Ian Madigan - the £500k a year A League player
He’s one of the highest-paid players in the Gallagher Premiership, but Ian Madigan is yet to play a minute in this year’s competition for Bristol Bears.
Instead the Irishman is slogging it in the Premiership Rugby Shield as first-choice flyhalf for their A team. Not since Quade Cooper’s Queensland Reds’ expulsion and subsequent stint at Brisbane City has such a salary been paid for a player plying their trade in a second grade rugby union competition.
It’s been a dramatic fall from grace for the 30-year-old playmaker, who just four years ago was a standout performer for Joe Schmidt’s Ireland side in their 2015 World Cup win over France.
Despite steering Bristol back into the Premiership in 2017, the rise of Callum Sheedy last season has seen the Dubliner cede his starting berth.
Having spent the guts of three years being loaned out, Sheedy has enjoyed a Cinderella-like ascent to the first team. A relative unknown just two years ago, the 24-year-old is now receiving rave reviews.
(Continue reading below…)
Madigan speaking to RugbyPass in 2017
While Sheedy’s rise with Bristol had started in the Championship, what Madigan may not have seen coming was losing his place on the replacements bench to 18-year-old Ioan Lloyd. The Wales under-18s star has been Sheedy’s bench back-up all season.
With his three-year contract coming to the end at Bristol, the exit door looks like a real possibility for Madigan. The outhalf spoke candidly about dealing with selection issues recently on a mental health podcast – Owning It: The Anxiety Podcast.
“At the moment I’m at the end of my contract cycle,” Madigan told podcast host Caroline Foran . “There’s pressure there – will you sign a new deal with the club. If not, where else might you be going? The older you get, the harder that becomes.”
The Blackrock College alumnus spoke remarkably openly about being out of favour – temporarily at least – with Bristol director of rugby, Pat Lam.
“Over the years that would have been a big cause of anxiety, worrying about selection. The way that is done is the team isn’t picked at the start of the week. Over the weekend you would be thinking, ‘am I going to be selected?’ for this game if there’s a big game coming up.
“You’re doing your best to train well on the Monday and Tuesday and the team might be picked on Tuesday and you’re literally reading into absolutely everything, from how the coach said hello to you to what other players are thinking about the team.
“You’re asking other guys who they think might be in. Quite often with that the build-up the fear of not getting picked is worse than the actual not getting picked itself.
“Like anything you have got to be able to mourn it and park it and try to use it to drive you on. Again, it’s often the stuff associated with not getting picked – it’s disappointing for you personally but (what) might be the worst part is ringing up your dad to tell him ‘look, I’m not in this weekend’.
“He might have tried to travel over for the game and now you’re not picked or on the bench or whatever and that can be harder to deal with than not getting picked yourself. (Then) having to read it in the papers when they don’t always have the full picture.”
Two appearances in the Premiership Cup during the Rugby World Cup window is all Madigan has got to show for the season so far.
He hasn’t featured in a full-blown Premiership game for the Bears since last May, his side’s final home game of the 2018/19 season at Ashton Gate. That’s seven months and counting. And he hasn’t started at 10 for the West Country club in the Premiership since February 14.
“When things are going well, guys are inclined to read the positive stuff. But once things start going down that route and the tide turns – which it inevitably will do – when negative stuff starts getting written, it’s hard to stop reading.
“I was lucky that I had some great guys ahead of me when I was at Leinster when I was there. They said to me, ‘Look, try not to read regardless of how well things are going or how poorly things are going’.
“It is hard, because people say, ‘Did you read that nice article about you?’. Once that’s said to you, you’re kind of going, ‘Ah, I wouldn’t mind reading that.’
Madigan says his relationship with his fellow 10s remains positive, despite the competition for places. “With outhalves, you have a good relationship with them, you have got the attitude that one of you isn’t going to get selected for the entire season.
“It’s important that when you’re in for your given week – let’s say you’re picked – you try to drive the team on the best way you can. At the end of the week the team is in a better position than it was at the start of the week, so the guy that gets it the following week can drive it on again.
Good insight to the half-back battle with Ian Madigan and also Pat Lam's unifying qualities https://t.co/RWZ2itPvKK
— liam heagney (@heagneyl) April 26, 2019
“That’s what a real positive atmosphere and culture in a team is. When it’s negative, the guy gets picked ahead of you, you’re thinking, ‘I hope the guy has a bad game’. Once you start thinking that way it only has a negative effect on you.
“It (negativity) can feed into other areas. Suddenly you’re not pushing yourself as hard in the gym. Because we are around each other so much, it very hard for anyone to pretend for any lengthy period of time. Their personality will come out over three months, six months, a year, two years. With younger guys coming through you can help guide them on basic things like accountability.
“If they said something or acted on something in a game and it came up in a review after a match and they weren’t accountable for their actions, you might just have a word with them afterwards and say, ‘Look, we’re all in this together and we’re trying to get better as group, it’s okay to put your hand up and go ‘my mistake’ and people will respect you for that.
“Quite often you will find it’s just fear and there’s no malice in it. When you talk to then about it and educate them on it, before you know it at the following meeting they have gone ‘I’ve said that. It was the wrong call’.”
Despite the lucrative contracts Madigan has enjoyed at Bordeaux and now Bristol, the consensus remains that he played his best rugby at Leinster. When Johnny Sexton left Irish rugby for Racing 92 in 2013, Madigan was the heir apparent after an exceptional 2012/13 season. He played 32 games for Leinster, scoring nine tries from 1,991 minutes, moving between 10, 12 and 15.
Not that he had it all his own way. The Matt O’Connor era saw Jimmy Goperth take a grip of the 10 jersey in Sexton’s absence. While the pair rotated in the position, tellingly it was the New Zealander who was preferred in Europe. In Goperth’s second and final season with Leinster, Madigan would make the majority of his appearances at 12.
Sexton returned in 2015 and a season later, Madigan left for Bordeaux, a desire to start at 10 his primary motivation. Three years later, the feeling remains that his prodigious talent continues to be wasted.
A return to Ireland could suit both Madigan and the IRFU. Sexton is now 34 and an elder statesman of Irish rugby. With Joey Carbery struggling with injury, Madigan could prove an able stop-gap with Leinster and potentially Ireland. He could also potentially help replace the inevitable experience void likely to be left by 33-year-old Rob Kearney – who last May was only able to secure a cut-price, one-year contract after a protracted negotiation with David Nucifora.
With Ross Byrne (24) and Ciaran Frawley (21) waiting in the wings at Leinster, the question is whether Nucifora and the IRFU could broker a deal with Madigan that they see as good value for money or whether they bet on (presumably cheaper) emerging talent.
Madigan’s obvious talents and an abundance of experience aside, it’s hard to fathom how a player who could cover 10, 12 and 15 couldn’t find a home somewhere in the Irish system. Make no bones about it, Madigan is more than open to the idea of a ‘prodigal son-like’ return to Irish shores.
“At the moment a big priority for me is getting fit, playing well and ensuring that I get a new contract because I’m out of contract now. It’s one of those ones where you have to wait and see if the club wants to keep you on and there’s a few things that go with that.”
“I love my time playing here in Leinster and Ireland and if an opportunity opened up, I’d love to come back.”
Maybe it’s time Madigan came home.
You can listen to the full Owning It: The Anxiety Podcast HERE.
I really enjoyed being on @CarolineForan podcast on anxiety. I hope some of the listeners can take something positive from it. https://t.co/H1uBk9NKld
— Ian madigan (@Ian_madigan) November 4, 2019
Comments on RugbyPass
The rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
76 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
1 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
9 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
12 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
9 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
9 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
9 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
9 Go to commentsWhat’ll happen when the AI models of the future go back in time and try to destroy the AI models of the past standing in their way of certain victory?
41 Go to commentsThanks, Nick. We (Seanny Maloney, Brett and I) just discussed Charlie as a potential Wallaby No 8, and wondered if he has truly realised how big he is in contact (and whether he can add 5 kg w/o slowing down). Your scouting report confirms our suspicions he has the materiel. No one knows if he has the mentality (as Johann van Graan said this week about CJ, Duane and Alfie B) to carry 10-15 times a game.
57 Go to commentsHe would be a great player for the Stormers, Dobbo should approach the guy.
3 Go to commentsGood article. A few years back when he was playing for the Cheetahs, he was a quiet standout for exactly the seasons stated here. I occasionally get to see his games in the UK, and he has become a more complete player and in many ways like an Irish player. His work ethic is so suitable to the Leinster game. I wonder if Rassie would have him listed somewhere.
3 Go to commentsResults probably skewed by the fact that a few clubs have foreign fly halves in their 30s, but most teams have young English scrum halves. Results also likely to be skewed by the fact that many teams rely on centres and fullbacks to provide depth at 10, whereas they will need to stock a large number of specialist backup 9s.
2 Go to commentsI really get the sense that when all is said and done, the path of least resistance will end up being a merger of Wasps & Worcester that essentially kills the Worcester Warriors brand and sees Wasps permanently playing at Sixways. I’m not saying that’s what should happen or what I want to happen. I just think it’s the easiest rout to take and therefore, will be what happens. Wasps will definitely return to play first, and I suppose it all depends on if they can find support at Sixways. If people turn up and support Wasps in that community, at that ground, I bet they drop the Sevenoaks plan and just remain at Sixways. Under the radar but not totally unrelated, it looks as though London Irish are going to be brought back from the dead by a German consortium and look set to return, likely to the remade Championship. It’s set to have 12 clubs next season with 14 in 2025/26, what do you want to bet those extra 2 are Wasps and London Irish?
3 Go to commentsThe shoulder is a “joint” with multiple bones. You don’t “fracture” a shoulder, you fracture any one or more of the bones that make up a shoulder.
2 Go to commentsOh dear, bones too suspect to continue?
2 Go to comments