Talks to open over Sam Prendergast's future at Leinster

The central-contract detail is the interesting part, and it's more than an administrative curiosity. A player who is the province's and increasingly the country's first-choice 10, on a provincial rather than an IRFU contract, sits in a slightly odd position: the union has less formal control over his workload and no direct stake in his development pathway, while carrying all the risk if he leaves. That's exactly the sort of gap that gets noticed only when a French or English club makes an offer, at which point everyone discovers what the arrangement actually says.

Biggar's suggestion is worth taking more seriously than it usually is, though. The Harry Byrne comparison is apt, and the reason a move works is rarely about coaching: it's that a young 10 in Dublin plays every match under the eye of people who have decided in advance what he is. A season somewhere with lower stakes and less scrutiny lets a player make mistakes that aren't nationally litigated, which is precisely what a 23-year-old fly-half needs and precisely what the current structure cannot provide.

Which is the broader point about the Irish system, and it cuts both ways. Total union control produces coherence, aligned selection and no club-versus-country war, and Ireland has benefited enormously from it. It also means there is nowhere to go for a season without leaving the ecosystem altogether. In France a player in this position moves from Racing to Bayonne, develops, and comes back. Ireland has four provinces and an unwritten rule that you don't move between them, so the only available step sideways is a step out.

Nothing wrong with Leinster keeping him, obviously. But if a 23-year-old's development options are "stay and be scrutinised" or "leave and be lost", that's a structural limit worth naming while the conversation is about a contract rather than a departure.

Em, Frawley has left Leinster for Connacht. It was pretty well publicized, surprised you missed it…..

Carbery is back at Leinster though and is an OH option.

Post World Cup, I’d agree that he might benefit from playing elsewhere I’d guess that the draw of playing for Leinster and Ireland and the possibility of a Lions call up will keep him in Dublin.

I think Crowley in form is better than him currently.