IRFU defends new rules on foreign signings

The Irish Rugby Football Union’s director of rugby Eddie Wigglesworth has defended the recent change in policy regarding foreign signings for Irish provincial sides amid disapproval from fans and coaches.

The new policy will restrict the amount of overseas players Irish provinces can sign with the aim of nurturing Irish talent for the benefit of the national team.

Munster, Leinster and Ulster will be collectively limited to just one non-Ireland qualified player per position as of the 2013-2014 season in the hope of harnessing home-grown talent by having at least two Irish players playing at the highest level in each position.

Leinster coach Joe Schmidt and his Ulster counterpart Brian McLaughlin have criticised the move and complained of the lack of consultation with the coaches but Wigglesworth believes the change will be to the benefit of Irish rugby.

"The IRFU have a responsibility to deliver for the national team," Wigglesworth said.

"Joe is not one of these guys who just takes a personal view in terms of what is best for him. He has a very holistic and long-term approach but, at the end of the day, he is only going to be here for four or five years.

"We have been around for 130 years and we have to be around successfully for another 130 years. We have to take a much wider scope of things.

“That is the key to this: a provincial coach will only look, with the best will in the world, two or three seasons forward because that's the landscape in terms of their contract. The national telescope, when it goes up, has got to look to the 2015 World Cup and 2019. That's the difference."

"The four guiding principles that we have down are non-negotiable. However, if there is a situation where a province is weak, either because of a range of injuries, or where we have sat down and identified that their succession strategy has been deficient and the consequence of which is they haven't got a second line player of the quality that would enable them to continue their current level of success in Europe, then obviously we would have to be quite pragmatic and adjust the policy within the framework."

The four guiding principles to deliver at least two experienced players in all 15 field positions (from Leinster, Munster and Ulster) for national selection are:

1 One non-Irish eligible (NIE) player only in each of the 15 field positions across the provinces of Leinster, Munster and Ulster e.g. one foreign player allowed across all three teams per position.

2 For the season 2013/14 and onwards, for any given position involving a contracted NIE player, a province will not be permitted to renew that NIE player contract or bring in a new NIE player into that same position in its squad.

3 All future provincial injury replacement players must be eligible for selection for Ireland.

4 All future provincial NIE player contracts will be position specific.