Latest news with #DavidHumphreys
Irish Daily Mirror
27-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Daily Mirror
The ban on Ireland players moving abroad is out of date and self-defeating
IRFU Performance Director David Humphreys is adamant the IRFU will not be granting permission to any players of interest to the Ireland international side to play abroad any time who move to play in another jurisdiction are and will remain automatically ruled out of at a time when double-World Cup winning Rassie Erasmus, who was all too familiar with the Ireland rule from his time at Munster, opened up Springbok selection on returning to South on the back of former Ireland coach Joe Schmidt, who also had first-hand knowledge of the Ireland system, having just opened up selection from foreign clubs for while slashing the Mens and Womens Sevens programmes, putting circa 30 athletes out of their full-time jobs - to make a saving of € while, for example, Leinster have 12 Lions, 12 touring with Ireland this summer, three front line foreigners, three significant players on the injury list and seven U20s starting against Georgia this is the log-jam when the province is at 'full-strength' it doesn't have first team jerseys for 2025 Six Nations stars such as Jimmy O'Brien, Jamie Osborn, Ciaran Frawley, Jack Boyle, Ronan Kelleher, Gus McCarthy, Thomas Clarkson, Ryan 2025 Ireland A internationals Tommy O'Brien, Max Deegan, Stephen Smith, Alex Soroka, Fintan Gunne and Harry in the interest of bringing through young talent, the time has come to release a valve at Leinster and the other provinces; allow certain players in certain categories (say over 32 years-of-age and, say, over 33 caps move abroad without being ruled out of Ireland in the interest of being morally right-on employers, the money saved by taking 4/5 players off the wage bill - €1.2m approximately - could have been used to keep the Sevens/Olympics programme in place - saving 30 dream-chasers jobs in the up. When this is put to IRFU Performance Director David Humphreys as a way of finding €1.2m, saving the Sevens/Olympics jobs, and helping with the log-jam of young players, he disagrees with me completely... "No," he says, leaving a pause and bringing a silence over the room such as when Mick Jagger announces 'now here's a sing we wrote recently..."No. We've talked about the competitiveness of our provinces not being where we want it to be if we were to let some of our top players go. "It's a question that we've talked about internally, we've discussed it internally."But actually when you look at the Irish system, one of the great strengths is our player welfare, our player management. "We want all our players playing into their early-to-mid-thirties, we want to give them every chance and we believe by what we have in each of our provinces by how we manage them throughout the course of the season. "That gives them the best opportunity to have a much longer career than perhaps if you let them go and play in other leagues. "For me at the minute, that is not something that's up for discussion. up for discussion. "We've considered it, we believe that it's a fundamental strength of the Irish rugby system and believe it will continue to be so."I don't expect the IRFU Performance Director to change my mind on this soon but I'd like to see those 30 jobs in sport restored and I'd like for 19/20/21/22 year-olds being given chances to breakthrough at Champions Cup and international I still secretly think Jordie Barrett got to spy on us for six months, was taking notes, and consequently the All Blacks were not damaged in the least but will actually benefit from his spell in should do the same; send front-rows to France, second-rows to South Africa, back-rows to New Zealand and outside backs to have them report back! Meanwhile in a week where Rassie Erasmus said he wanted three players for every position before he chooses his treble-attempting RWC 2027 squad... I'd like to see half-a-dozen more Irish youngsters being given their chance to impress - our current base is, as is repeatedly shown at Rugby World Cups, too thin.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Leinster 'can never be too strong'
Irish Rugby's performance director David Humphreys says the union must make three of their four provincial sides "more competitive" to remain in the upper echelons of the sport. Ireland are currently ranked third in the world and have won the Six Nations Triple Crown in three of the past four seasons. Advertisement United Rugby Championship (URC) winners Leinster, however, consistently provide the bulk of Andy Farrell's national side with Ulster in particular struggling for Test representation in recent seasons. "When I first came in, there was a lot of talk around Leinster [being] too strong. In a high-performance system, a team can never be too strong," said Humphreys, who has been in position since June last year. "Ultimately, the goal is to be the very, very best. They are very close to being in that position. "But the challenge that I believe we in the IRFU [Irish Rugby Football Union] have, and in my role, is to make the other three more competitive." Advertisement There are currently 12 Leinster players in Farrell's British and Irish Lions squad touring Australia while another, Munster's Tadhg Beirne, came through the Leinster school system. It is at such an underage level where Humphreys believes the IRFU must start their attempts to redress the imbalance. While the likes of Jamison Gibson-Park and James Lowe are examples of clever recruitment under World Rugby's previous three-year residency rule, Dublin schools have provided the most reliable production line of talent for Leinster and subsequently Ireland. Humphreys, capped 72 times by Ireland, is keen to mirror that standard in Ulster, Munster and Connacht schools. Advertisement "The challenge becomes how we close that gap in the provinces? We can do it a little bit by recruitment, by being a little bit more flexible in terms of who they can recruit and when they can recruit, but that's a short-term solution," he said. "I fundamentally believe, based on my experience, what we've seen working through the Irish system is that if we can support players below what is traditionally considered the pathway, going into the schools and putting directors of rugby in there or supporting schools in a way they feel is necessary to improve their rugby programme, we can get a longer-term fix which will ultimately improve the provinces and ultimately support Ireland." The union's decision to axe their men's sevens programme was made last month with Humphreys saying the financial savings will be invested into provincial "pathways" and the women's game. "That was part of the decision to finish the men's sevens programme. It wasn't simply a financial decision, it was a performance decision based on [being] able to reallocate the resources in our system," he added. Advertisement "The budgets are not being cut. We've made a performance decision based on the financial reality of the world that rugby is in, not just the IRFU but the wider world, and to say we're going to take a longer-term solution which is [that] the money we're going to save from finishing the men's sevens programme is going entirely into investing in the three provincial pathways and the women's game." 'We all recognise that Ulster are in a rebuilding phase' The struggles outside of Leinster have been most pronounced at Ulster, who have not won any silverware since Humphreys was part of their Celtic League title in 2006. The 53-year-old was also captain when his native province beat Colomiers to be crowned champions of Europe in 1999. Next season, however, they will not play in the top tier competition for the first time since it was introduced in 1995. Advertisement Australian international Angus Bell and Northampton back row Juarno Augustus have been recruited to strengthen a side that finished 14th in the URC last season, while Humphreys said head coach Richie Murphy has the "pedigree" to turn things around. "If you look at their age profile, they're very young and there are lots of very good players there, the key is how quickly can we get them to the point that they are competitive again," he said. "You've seen a couple of signings come in that will definitely strengthen them, but again it's more about making sure that the decisions we make now around the coaching [and] recruitment have a short-term impact to address the issues that you have, but we're also making decisions that make sure that in five years' time, 10 years' time, those provinces are all competing at the level we want. "The expectation in Ireland now is that we have four provinces that are competitive, and an Irish team is on top of the world."
BBC News
27-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Leinster 'can never be too strong'
Irish Rugby's performance director David Humphreys says the union must make three of their four provincial sides "more competitive" to remain in the upper echelons of the are currently ranked third in the world and have won the Six Nations Triple Crown in three of the past four Rugby Championship (URC) winners Leinster, however, consistently provide the bulk of Andy Farrell's national side with Ulster in particular struggling for Test representation in recent seasons. "When I first came in, there was a lot of talk around Leinster [being] too strong. In a high-performance system, a team can never be too strong," said Humphreys, who has been in position since June last year. "Ultimately, the goal is to be the very, very best. They are very close to being in that position."But the challenge that I believe we in the IRFU [Irish Rugby Football Union] have, and in my role, is to make the other three more competitive." There are currently 12 Leinster players in Farrell's British and Irish Lions squad touring Australia while another, Munster's Tadhg Beirne, came through the Leinster school is at such an underage level where Humphreys believes the IRFU must start their attempts to redress the imbalance. While the likes of Jamison Gibson-Park and James Lowe are examples of clever recruitment under World Rugby's previous three-year residency rule, Dublin schools have provided the most reliable production line of talent for Leinster and subsequently capped 72 times by Ireland, is keen to mirror that standard in Ulster, Munster and Connacht schools. "The challenge becomes how we close that gap in the provinces? We can do it a little bit by recruitment, by being a little bit more flexible in terms of who they can recruit and when they can recruit, but that's a short-term solution," he said."I fundamentally believe, based on my experience, what we've seen working through the Irish system is that if we can support players below what is traditionally considered the pathway, going into the schools and putting directors of rugby in there or supporting schools in a way they feel is necessary to improve their rugby programme, we can get a longer-term fix which will ultimately improve the provinces and ultimately support Ireland."The union's decision to axe their men's sevens programme was made last month with Humphreys saying the financial savings will be invested into provincial "pathways" and the women's game."That was part of the decision to finish the men's sevens programme. It wasn't simply a financial decision, it was a performance decision based on [being] able to reallocate the resources in our system," he added."The budgets are not being cut. We've made a performance decision based on the financial reality of the world that rugby is in, not just the IRFU but the wider world, and to say we're going to take a longer-term solution which is [that] the money we're going to save from finishing the men's sevens programme is going entirely into investing in the three provincial pathways and the women's game." 'We all recognise that Ulster are in a rebuilding phase' The struggles outside of Leinster have been most pronounced at Ulster, who have not won any silverware since Humphreys was part of their Celtic League title in 2006. The 53-year-old was also captain when his native province beat Colomiers to be crowned champions of Europe in 1999. Next season, however, they will not play in the top tier competition for the first time since it was introduced in international Angus Bell and Northampton back row Juarno Augustus have been recruited to strengthen a side that finished 14th in the URC last season, while Humphreys said head coach Richie Murphy has the "pedigree" to turn things around."If you look at their age profile, they're very young and there are lots of very good players there, the key is how quickly can we get them to the point that they are competitive again," he said. "You've seen a couple of signings come in that will definitely strengthen them, but again it's more about making sure that the decisions we make now around the coaching [and] recruitment have a short-term impact to address the issues that you have, but we're also making decisions that make sure that in five years' time, 10 years' time, those provinces are all competing at the level we want."The expectation in Ireland now is that we have four provinces that are competitive, and an Irish team is on top of the world."
RTÉ News
27-06-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
'There's a better way of doing it' - David Humphreys disappointed at 'rushed' Sevens announcement
David Humphreys has expressed his regret for how the plan to disband the men's Sevens programme was communicated, but is doubling down on the controversial decision. The IRFU announced last month that they would be withdrawing from the men's Sevens circuit with immediate effect, a decision which they said was necessary "to secure the long-term success of Irish Rugby". Humphreys, specifically, came under serious criticism from several members of last year's Irish Olympic Sevens squad, including former captain Harry McNulty and former World Sevens Player of the Year Terry Kennedy, as well as his predecessor at the IRFU, David Nucifora. It's believed the decision to axe the Sevens programme has freed up more than €1.2m annually for the IRFU to distribute elsewhere, although that figure has been disputed by McNulty and Kennedy, who claimed various sponsorship programmes were ensuring the programme was washing its grace financially. And Humphreys (below) says that money will now be used to supplement the women's game as well as Munster, Ulster and Connacht rugby, similar to how the provincial contributions to central contracts will also be funnelled to those provinces. "It wasn't simply a financial decision," he said of the end of the men's Sevens. "It was a performance decision based on: we have to be able to reallocate the resources in our system. The budgets are not being cut. Kevin Potts [IRFU chief executive] has said we can't continue to keep doing what we've always done. "So what that has meant is we've made a performance decision based on the financial reality of the world that rugby is in, not just the IRFU but the wider world, to say we're going to take a longer-term solution which is the money we're going to save from finishing the men's Sevens programme is going entirely into investing in the three provincial pathways and the women's game." The former Ireland out-half did accept criticism of how the decision was communicated, both to the current squad and to the wider public. The IRFU made their announcement on 14 May before they had spoken to the players in person, after their decision had become public. Humphreys says it was a regrettable way to inform the current squad, but that they are continuing to engage with the players affected. "We all know there is never a good way to deliver bad news, but there's a better way of doing it," he added. "We had been keeping all the stakeholders involved in the direction of travel, where we were getting to, we had kept some of our senior players, and Simon Keogh at Rugby Players Ireland were aware of the direction. So it didn't come as a surprise to any of the players. "However, the timing of it... yes, of course we were disappointed it had to be rushed out. We had a very clear plan in place which was after LA [leg of the World SVNS Series], the players had two weeks holidays and when they came back from holidays, we said we would give a presentation as to where both men's and women's sevens was going to go and while we knew were delivering bad news, why we wanted to be in control of it was acknowledging that the process hasn't been perfect and we said this to the players when we met. "We know the process hasn't been perfect but because of that what we're going to do is pay them to the end of their contracts, including the match fees and win bonusses for competitions they didn't go to, we paid them five months salaries as a lump sum payment, we extended their medical health insurance and we put into an education fund. "So, what we are saying to them was: 'Look, we know it hasn't been perfect, we are all really disappointed that it's had to come to this, but here's how we're going to help you transition out of it' "Some are going on trial into the provinces because we're trying to find a way to get them into the system, but ultimately to be rushed the way it was, was uncomfortable for us all and probably didn't help the wider reaction, than if it had been done in a much more controlled manner."
Irish Examiner
27-06-2025
- Sport
- Irish Examiner
Pack of Ireland Lions masks problems, but Humphreys eyes better balance
A British & Irish Lions touring party with the largest Irish contingent of players and coaches in its 137-year history and Leinster crowned URC champions suggests rugby in Ireland is rude health. Yet IRFU Performance Director David Humphreys is uncomfortable with that overview. There will be 11 Irishmen wearing the Lions' red jersey in their opening tour match in Australia on Saturday morning, when they face the Western Force in Perth, part of a record group within Andy Farrell's 38-man squad of 16 players more regularly seen in green. Leinster's URC title victory, secured earlier this month at Croke Park is another cause for optimism. Humphreys, though, is concerned about the gulf between the champions and the other three provinces. His decision to close down the men's sevens programme and redivert funds towards the men's player pathways in Connacht, Munster and Ulster, as well as accelerating the development of the women's game, is part of his strategy to close the gap. While the recent announcement to increase provincial contributions to centrally contracted IRFU contracts, most of which are held by Leinster players, will also see a net gain for the other three provinces. While recognising the decision to axe men's sevens was a difficult and unpopular one, Humphreys, who succeeded David Nucifora as Performance Director last summer, is adamant there must be a better balance across the four professional men's teams. "The biggest challenge we've got is that we have one province that is incredibly good at nearly everything,' Humphreys said this week. 'That's a huge credit to Shane (Nolan, CEO), Leo (Cullen, head coach), and Guy (Easterby, head of operations) for the work they've done with what you see on the pitch but also how they interact with the IRFU, certainly over the time I've been here, they have been great to deal with. So they've got a brilliant set-up. "When I first came in, there was a lot of talk around 'Leinster are too strong.' In a high-performance system, a team can never be too strong. Ultimately, the goal is to be the very, very best. They are very close to being in that position. "But the challenge I believe we in the IRFU have and in my role, is to make the other three more competitive. This year has definitely been a transition year. It's been a transition year because there's been a turnover in coaches, because two of our provinces in particular have had massive injury crises across the course of the season, so it's felt like a lot of things that could go wrong have gone wrong. "The challenge then becomes how we close that gap in the provinces. We can do it a little bit by recruitment, by being a little bit more flexible in terms of who they can recruit, when they can recruit, but that's a short-term solution. "To me, we've got to go, 'What is the longer-term solution?' I fundamentally believe, based on my experience, what we've seen working through the Irish system is that if we can support players below what is traditionally considered the pathway, going into the schools system and putting directors of rugby in there or supporting schools in a way they feel is necessary to improve their rugby programme, we can get a longer-term fix which will ultimately improve the provinces and ultimately support Ireland. "How are we going to do that? Well that was part of the decision to finish the men's sevens programme. It wasn't simply a financial decision. It was a performance decision based on, we have to be able to reallocate the resources in our system. The budgets are not being cut. (IRFU CEO) Kevin Potts has said we can't continue to keep doing what we've always done. 'So what that has meant is we've made a performance decision based on the financial reality of the world that rugby is in, not just the IRFU but the wider world, to say we're going to take a longer-term solution which is the money we're going to save from finishing the men's sevens programme is going entirely into investing in the three provincial pathways and the women's game.' Humphreys does not necessarily expect Leinster to be caught by their interprovincial rivals but he does believe the gap to them can be closed with the coaching teams now in place for next season, with Stuart Lancaster taking the reins at Connacht, Clayton McMillan set to move to Munster this summer, and Ulster's Richie Murphy having bolstered his backroom staff after a disappointing 2024-25 'I wouldn't look at it as a vision...' Humphreys said, 'what we've got in our strategic plan for the next four years is we want to create winning teams. 'Winning teams, it's about making them better. It's not about winning every league, it's not about winning every cup. That doesn't happen when you have four teams in the same competition. For me, what we have to do, we have to take small steps. You look back over the last three or four years, our provinces have been very competitive. 'I think this year is a blip for a number of reasons that were around changes in coaching teams, player injuries. I think with our recruitment we're going to have stronger squads next year. With the coaches we've brought in we're going to have strong coaching teams next year. That's going to allow us to close the gap. 'How long will that take? I don't know. But, ultimately, if Leinster keep pushing the boundaries but the other provinces keep working towards closing it, we're going to have a stronger national team and stronger provinces. 'The timeline is almost irrelevant, the challenge is to make sure we are closing the gap, and from an IRFU perspective that we're making the decisions which are right, to ensure that yes, the challenge is on the provinces to do what they need to do, but the challenge is on us as the governing body to make sure that we're supporting them to close that gap.'
