Absolute joke.

Munster and Ireland are in serious danger of losing Peter O’Mahony and CJ Stander at the end of the season if they don’t cop on, and open up their chequebook.

Donnacha Ryan has already left, with Simon Zebo also leaving at the end of the season. If Munster lose Stander and O’Mahony, you can forget about them competing at the top table again for a very long time.

In terms of Ireland, we keep hearing about the depth that exists, and while that’s true to an extent (especially in the back-row), O’Mahony and Stander are the best in their respective positions. End of. If you want to compete for top honours you need your best players.

O’Mahony feels he’s being undervalued by the IRFU and judging by the offer they’ve made Stander, he’s probably right. While O’Mahony is currently on around €400k-a-season, Stander’s currently on just €260k-a-season.

According to Pat McCarry of SportsJoe, the IRFU have offered Stander a mere 20k-a-season raise on his proposed new deal. That’s absolutely ridiculous if you ask us. €280k-a-season for CJ Stander? €280k for a British & Irish Lion? €280k for man that played 2,239 minutes last season, including 9 Tests?

To put that into perspective, Jamie Heaslip is on €500k+ with the IRFU, while the likes of Finn Russell and Simon Zebo are expected to earn €700k+ in France.

The IRFU may not have the kind of money that’s floating around in France and England, but they won’t get away with paying their star players peanuts.