Sevens players victims of potential IRFU money worries says Brian O'Driscoll

Irish Daily Mirror

23-05-2025

Brian O'Driscoll has speculated that the IRFU has cut the Men's Sevens squad because of potential financial issues "down the line".
The Leinster and Ireland great says that he has "total sympathy" for the plight of the players who were informed last week that the programme has been shut down.
They were subsequently told that they will be paid until the end of the year but the IRFU has been criticised by current and former Sevens stars and their families for this action.
"Almost immediately they got onto the HSBC series and they have had an awful lot of success," O'Driscoll told Off The Ball. "OK, they didn't manage to win one of the events but they've been in finals, they've been third in the World Cup a few years ago in Cape Town, they've been incredibly consistent.
"So I have total sympathy for their situation, how all of these players now all of a sudden look as though they're going to be out of a gig."
Former IRFU performance director David Nucifora, who founded the Sevens programme, has described the decision as "total nonsense".
O'Driscoll, however, adds that there's two sides to every story and he insists that Irish rugby chiefs - including Nucifora's successor, David Humphreys -must have a good reason for their decision. "I would imagine that the powers that be within the IRFU haven't taken this decision lightly," said O'Driscoll.
"My sense is that there's potential trouble looming down the line from a financial point of view and all this comes down to is securing financial stability over the course of the next five to 10 years.
"It's been very well documented about Wales, I think Scotland are not far away from being in a similar predicament or are certainly on the road there.
"Even a union like Ireland, who everyone thought was bulletproof, when you see an €18 and a half million loss last year, the implications of a World Cup year when you don't host those November Test matches having such a significant impact on the balance sheet, there's something not right.
"We're seeing clubs in the UK folding, we know that three of the four provinces are really struggling from a funding point of view, commercially not successful at the moment, they just haven't really recovered post-Covid.
"So I think the decision is a financial one and I feel for David Humphreys where he has come into the role and now he's barely got his feet under the desk and he has to deliver this sort of news.
"And it's not just because I know Humphs and know what sort of a guy he is. This is a bigger picture piece and it doesn't mean that everyone shouldn't feel worthy of feeling hard done by.
"The Union, the players, the public, because it's not a good news story or news day for anyone. I think many of us thought Sevens was going to be the route into the global market, it became an Olympic sport, an opportunity to achieve a medal of some sort - it's such a carrot to these players.
"But ultimately Sevens in Ireland is about being a feeder into 15, which runs the game and is the financial payer and the capital appreciator of rugby and you can't get away from that.
"I'd be interested to ask all the players who play Sevens, I bet you all of them would say Sevens isn't the final marker or where they want to reach. I bet you all of them see it as a segue into the 15s game.
"So it's very disappointing from their perspective because of the unbelievable work that they have put in, almost over-achieving based on the quality of global teams, but it's got to be a bigger picture piece around what is coming down the line. You can't get away from that and it's just trying to future proof the security of rugby in general in Ireland."