Mark Mostyn wrote: Have you seen it reported anywhere that Gibbes has the same release clause?

The release clause seems to vary from coach to coach - Erasmus was 9 months, Lam 6. Also a bunch of coaches (Penney, Anscombe, MOC) have been on 2 year deals with 1 year options. Regardless of the intricacies of individual contracts, which we'll never be aware of, the IRFU have used them to dump coaches more often than coaches have used them to escape the IRFU.

As to French and English clubs stealing our assets? The English clubs have been beggared by Brexit and the exchange rate; even the sugardaddy backed ones are constrained by the salary cap. Wasps have struggled to put out an A team this term as they are working off a smaller squad in an effort to keep their best players and stay within the cap. The French clubs are employing fewer foreign players every season, but if they wanted to poach a coach from Ireland then even having to buy out the entirety of a contract wouldn't give their owners pause for thought. It's a bit of a nothing story really.

Have you seen it reported anywhere that Gibbes has the same release clause?

With Gibbes going from Ulster back to coach in NZ
That is 3 from 4 coaches in Ireland to exercise this option in their contact in the last 18 months.

Fair play to Pat he flagged this before he left, that more will follow.
IRFU need to get the finger out and fix this problem.
With the success of Ireland and the provenances. It will be only a matter of time before French and English clubs will try to steal our assets.
Preact and not react IRFU