Lukey Fitz

[Mickado]

Eventually someone will post a rumour of a Leinster player going to Stade and eventually someone will be right.

A hundred monkeys at a hundred typewriters for a hundred years, and all that...

Ehhhh.... Stan Wright?

[johng]

Eventually someone will post a rumour of a Leinster player going to Stade and eventually someone will be right.

A hundred monkeys at a hundred typewriters for a hundred years, and all that...

Ehhhh.... Stan Wright?

Chris Whitaker? Conters (Via Toulon)

[honeyec]

NIQs don't count!

[IanD]

Reported in The Star on Monday (a colleague buys it).

Fitzgerald is an integral pert of the mix at Leinster but he revealed that he has considered playing outside of Ireland

''I'm in the middle of all that (contract negotiations) at the moment but I leave it to my agent'' He said. ''I absolutely love Leinster and love Ireland and all of my family are here. But there's always scope for the (moving) abroad. At some stage I think it would be a great experience. Not just rugby-wise but to test myself in a different environment.

Seems to be a bit of sabre rattling but maybe the IRFU will call his bluff.

[Darce]

Reported in The Star on Monday (a colleague buys it).

Fitzgerald is an integral pert of the mix at Leinster but he revealed that he has considered playing outside of Ireland

''I'm in the middle of all that (contract negotiations) at the moment but I leave it to my agent'' He said. ''I absolutely love Leinster and love Ireland and all of my family are here. But there's always scope for the (moving) abroad. At some stage I think it would be a great experience. Not just rugby-wise but to test myself in a different environment.

Seems to be a bit of sabre rattling but maybe the IRFU will call his bluff.

Pfffft....Star stole that from his appearance on iTalk Sport on Sunday....

[Donald]

Rumour has it today that a central IRFU contract that was being offered to Luke has been withdrawn. Does anyone know if there is any truth in this?

[blaker]

Sports section of teh Times today.

Talk of withdrawal of the central which had been at a 30% reduction of previous wages.

Comes with the huge health warning that all these stories do regarding agents/negotiations obviously but there seems a little bit more to this story. That its not Hugh Farrelly for one

Madigan has re-signed for 2 years though per teh same article

[Mackman15]

Can I be the first to say thank you Luke for your contribution.
Best of luck with the move, I hope it works out for him and he gets out of it whatever it is that he doesn't anticipate getting out of his Irish contract and playing here for LR.

He will no doubt accept that no one person is bigger than the team(s).

Next.

[cormac]

Am I the only one who's surprised he's still under consideration for a central contract?

[Blåränderna]

Newstalk reported this morning that contract negotiations have broken down between the IRFU and Luke as he was offered a reduced contract. I can see why he would be, but it could be the catalyst for him to move away. Apparently the Nadia Forde thing is false though, so there may not be a woman pulling the strings in the background.

[fourthirtythree]

Am I the only one who's surprised he's still under consideration for a central contract?

No. And add the entire Turnip contingent who are no doubt clamouring for Zebo to get it...

He is in no way a first choice starter for Ireland and should not be in consideration for a contract. FFS Darcy hasn't had one in a couple of years. Giving central contracts to out of favour players leads to weird inconsistencies like O'Callaghan starting for Ireland but not munster and players like Tuohy not getting a look in.

[Dave Cahill]

Am I the only one who's surprised he's still under consideration for a central contract?

I can't see why there would be any surprise. Hes one of only 4 Irish Qualified wingers currently playing in Ireland starting in the Heineken Cup. On top of which hes a two time Heineken Cup winner, experienced international and Lion, having won a grand slam and is only 24. Add to that the form he has shown this season and one wonders why the IRFU are even thinking about not offering him a new deal.

Of course, the IRFU are the same people who offered a national coach an extended contract immediately before a world cup failure. Twice.

The Union are great at running the game in Ireland, genuinely, they are fantastic.

What they aren't good at is running the professional game. Its no coincidence that the two worst teams on the Island are the two they have the most involvement with. Ireland and Connacht.

[ratpack]

Can't LR just offer him a contract with them?

I thought it had been said here earlier in the year that that was what Seanie had decided to go for instead of a central contract.

[AdamK]

Regardless of central contract or not, LR should be doing their upmost to keep Fitzy. He's our best winger by a country mile now, even though we have a wealth of talent there, he's our standout.

[ror]

To be honest it all comes back to the Tax situation. The IRFU have copped on that 200k is the same as 350k in France for example, so they have reduced accordingly. Although DOC signed a 3 year deal last summer with the IRFU, and it would make your eyes water if I told you what he got... Unbelievable, but thats what happens when you are teachers pet..

[AdamK]

In fairness tanning beds ain't cheap....

[Blåränderna]

In fairness tanning beds ain't cheap....

[desperado]

Am I the only one who's surprised he's still under consideration for a central contract?

No. And add the entire Turnip contingent who are no doubt clamouring for Zebo to get it...

He is in no way a first choice starter for Ireland and should not be in consideration for a contract. FFS Darcy hasn't had one in a couple of years. Giving central contracts to out of favour players leads to weird inconsistencies like O'Callaghan starting for Ireland but not munster and players like Tuohy not getting a look in.

Are you sure about that? (underlined). I thought D'Arcy was one of a few that signed up contracts 2 years ago with a reduction in salary of approx 30%.

[Golf Man]

Am I the only one who's surprised he's still under consideration for a central contract?

I can't see why there would be any surprise. Hes one of only 4 Irish Qualified wingers currently playing in Ireland starting in the Heineken Cup. On top of which hes a two time Heineken Cup winner, experienced international and Lion, having won a grand slam and is only 24. Add to that the form he has shown this season and one wonders why the IRFU are even thinking about not offering him a new deal.

He is not one of only 4 Irish qualified wingers playing in the HEC - Trimble, Zebo, Murphy/Hurley, Gilroy, O Halloran. Thats before you consider Earls and McF who could fall into that bracket

There is also no point in omitting Bowe from your statement - he is coming back next year with a central contract

The issue here is more that we don't know much about the central contracts - how many there are, what value etc. I was under the impression that there were originally about 30, but that they wanted to reduce that as a cost saving exercise - maybe they want to reduce the terms, so that they can offer some additional contracts?

The central contracts generally work but by their very nature there will always be a couple of issues - Darcy, Wallace and DOC stand out. They probably have to offer a minimum of 2 years to get the players to commit and they are taking a chance that the player will stay in form, be good enough etc for that duration. Its no different to signing a player - you take a chance - sometimes it works out (Howlett and Nacewa for example) and sometimes it doesn't (Sykes and Borlase)

What does stand out is that if there are about 25 central contracts, they will probably be at most 11 contracts for backs. If there are four for half backs, which I presume that there is (TOL probably had one, which will go to Murray, Reddan Sexton & ROG) thats only 7 to go around for the outside backs - Fitz is towards the bottom of those 7 rather than the top, and there will only be so many contracts for wingers ( I know he is versatile but he hasn't proved it) They are also going to have to balance out the younger players coming through (Zebo/Gilroy/Madigan/O Halloran/etc) who could be in line for contracts. All this while working with contracts that finish in different years etc. Its a delicate balancing act and I'm not suprised that Fitz is being offered reduced terms. Its a big call for him and the IRFU - they won't want to loose him but he is simply not that indispensible that they could be held to ransom either

He is one of the biggest disappointments from the last couple of years (relatively speaking obviously) - I really thought that he was going to develop into a real world class player - he simply hasn't and not sure if he ever will

[Exley]

The tax issue is not major - he could get a reasonably favourable treatment in France for a couple of years (would expect he'd be at about 30% effective tax over there with a bit of tax planning) and as long as he came back and finished his career here he would still get the 10 year tax break for sports players.

In terms of the last 2 seasons he has not added too much to the team, so you would wonder how big a loss he would be. Having said that, most of us believe he has the potential to be something special again (probably playing centre), so I would be sorry to see him go.