Really lads, there is no place like home
O’Brien is a once-off, because of his age, potential and market appeal, a test case for the resolve and the ambition of the union and for the type of game it wants to showcase at home.
Seanie is a home boy, the pride of Carlow. He’s rock star material down there. I won’t say he has single-handedly made Leinster what they are, but is, in microcosm, the reason the province are such a powerful and well-resourced organisation these days.
Remember that 2006 Heineken Cup semi-final at Lansdowne Road, the one where Munster came up with the ham sandwiches and blew the froth off the D4 cappuccinos? When red engulfed a Dublin venue. That was easy because it was Munster v Dublin. A lot of provincial Leinster — the sort of areas that O’Brien represents — would have been as much Munster supporters as Leinster back then.
Nowadays, Mick Dawson and the Leinster executive might still be pulling their corporate bucks from Dublin, but they’re pulling the travelling armies from Carlow, Kildare, Wicklow, Meath, Louth and Kilkenny. Sean O’Brien can account for a lot of that.
The one reason — sorry, the key reason — you move to the Top 14 in France is for big money. Yes, the rugby is as good in Clermont, Toulon and Toulouse, but even in those hotbeds, it isn’t better that in the Irish provincial system.
Was there ever a fear of the floodgates opening, and everybody scurrying off to France, a la the Welsh players? Not if you have been reading here regularly. Seeing both sides of the coin, believe me, I don’t think the Irish players realise how good it is to play for their ‘parish’. The identity in doing that is beyond a monetary value. A 10-year career goes by in a flash. Even if you go abroad for two years, it’s that amount of time less in the Irish system. There’s nothing like playing for your own.
That, and a few other salient points, are being overlooked in the debate over whether Jamie Heaslip, at 30, should make a move to Toulon. The key one is that Jamie wants to stay in Ireland. Why has that been overlooked? Jamie has a value on himself and he’s obviously frustrated that the union aren’t meeting that valuation. I know what has frustrated him deeply is, as I understand it, that he had correspondence from the union to the effect that a particular offer was on table, but that no longer seems to be the case.
He is on record as saying he wants to stay in Leinster, but there’s a gulf between what he perceives to be his value and what’s on the table from union. Therefore he is entitled to explore every avenue.
But here’s the rub: Jamie may be 30, but because he is a professional to his bootlaces, he has not one, but two, contracts left in him if he wants. We are talking about a fella who sleeps in oxygen tents in Irish camp at Carton House, who looks after his body, who is meticulous in his preparation and recovery. He has so much still to offer.
Money and his age is the lazy debate, the easy argument. Jamie is a machine who keeps churning out quality performances for Leinster. Ultra-consistent for his province, but good also for the national side. I know him well enough to say he could review his options in two years’ time because he is that good.
There is a perception out there that his attitude doesn’t help him, but he is a really decent lad one-on-one, and if he leaves this country, it won’t be because he wants to. So should the IRFU really be holding the door open for him?
Just because the move was right for Jonny Sexton doesn’t mean O’Brien or Heaslip has to use him for a reference point.
Jonny knows he had to trade off a lot of stuff he would have been comfortable with in Leinster to set himself up financially with Racing Metro. There is no right or wrong move here: it’s a value his agent puts on Jonny, or that he puts on himself.
I would be aware of this from negotiations on players coming to Racing, that in the marketplace a player gets frustrated that his value isn’t being recognised. The next step then is to go — but once you sign, the decision is made, it’s irreversible and you’re gone.
I’m not sure everyone fully comprehends the emotional gulf between signing a contract and actually fulfilling your obligations by moving your hopes, dreams and family to a new country.
It’s tough as a coach, I know it, but I can only imagine what it’s like as a player. I had three days at home in Cork for Christmas, and the flight back to Paris on St Stephen’s Day morning was emotionally gruelling. Truly, there is nothing like home.
Speaking of home comforts, one wonders if any of the three Irish provinces will be afforded such a luxury in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals? I’ve had my pencil and paper out this week like everyone else, and Glasgow’s final pool game at home to Toulon probably holds the key.
However, keep an eye on Ulster at Welford Road. The strange psychology of that game against the Leicester Tigers is that if Ulster had to go there and win to qualify, I wouldn’t fancy them. But the fact that they’ve already qualified, I nearly would back them.
Toulon won’t enjoy the pokey surrounds of Scotstoun, all the more so if the weather turns it into a mud-bath. Scottish rugby has been deep in a quarry for some time, so let’s see if there is a reawakening of sorts.
Of course, my own beloved Racing could help the Irish cause by going to Clermont and doing what 70-odd previous lambs have failed to do — win. Even though the result is immaterial for RM92 in a Heineken Cup context, our biggest game of the season is the following week, at ‘home’ in the Top 14 at the Stade de France to Toulouse. The management is desperately looking for a better sense of who is going to start against Toulouse, because of late, there aren’t many Racing players in credit.
Our form is on a par with Oyonnax and Brive, but you’d like to think Racing’s quality will shine through at some stage; at least that’s the rave optimism we are holding onto.
