It was 3 years
It was financially very advantageous to play international football for many years. Match fees would boost your income a bit back in the days before the mega bucks arrived.
You got £50 per game in the 1970s to play and international game, that would double many players income for the week.
And it still is, when Luke Fitzgerald was particularly critical of mercenaries it was in part because project players had cost him a good few quid. I mentioned Caoilin Blade earlier, he is probably on less than €100k with Connacht and is close to his peak years. A few Irish caps would increase his earnings greatly, but instead it’s a Kiwi who is collecting.
Stephen kerns behind him in connacht is also top class. Started the WC final under 20s when ireland got there.
I was talking about soccer players. You are kidding yourself if you think that granny rule players were not financially motivated. Jack Grealish would have played for Ireland if it had been 1988 and not waited around until his mid 20s to maybe get a cap for England.
Luke Fitzgerald can have whatever opinion he wants, he also had his own personal motivations. 3 years is enough to get a passport in some circumstances in some countries. 3 years in rugby is at least 2 professional contracts in most cases and a significant amount of a short professional life for people. They then will not get picked if they move on after, meaning their roots are far more settled here than some fella who flies in for a few training camps a year.
I always preferred 5 years as I think it removed the chances of predatory poaching of youngsters but have no issue with people choosing to move abroad generally.
They have no roots here at all, sure the only 3 project players capped by Ireland in the past 10 years that are no longer employed by the IRFU no longer live in Ireland.
I don’t know how you have concluded that the 5 year rule removes the chance of predatory poaching of youngsters, havent the IRFU reacted to it by bringing in teenagers from abroad. The reality is most countries don’t abuse the residency rule, it is the IRFU and the SRU that have been exploiting it shamelessly.
Its entirely different to the granny rule, the majority of the Tongan and Samoan squads at the last World Cup qualified under the granny rule but they considered themselves to be representing their ‘home’ country, as do many of the international footballers who benefit from it.
A solution that may work is any tier 1 nation player would have to be a. Born in said country b. A Parent that is a citzen c. Being a resident before their 13th birthday d. Being capped at underage level for that country. 2 of the 3 b,c or d should be sufficient to qualify, this removes poaching from smaller nations and discourages project players.
From tier 2 and 3 nations 5 year resident rule can just apply unless its becoming abused.
Again it is a small sport internationally compared to soccer and the above rules wont discriminate against genuine people who want to play for the country they grew up in our historical affiliation
No need to make it too complicated at all, just a rule that a player cannot qualify through residency for any country other than the one he got his first professional contract in would sort most of it. Someone like Adeolokun who used to be at Connacht would fail under your criteria, but he should be perfectly entitled to play for Ireland. The reality is almost every player who uses the rule comes from NZ or SA, very few players are poached from the smaller nations. The other simple solution is the IRFU could just have a bit of pride in itself and stop giving caps to mercenaries.
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Agreed on Adeolokun, the rules can be adjusted to take into account cases like that, maybe change the age or add another for certain amount of secondary education in a country etc. What your saying with contracts is better than the current system but still open for abuse. Munster signed knox from SA, he arrived 3 days before the rule changed from 3 years to 5 years. He only finished the SA equivalent of the leaving the week before. Under your suggestion Ireland will still abuse it. A rule is needed ensure that nations aren’t poaching from schools or country’s without the means for the pro game like the Pacific Islands. Its a complicated problem tbf
Look over there. Look over there.
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Deary deary me.
Well it is. Just because you hate the country that you’re a migrant to doesn’t mean everyone else is.
This cunt
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The lack of self awareness from these rugby lads is gas. They’ll be running seminars on “winning big knock out games” soon.
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They killed the fucking club game 
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Shure the Dubs have already copied the policy of central contracts
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Sounds like he did the basic one day foundational course and is claiming its a Level 1 award.
There’s also a reason rugby fixtures aren’t organised on a local basis.
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James Lowe will be a serious addition to the Ireland team. Jameson Gibson-Park will not be much of an addition at all, he’s not even a guaranteed starter for Leinster if Luke McGrath is fit. Also his name irks me.
Sounds like he was named after a playground