IRFU mustn’t match ‘big sugar daddies’

One of European rugby’s top administrators has warned that professional rugby would cease to exist in this country if the IRFU tries to compete with cash rich French clubs in the battle for Irish players.

Six Nations chief executive John Feehan believes Lansdowne Road officials were correct in not trying to break the bank to keep Jonathan Sexton on these shores.

Leinster and Ireland out-half, Sexton is reported to have been offered €1.5m over two years to join Paris-based Top 14 outfit, Racing Metro at the end of the current season with IRFU chief executive Philip Browne admitting “the gap was too much to bridge” between the French and the Irish offers. Browne continued: “We try to retain our best players here in Ireland to the best of our ability. It obviously has to be within a budget.”

And Feehan yesterday backed Browne’s stance insisting that the IRFU would face bankruptcy if they attempt to match such offers and was better served using the opportunity to bring developing talent through.

“It was always going to happen with one of the sport’s stars,” Feehan said of the Sexton deal on Newstalk’s Down To Business.

“Ultimately you’ve got these French clubs with big sugar daddies who can write huge cheques.

“At the end of the day what the IRFU can’t do is respond to that in a way that will bankrupt their own organisation and the provinces.

“If they were to respond by breaking the wage structures here in Ireland, the reality is you wouldn’t have professional rugby within about five years so they’ve got to be very careful about this.

“I know they did their utmost to try and keep him but ultimately at some stage you’ve got to move on.

“It does give a huge opportunity to some of the young guys coming through, the likes of young (Ian) Madigan. And they will come through.”

Feehan also expressed the opinion that the club situation would improve in Ireland if there was a more even geographical distribution.

“It’s been a difficult couple of years for most clubs to be brutally honest. And some of that is not just about the fact that they’ve had difficulty with the professional game but (there) actually is a weight distribution of some of the clubs within Ireland itself. In the old elitist days, almost half, if not more than half of the rugby that was played in Dublin for example was in one postcode. So maybe that has to distribute itself around the city and the county.”

Feehan also revealed that new protocols had been devised in a bid to prevent any repeat of last year’s “embarrassing” last-minute postponement of Ireland’s Six Nations clash with France. There were farcical scenes in the Stade de France when officials deciding the game couldn’t go ahead due to a frozen pitch an hour before kick off.

The decision sparked outrage amongst players, officials and supporters and left the tournament organisers red-faced.

However Feehan has warned that federations will be fined €420,000 if a Six Nations tie is called off in similar farcical fashion in the years ahead.

“The whole protocol around that area is completely new. It’s a difficult area. It’s not the same as the Heineken Cup, where you can change the venue. It was embarrassing to be brutally honest. The reality is it was a set of extreme circumstances but we have now put together a protocol which I hope will ensure it doesn’t happen again.”