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Published 16:14 1 Dec 2020 GMT
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Asked about the players, such as Sexton, O'Mahony and Healy, that are on the other side of 30, yet centrally contracted, Nucifora commented:
"Age probably doesn't really come into it from our point of view. I mean performance does and I suppose Johnny, like other players, will just be judged on how they are playing and where they are at. We haven't entered into negotiations with any of the players as you're aware but as long as the standard of Johnny's play is up to where it should be then we wouldn't have any hesitation in speaking to Johnny about continuing."The performance director says the 2023 World Cup will be in their minds when negotiations get underway, hopefully in early January, but it will not be the main focus in doing new deals with Test players. Each province will have anywhere between 15 to 25 players coming to the end of contracts. While stressing that he does not foresee any players losing their jobs, Nucifora is aware that not every player will be happy with whatever modified contract they get.
"It's hard to say what it will mean. We're still assessing our financial status. I'd be hopeful we can retain the majority of our players but, like in any market, there's always risk and I couldn't sit here and say definitely that we're going to keep everyone. In the past we've managed to keep pretty much most players we've wanted to keep.For the players, all they can do is keep performing to the best of their abilities and hope that the situation, globally and within the game, is clearer in January and February than it is right now."The player market around the world is affected, it's not just us, and there are stresses on most markets but that doesn't mean to say a player can't either find a deal that suits him for whatever period of time it is in his career that is somewhere else, that might be an option, but as a general statement, I'd be confident that we'd be able to maintain the majority of players we want to keep."
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