who is significantly going to impact our team,” said Kelly.

Resigning Earls, Murray and Zebo was a big coup in Kelly’s eyes, particularly when you take into account the TV money that the French and English clubs now have and the fact that the Euro is struggling against Sterling.

“For me it was a real success of the year that we were able to retain all our marquee players. There’s always a bit of pressure but this year we definitely got the results we wanted in terms of the national contracts,” said Kelly. “Then you have the provincial contracts where Simon Zebo was an example of someone we wanted to keep, again he’s a very attractive player in the market and obviously had offers to go elsewhere.”

While Kelly also explained that the coaches’ wishlist of potential recruits is often difficult to fulfil, it was up to the province’s academy to continue to produce talent that can on go and represent Munster, Ireland and the Lions and he tipped former Cork hurler Darren Sweetnam to follow the path taken by the likes of Murray, Zebo and Earls.

“That’s what you want your academy to do, to accelerate the development of a player and to get him on the pitch for Munster,” said Kelly. “On Sunday we saw Darren Sweetnam, who I thought had a fantastic game individually, he’s a guy who didn’t come the traditional rugby route and needed time in the academy to accelerate his development and he can go on and become a key player for Munster.”