The UAFC

Does this mean that the professional game board is no longer in control of signings and they have handed all over to someone who got kicked out of his own country's job?

Very hard to find any other explanation Rooster, seems absolutely crazy that the provinces are effectively being told they do not need players in the positions they know themselves to be weak in.

We all know who and what pays the bills but unless this one man recruitment office gives rational reasons why certain players may not be signed, it is going to create enormous discontent.

Strange that an NIQ pen-pusher can stop star NIQ rugby players from playing here.

Sacked by the Brumbies after a title winning season in a player revolt

Sacked by Auckland Blues for being a brad pitt coach (Pat Lam took over)

Told where to go when applying for Oz job, appointed as high performance director and forced out after 10 weeks

Basically the S15 franchises hated how he would not let the senior squads train with the academy
He also demanded to be allowed to select the Oz S15 head coaches

Finally rumour has it he calls you, you don't call him, more to say you call him and he wont answer until he needs to talk to you

As I have been trying to explain for about 18 months, he calls all the shots in relation to the professional game including Payne to 13, Henderson into the second row and now this. The last time the IRFU allowed one man to become all powerful we watched an excellent coach (EOS) morph into a mini despot(EOS) . This chump hasn't even got a decent coaching pedigree to start with but has a track record of being a truculent git.

When this happened with Moore and Munster it was all over everything. We find out about this on a rumour thread. Fit should be having a bloody stroke over this but sure it's not the Ulster way.

Our back row is dying on its Brennan and the cavalry ain't about to come riding over the hill. How is this in anyone's best interest? Who would Vito be keeping from the team given we already have a back row NIQ? Makes zero sense and he needs called on it.

The logical conclusion to this complete gabshites approach is just scrap all foreigners and go back to representative provinces, seeing as we don't appear to be allowed to sign world class players in positions of need. What's the bloody point anymore. Let's just install this dick as the CEO of the 4 provinces which he effectively seems to be then we can have a direct pop at the glipe. This has feck well ruined my sunday.

I remember him taking a lot of stick in the Oz press when he was at the Brumbies. No one had a good word to say about him. Including the players.

Unfortunately I think this just epitomises the IRFUs attitude towards the provinces. They will never allow them to be anything other than subservient to D4. The International side is the main thing for them. The provinces just exist to provide players for the international side.

Hopefully the Mexican press can stir this up to the point where he has nowhere to go but home and the IRFU start to see sense.

Big Smoke Culchie wrote:Unfortunately I think this just epitomises the IRFUs attitude towards the provinces. They will never allow them to be anything other than subservient to D4. The International side is the main thing for them. The provinces just exist to provide players for the international side.

You don't just think it - it is their stated policy. Not quite word for word, but close enough! That bit's not a secret - they are quite open about it.

Deraless wrote:The logical conclusion to this complete gabshites approach is just scrap all foreigners and go back to representative provinces, seeing as we don't appear to be allowed to sign world class players in positions of need. What's the bloody point anymore. Let's just install this dick as the CEO of the 4 provinces which he effectively seems to be then we can have a direct pop at the glipe. This has feck well ruined my sunday.

You do know he wants players from the provinces to move between provinces so you could have say McCall, McCloskey moved to Munster to play if they was not getting regular starts !

I also hear he is stopping Irish Youth representive sides and going to concentrate on schools , as they are better coached etc , his plan not mine

And all this from a man who coached a team who wrote a united letter asking for his removal. And how bad were his team that year? Well not too bad, the Brumbies won Super Rugby that year, he remains the only coach to be sacked for winning the Super Rugby competition, I'd guess he may hold that record for time immetesticle.

If you care to dig a little deeper you will see other issues both spoken and hinted such as the Aussie under 20's some of whom were available but not inclined to play the following year, but who all recommitted when he was removed, abuse of the players was the reason. He appears to have the reputation as a deeply unpleasant man, though never having met him, I can't say if that impression is erroneous.

He did work with FibberJose back in his days in NZ where he coached Auckland for 4 years and seems to have a knack of landing jobs where coaches report to him. He bossed the High Performance Unit at Australia where he tried to grasp the responsibility for appointing the Super Rugby franchise head coaches, clearly likes to dominate proceedings.

Something of a chequered record but he does appear to have the ability to talk his way into high profile jobs, sounds like STA2, the worrying thing being that STA1 was a dickhead.

Speculation this morning in the French media has Mr Vito joining La Rochelle.

Having defended the Unions against the clubs through the whole Heineken debacle I find it doubly annoying that the IRFU are being equally obnoxious in the opposite direction.

Neill_M wrote:Speculation this morning in the French media has Mr Vito joining La Rochelle.

Well, I know of one Ulster fan who lives close by who will be happy to see Vito play for "his team".

The IRFU is in the process of eating itself. The sport as we knew it is dead and clowns like McCafferty have got their way.

The era of franchises and soulless matches is close.


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