The reality of Tadhg Furlong's IRFU contract negotiations
Tadhg Furlong is in the final year of his contract and will soon have to decide his future. This decision will have a profound effect on his relationship with Ireland and Leinster, whom he has served with distinction for over a decade.
The tight-head, who will be celebrating his 32nd birthday in November, has been capped 78 times by Ireland and another seven for the Lions after Warren Gatland took on the 2017 tour to New Zealand and South Africa in 2021.
Furlong, who grew up in a farming family in Wexford, is closing in on 150 appearances for Leinster and is understood to be one of if not Ireland’s highest-paid player, picking up around €600,000 a season from his central contract.
But some very well-placed sources in Ireland have told us that this is likely to be as good as it will get and that contract offers from the IRFU begin to tail off once a player moves into their thirties.
IRFU Performance Director David Humphreys is unlikely to be any different from his predecessor, David Nucifora, and there won’t be any change to the policy that appears to have served them well.
“Furlong has had his biggest paycheck. I’m sure David Humphreys is trying to make sure they (contract offers) are not above a certain threshold,” our sources have told us.
So that leaves Furlong at a crossroads about what to do next. Does he stay in Ireland but accept a pay cut, or does he look elsewhere, France or even Japan, where he would get a decent payday but would end his international career.
Furlong’s CV is doing the rounds in France, and there have been suggestions that he has opened talks with Bayonne, which one of our contacts across the Channel believes to be somewhat wide of the mark.
“I have no doubts that he is looking in France as a way of stuffing the offer that is coming his way, but Bayonne, even if they were interested, which I’m not sure they are, won’t match what he is currently earning in Ireland.”
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The Maori people arrived in NZ about 2000 years ago. By your tenuous standards they must be foreigners too.
Go to comments3 reasons it won't work:
1. URC teams are mostly managed by regions/nations, with the main purpose being to groom players for the national teams, Premiership teams are clubs, with the main purpose of turning a profit.
2. What happens to South Africa and even more confusingly, Italy? I guess the Saffa teams would go back to Super Rugby, but for a variety of reasons, they don't want that. And where the heck do you put the 2 Italian teams? France? Their own set up (they don't have nearly enough talent to field it)?
3. URC teams don't need it. The URC has been a big success. Save for maybe the Welsh teams, none of them want it.
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