Leinster’s long goodbye
It is the moment Irish rugby feared, when its most prized talent was finally made an offer he couldn’t refuse.
Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton dropped his bombshell on the IRFU yesterday that he will not be renewing his contract to play full-time in this country. Instead, the three-time Heineken Cup winner will leave Leinster at the end of season having accepted a lucrative two-year deal, reported to be €750,000 per year after tax, to take his considerable talents to Racing Metro.
It makes perfect sense for the player, of course. At 27 years of age he is in the prime of his career, has the contract of a lifetime in his pocket and an exciting new life to look forward to in one of the most exciting cities in the world.
Yet while he will head to Paris with the best wishes of most in the Irish rugby community, Sexton’s departure this summer will leave plenty of questions to ponder for those he leaves behind, not least his Test team-mates and coaches, his provincial head coach and the governing body which felt it had no option but to cut him loose.
Several of those team-mates, including Leinster colleagues Cian Healy, Luke Fitzgerald and Rob Kearney, are out of contract themselves this summer. Having seen Sexton make the leap, they may well think the time is right to follow their friend over to the cash-rich Top 14, where not just Racing but Toulon, Montpellier and Stade Francais, as well as the traditional powerhouses Toulouse and ASM Clermont Auvergne, can comfortably dangle big-money offers in front of the UK and Ireland’s best in the knowledge they cannot be matched in those players’ home countries.
That key point has long been admitted in Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales, who have suffered more than most from the talent drain to France.
IRFU chief executive Philip Browne was merely echoing the groans of his counterparts across these islands when he spoke yesterday of his organisation’s “very strong offer” and added: “Ultimately, following negotiations with the player’s agent, we had no option but to take the decision that it would not be in the best interest of Irish rugby to chase the reported financial incentives being offered.
“The IRFU has made a commitment to, and been largely successful in, keeping as many Irish players as possible playing full time in Ireland. However, we have always recognised that some of our players will be targeted by overseas clubs with offers which, quite simply, are not within our orbit.”
The IRFU, though, consider the offer made to Sexton as an exceptional one for an exceptional talent and are hoping other Irish players will be unable to command such an offer. Maybe losing arguably the best fly-half in Europe was to be expected in the current climate but the governing body are confident the rest of their roster will not have to make any decisions based purely on financial gain but can be swayed by the other benefits of staying put, namely player welfare and home comforts.
As such, the IRFU does not fear an exodus of talent the Welsh have suffered and which will see frontline stars Jamie Roberts, Dan Lydiate and Luke Charteris follow the likes of Lee Byrne, James Hook and Gethin Jenkins out of the regions and into the Top 14. Sexton is the first notable Irish player to depart these shores since Tommy Bowe left for, ironically, the Ospreys, in 2008 and for all its inability to match Racing Metro’s money, the IRFU are still good payers, certainly better than in Wales and operates stronger provincial set-ups than the under-performing Welsh regions.
The most significant impact of Sexton’s departure to Paris, though, will be on Leinster. Just at an obvious level, the boots of their first-choice fly-half are big ones to fill. Will they now have to dip into the market themselves and throw some money at expensive replacement from the southern hemisphere or is now the time for Ian Madigan to realise his potential?
And even without the prospect of losing Healy, Fitzgerald and Kearney, there are numerous careers, not least Brian O’Driscoll’s, coming to an end in the next couple of seasons, while head coach Joe Schmidt only has a year of his contract left to fulfil. Would the New Zealander fancy an extended term while the team he led to back-to-back European glory is broken up? The long goodbye has started and it may well not just apply to Sexton.
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