Irish clubs suffering as French swooping for country’s best emerging talent

French rugby clubs are targeting school leavers as they seek to attract Ireland’s young talent with the lure of a decent living wage and a good lifestyle.

Typically, clubs in France’s lower leagues, Federale 1, 2 and 3 (third, fourth and fifth divisions), are targeting players just out of school, college or university and are paying anything between €1,000 and €2,000 per month, with free accommodation and car.

The development is becoming another problem for struggling provincial clubs, already suffering from movement of young talent either to Dublin for work or out of the country on the emigration trail.

That forms part of the reason why the balance of power in the Ulster Bank League has swung from down south to clubs based in the capital over the last few seasons.

Dolphin’s new head coach Feargus O’Donoghue this week warned of the worrying threat from cash-rich French outfits with big cheque books to woo players from Ireland.

“We will have a battle with French teams, third division and even fourth division clubs, looking for players and offering quite substantial packages to go over there,” he said.

“It started developing a while ago but it is becoming much more prominent now. They’re swooping not just for AIL first division players but for others down the divisions.”

How many have gone over there?

“I have no idea but I know the Limerick clubs have been hit by people leaving and what they are saying to us is that if they (players) haven’t gone to Dublin, they’re gone to France; we’re aware of the Dublin situation and why the players are going but the France thing is coming in under the radar.

“I don’t know how it is being organised or by whom but I do know that three or more of our players have been contacted. There must be somebody, there must be people operating, people coming over or agents here, looking at the situation and at individuals.”

Young Munster coaching stalwart John Staunton agreed there could be problems down the road.

“From what I know, there has always been a bit of interest from the French clubs but for the last 24 months or so there has been a little bit more.

“A lot of the lads playing here in division 1A would be well good enough to play in rugby Pro2, never mind the lower divisions in France; the budgets of these clubs would probably be 20 times the money flowing through the Irish clubs, even the richer ones.

“Guys from Ireland would fit in, there are lots of guys of quality, good brains and good players, a lot of what many of the French clubs lack is structure and stability and guys playing Division 1A here week in and week out could bring that to the party.

“They mightn’t have the power or the physical capacity to do damage over there, but they could certainly orchestrate things and dictate to the players around them how to control a game.

“Guys are always being approached from time to time although I suppose we have been lucky not to have suffered any big losses, we did lose Shane O’Leary a couple of years ago (he is now in Connacht), and Alan Cotter is going there (after not having his Munster contract renewed).

“But there is always that threat and it is going to be more and more, because the French have started to realise the talent that is over here; they can get really good quality players from here for what would be to them handy money.”