IT IS A little disappointing when Niall Woods says that being a rugby agent isn’t exactly like Jerry Maguire. He does shout down the phone at coaches occasionally but as of yet, no client has demanded he scream ‘show me the money’ in a declaration of loyalty.
But while he hasn’t said that directly to one of his clients, that is Woods’ job as he tries to get one over on professional rugby teams and secure his people the best deal possible.
He represents cricketers and media members but rugby players fill out most of his stable. Jordi Murphy, Marty Moore and Rhys Ruddock are some of Woods’ bigger clients and he uses his knowledge of rugby player welfare – he was head of the Irish players association and won eight Ireland caps in the 90′s – to tend to their needs.
In 2011 he switched from helping players through the association to helping them behind the scenes but he didn’t instantly morph into rugby’s version of Ari Gold.
“I was involved in the players association in England and then I ran the Irish one for eight years,” Woods said.
“I just decided that I wanted to do something new and I had heard a few complaints about a few agents during my time at the players association and thought that I might be able to do a better job. It was hard at the beginning. I started in January of 2011 and I only had about six or seven clients then. I have a wife and children so I needed to make cutbacks. People think it is a very prestigious business where you make a lot of money but that is more in football or golf. There isn’t the same money in rugby.”
Slowly he grew his client base through word of mouth as players began to hear that Woods was getting good deals for his guys. Now he represents 34 people across different sporting fields.
Woods’ job is to maximise his clients’ earnings at the negotiating table and it can be tough to extract a hefty sum when you are dealing with professional teams and the IRFU.
He remembers, almost wistfully, that he got one contract done in two days. That is not the norm. Often negotiations can turn into a poker game that can go on for months.
It is important for Woods that he holds some decent cards.
“It isn’t easier if the player is a superstar but you know that you have options then,” Woods said.
“If it is a young player, the team might think they have another guy who can fill the same roll and they might say, ‘take it or leave it’. I need to make sure my players have other options because then your hand is stronger. Clubs are clever and they will usually know whether or not a player has other options.”
Woods obviously has a big connection with Irish rugby but he doesn’t work for the IRFU – it is not his job to keep players in the country. He lays out the deals that have been offered and lets his players decide. Most stay but some, like James Coughlan who is currently with Pau in France, decide a change is for the best.
Woods says that if a player wants to earn the most money, Japan might be the best place to go – ‘ironically you earn the most and play the least’ – but adds that Japanese clubs aren’t really in the market for Irish players at the moment.
As well as maintaining his current client base, Woods is always on the lookout for future business. But that doesn’t mean machine-gunning business cards into the hand of every promising schoolboy player in the country.
“People always ask me if I’m always in Donnybrook watching schools games but it is very hard to tell whether a schoolboy will be a good professional,” Woods said.
“I think at around 19 or 20 you have a much better idea because they will have spent a few years in the academy and you will see what their work ethic is like.”
Woods says that he doesn’t try to influence players on where to play their rugby but thinks that the argument of not moving to France to avoid injury doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.
“People say ‘don’t go to France, they play too much rugby’,” Woods said.
“They do play more rugby but there’s no research to say that it is causing more injuries. Sean O’Brien could have gone to Toulon. He didn’t and he has barely played since. You can get injured here and get injured there.”
