Biarritz president confirms O’Driscoll discussions

FURTHER indications are emerging from France that Brian O’Driscoll is on his way to Biarritz.

Marcel Martin, president of the club, has confirmed that the Irish captain and his agents have already had discussions with Biarritz and he also revealed that O’Driscoll has intimated he will join them when his IRFU contract expires in June.

“We have had discussions with him and his agents for some time,” Martin disclosed on the Biarritz website. “He wants to play somewhere else other than Ireland from June 2006 and his preference is for France. That being the case, he would prefer to go to Biarritz, then Toulouse and after that maybe Paris. Biarritz would be honoured to have such a player in our ranks.”

The club president said two questions had to be answered before the Irishman joined - how much would his contract be worth and how long would be stay.

“When we know the answers to those two questions, we will know if Brian O’Driscoll is coming to the club or not. Right now I don’t have those answers,” he said.

Biarritz are understood to be unwilling to pay O’Driscoll more than €350,000-a-year for his services and this may present an opportunity for Stade Français in Paris to sign him up.

Their president, Max Guazzini, is known to have very big pockets and is apparently willing to pay the Irish captain as much as €500,000-a-year to join his ambitious outfit.

In the meantime, Wales centre Gavin Henson has hit out at Clive Woodward in a book serialised in the Mail on Sunday for poor preparation and bad tactics in the lead-up to the British and Irish Lions tour of New Zealand.

Henson endured a difficult tour as the Lions went down to a crushing 3-0 whitewash.

The 23-year-old had played a pivotal role as Wales won the Six Nations and had been expected to feature prominently in New Zealand earlier this year but was devastated to find himself out in the cold before the first Test.

In the serialisation of his book ‘My Grand Slam Year’, Henson said: “I felt let down because I was led to believe I would start the first Test and I didn’t.

“The way I was taken off in the two games leading up to that decision made me feel even more frustrated. I’ve still got a lot of respect for Clive, for what he achieved with England, but his preparation of the Test team was poor.

“I also felt his tactics and his game plan were out of date, while I was shocked to see how little actual coaching he does. Clive’s coaching methods were something new to me and left me a bit bewildered.”