LEINSTER’S FINANCES HAVE been a big point of discussion following their two Champions Cup wins over the past two weekends.
Ulster head coach Dan McFarland and Leicester boss Richard Wigglesworth have alluded to Leinster’s budget after their defeats, with the Tigers supremo saying that “the gulf is in what you have available to spend.”
Leinster head Leo Cullen and senior coach Stuart Lancaster both pointed to the province’s coaching work as being key to their improvement when asked about the comments.
Speaking on today’s episode of The 42 Rugby Weekly Extra - a podcast available to subscribers of The 42 - former Leinster and Ireland hooker Bernard Jackman answered a listener question wondering whether Leinster are being too defensive about their financial and population advantages.
“Leo’s doing a phenomenal job but I am surprised that either he doesn’t understand the significance of the budget Leinster have or because he’s never had an inferior budget, or he’s just trying to take away the pressure from Leinster, which would be a smart tactic,” said Jackman, who has coached Grenoble and the Dragons.
“I think the way he’s framing it that it’s all about coaching is only antagonising people more, to be honest. It’s getting his own Leinster fans up and they support that.
“The reality is that if Leinster’s budget isn’t the biggest in the competition, it’s one of the top two.
“Leinster do have the best budget in this competition. Leinster have the best players. And they’ve done a huge amount to develop those players themselves and they are very well-coached. There’s a great culture there and great leadership.
“Leo and Stuart and all the coaches have done a phenomenal job but to try and say that the coaches in Leinster work harder than other coaches… that’s not true. But I can understand why Leo would feel that. He has amassed a wonderful set of coaches.
“Who else has the budget to put that staff together as well? Robin McBryde could be a head coach in Wales or anywhere else probably, he’s vastly experienced. Andrew Goodman coming from the Crusaders, could he be a head coach somewhere? Yeah, no doubt.
“Leo and Stuart, very unusual to have two head men to a certain extent. Obviously, Stuart would be very expensive and rightly so, he has done a great job. So that’s the reality of it.
“I think Leinster fans should just own it and say, ‘This is our team.’ There’s no problem, there’s no salary cap in this competition. I understand why Wigglesworth and McFarland are frustrated and want to get that point made, it’s probably the reaction to that.
“For some reason, some people don’t want to accept that Leinster have a good budget. That’s what I can’t understand.
“If you take the front row at the weekend: Tadhg Furlong, Dan Sheehan, Andrew Porter, Cian Healy, Michael Ala’alatoa, and John McKee. John McKee wouldn’t be expensive but what does that cost in terms of salary?
“I’d say you’re looking at €1.5 million, no doubt. Michael Ala’alatoa is a tighthead prop, foreign player, quarter of a million at least. Tadhg Furlong, I know that a couple of years ago, Northampton were throwing €800,000-odd at him. So if he’s on less than half a million, his agent needs to go back to the table.
“The reality is that they deserve it because they’re absolutely brilliant players but if Leinster’s front row from that match are €1.5 million, then you start to work through the second rows: James Ryan, Jason Jenkins, Ross Molony… you ain’t getting change out of €600,000 or €700,000 there.
“I just think we should accept it and say it’s brilliant that we have a structure that can allow us to develop our own players, and I know there’s the demographics, but when they get them into Leinster, they make them better and we’ve seen them help other provinces as well.
“Ulster are benefitting from Leinster’s development pathways, Connacht and Munster have benefitted as well to a certain extent.
“There’s nothing wrong with saying we’ve worked hard to create this, there’s a lot of talented coaches, but we also have a system whereby when we create an international player, that allows us to get funding from the union because they want central contracts.”
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