Schmidt hints he’s ready to extend Leinster tenure

There was some good news in a bad week for Leinster rugby as Joe Schmidt sent strong signals that he is ready to sign a new two-year contract.

A family medical issue is of more pressing importance at this juncture, but Schmidt hinted he would commit to the Heineken Cup champions after his current contract runs out at the end of the season. In any event, he insisted he had no interest in moving to another club.

Certainly, he would love to stay and his comments substantiate that: “Leinster is a super place to be, we’re really close and I would like to continue here but there are factors outside of rugby at the moment that we [family] need to get comfortable with first of all.”

The bad rugby news centres around Leinster’s opening defeat to the Scarlets in the RaboDirect Pro12 opener at Parc Y Scarlets last week which was greeted by some fans as a catastrophe. But the critical view took little account that Schmidt’s selection was young, inexperienced and up against a street-wise Welsh outfit.

Schmidt will be operating without Sean O’Brien, Rhys Ruddock, Luke Fitzgerald, David Kearney and Eoin O’Malley for many weeks to come and those injury victims were joined on a medium- to long-term casualty list after Wales by Dominic Ryan, Isaac Boss and Aaron Dundon.

“Unfortunately we have a few more long term injuries than we would have liked. The latest, Dominic Ryan, has ruptured the ligament in the top of his ankle. He will be out of play for between 10 to 12 weeks.

“Isaac Boss has done a fair bit of damage to the medial ligament in his elbow and he will be out for between six to eight weeks. Aaron Dundon, unfortunately, went to the doctor to get stitches over the eye and complained that his leg was sore, then he found he has a fairly severe mid foot sprain and he will be out for eight to 10 weeks,” said Schmidt yesterday.

However, Isa Nacewa is making no excuses.

Injury hit, and down in the dumps, Leinster have fallen badly foul of both Northampton in a pre-season friendly and the Scarlets but the utility back insists such lapses cannot be tolerated.

Nacewa is still smarting from Leinster’s defeat in the RaboDirect Pro12 decider at the RDS at the end of May, days after Leinster were crowned European champions for the third time. He says that final performance against the Ospreys fell short of what was required.

“Everyone came back from the break talking about having lost to Ospreys, more so the nature of how we lost,” he said.

“It was tough losing to Munster the year before, but they (Ospreys) were the only team to have beaten us [last year] and they beat us three times, so they’ve been a bogey team for us. Every team wants a league win just as much as winning Europe.

“Like, you do so much during the year to get to a point or a position where you can do the double and we have fallen short of that big time, I think even after the Ulster match [Heineken Cup final] last season guys were thinking about the following week and that was the Ospreys game.

“The way we went out put a dampener on it and it was burning all summer, but it’s a new season now and with Dragons up first at the RDS everyone is excited.”

The duo were speaking in Dublin yesterday as Leinster Rugby signed a three-year sponsorship deal with luxury hotel, the Conrad Dublin. The hotel has agreed a six-figure deal with the Heineken Cup champions and will play host to many of Leinster’s opponents in Dublin.