So the Ireland Men's Sevens programme had to go, the IRFU saving circa €2.5m and not brooking any debate in the process - load, aim, fire, dismissed.Ireland Women's international side and Connacht should be very, very relieved they dodged this bullet. It was going to be one of those three."Absolutely shocking from the IRFU," posted former Ireland Sevens player of the Year Terry Kennedy who represented Ireland at 40 different tournaments 2016-24, on Instagram. A view the legendary Brian O'Driscoll endorsed on X/twitter: "Incredibly disappointing to see the @IrishRugby mens 7’s being discontinued. Have loved watching them on the @SVNSSeries over the past decade or so - more than holding their own against the best of the world's 7’s teams. Understandably I’m sure there’s a lot of anger & frustration within their camp."Kennedy was for going a bit further, blaming the cost of importing foreign players to play provincial rugby and overspending at committee level on food/travel to games. Continued Paris 2024 Olympian: "The way they've handled the whole situation is nothing short of a disgrace. Humphreys and Potts not even having the integrity to announce this properly, instead getting a media person to put up a post, and only because their hand was forced as there was an article about to be published separately."So disappointed for the current group of players as well as younger players coming through that they won't be afforded the same opportunities and experiences that myself and the lads have, because of the shortsightedness of a couple of old guys running the game here."The financial/cost-cutting excuse is complete smoke and mirrors, masquerading the fact that every RWC year Unions run at a major loss due to the lack of November international match revenue. "Between funding from World Rugby for being on the World Series, Sport Ireland funding from Olympic success and sponsorship funding, no other programme outside the Men's 15s brings in anywhere near the revenue."No mention of the millions paid to bring foreign players over on short-term contracts and the budget to pay for committee members travelling to 6N games and tours with lunches and dinners - far more than the whole 7s budget."The disrespect that the IRFU have shown to Sport Ireland and the Irish Olympic Committee after all their years of funding, utterly disgraceful." Strong stuff indeed.Lunches, dinners and trips aside as unquantifiable, we do know there are 12 Non-Irish Eligible (NIE) players being paid a salary across the four provinces.They comprise RG Snyman, Rabah Slimani, Jordie Barrett (a six-month 'short term' contract) at Leinster, Jean Kleyn, Thakir Abrahams, Alex Nankivell at Munster, Sean Reffell, Werner Kok, Aidan Morgan at Ulster, Santiago Cordero, Josh Ioane and John Porch (released mid-Feb to play Top 14 in France) at Connacht.Confusingly Connacht had a further five foreign players Piers O'Connor, Shamus Hurley-Langton, Bryan Ralston, Sean Jensen and Shayne Bolton who, by birth, are Irish eligible - indeed Jensen and Bolton played for Ireland 'A' last February.All four provinces are intensely secretive about specific players wages with Leinster's three believed to have little change out of €1m, Munster's three costing circa €700k, Ulster's €700k and Connacht's three a few euros past €500k.Meanwhile according to the IRFU, their men and women's Sevens programme cost €4.2m in 2023/24. Sport Ireland, who are responsible for aiding Olympic sports, can be relied upon for around €500/600k per annum. The Mens sponsorship deals with Tritonlake and Blackrock PM brings in a further €300k.Enter David Humphreys, current IRFU Performance Director, and the man tasked with making cutbacks following IRFU CEO Kevin Potts announcing the Union had made an €18.4m loss in 2023/24.That figure is real money but, as Kennedy rightly points out, it was an unusual year as a Rugby World Cup year. The IRFU don't make any money from the World Rugby-owned competition. World Rugby redistributes the profits to their 113 member nations.Because of the World Cup though, the IRFU missed out on the Aviva-staged November Series games. International games are the IRFU main revenue driver with the Six Nations also coming with generous prize-money, a €6m bonus for a Grand Slam for instance. Tacitly, the loss of the three 2023 November series matches cost the IRFU circa €15m and the buck stopped with Humphreys, ordered to kill off something that was loss-making.There weren't many choices and, indeed, Humphreys first took a bite out of the provinces announcing last month he was raising their contribution to Central Contacts by from 30 to 40 percent from next season. This will cost Leinster €330k/Munster €500k. Of the target that could have been chosen, it is the international womens XVs programme that is losing the most money - and this is a Rugby World Cup Year for them. It was decided to pass on this.Connacht is a preferred target but resistance out west has stymied their being scrapped before, granting them a longer lease of life. Make no mistake, this will be back on the table in the near future, the westerners have no friends at the IRFU's big table.This left Sevens sticking out like a sore thumb, the Mens section particularly as it is not a reliable feeder to the provinces or international XVs game - the one that makes the money. The Women's Sevens section, by contrast, backbones the XVs efforts.Axing this completely, by the way, may come with potential Trumpian bluff benefits... If the IRFU ceases funding the Olympics sport, how much would Sport Ireland be prepared to pay to keep a discipline where Ireland are medal contenders on their roster? Maybe more than the current money they are chipping in and, after all, the IRFU could help them out, send them a few players when they are thinking of fielding a team in a competition. Hugo Keenan loves playing Sevens for instance.Meanwhile fallout, and as placed squarely in the frame by Kennedy, about the financing of foreign imports' contracts continues and with Leinster attracting a lot of flack.Leo Cullen was, as it turned out, the visible face of Irish rugby yesterday and his Friday pre-match press conference for a game with Glasgow at the Aviva that had little or no relevance to the play-offs was always going to be a shooting gallery. And from which it is clear Leinster are frustrated with the narrative that it is all their fault. That somehow Snyman, Slimani and Barrett have been painted as modern day pirates, eye-patches, peg-legs and hooks, all cutlassas and swagbags at the ready."Every team (men's province) is self-funded here in Ireland, that is it important to understand," said an exasperated Cullen. "Sport is a business at a professional level and we want to get bums on seats. “In terms of the foreign players that are in our 23 matchday squad this week, we want to make it exciting for fans."Because when you have moved from a few hundred people back in the day in Donnybrook to the RDS which is now being redeveloped and then, this year, to the Aviva, you need to get bums on seats. "We are running a business here. It’s a self-funding business. There’s 70 odd staff on the ground as well, getting rugby balls into young kids’ hands. That’s been funded by the professional team. "It’s not like every €100 generated by the professional game goes back into the professional team. It might come back in time but it’s what we call a virtuous circle. "It’s not like we’re looking for money from outside. We are self-funding."It’s not like if Sevens have a surplus and we’re looking for their money. That’s not how it works. So that’s what we’re in control of." 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