You keep telling yourself that.
Farrell was brought in at centre too. We're not producing any. Goggin was embarrassing at the weekend.
Saying money isnt a huge factor is ridiculous.
I'm not saying it isn't a factor, it's just not clear to me that it's a primary differentiator.
If you look at where Leinster are successful, they're not really successful because they attract big foreign talent.
And if you look at where Munster have problems, attrition isn't one of them. I can't really name any first choice Munster players have been lost because Munster couldn't pay the salaries. On the other hand, Munster have been able to attract big foreign talent, signing Snyman and De Allende were massive coups at the time.
De Allende is off at the end of the season, but it's not clear that it's a money based decision.
To maybe state it another way, I don't think that if you doubled Munster's budget, they'd overhaul Leinster.
So I think the root of problem lies elsewhere, and yes, the production line is really where the time, effort and, if it's available, money, should go. That's where Leinster are amazing, and what Munster should be sensibly emulating. And it's not only Leinster that production line is helping, a significant percentage of the other province's squads are from the Leinster system,
Thinking about it now, it's where SA and NZ have always been strong too, if you think of the amount of talent they export and still remain dominant globally, it's astounding.
For contrast, England exports very, very little talent and have far more players + money. So clearly there's something in the structures in NZ and SA which more than compensate for the lack of money, so more money isn't necessarily the right solution.
Do Leinster spend a significant proportion of their budget on it? I wouldn't have thought so but I don't know for certain.
We have an embarrassment of resources compared to Connaught yet they play much better rugby than us. I'm not saying we have to spread the ball every time as sometimes Connaught can be a bit naive but we have gone in the opposite direction. So we can't blame the lack of resources for our shite saffer style rugby.
They play prettier rugby than Munster, Munster are still a significantly better team. Worth keeping that in mind.