Schmidt fearful of Top 14 exodus

Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt admits he is worried about his players following Jonathan Sexton to France but has questioned whether his star forwards would want to sign up for the grind of French Top 14 rugby.

British & Irish Lions stars Jamie Heaslip, Sean O’Brien and Conor Murray, as well as Ireland second row Donnacha Ryan, are all out of contract at the end of the season with French clubs such as ASM Clermont Auvergne, Toulon and Toulouse already making enquiries about their future availability.

The Top 14 clubs have been emboldened by fly-half Sexton’s rejection of an IRFU contract last season and his subsequent transfer to Racing Metro and incoming Ireland boss Schmidt, Sexton’s former head coach at Leinster, is concerned about further defections now a precedent has been set.

“I think you are always worried at this time of the year. You are always worried by the precedent that is now out there,” Schmidt said yesterday having taken charge of his first squad training sessions during a two-day camp at Carton House, Kildare.

“You are worried that that may well fire a bit more interest from the French market. At the time (of Sexton’s protracted negotiations last winter, Racing Metro president Jacky) Lorenzetti said ‘the Irish come over but they never arrive. It’s a fairly brief visit that they make and (then) they stay at home’. One didn’t, so maybe others will look elsewhere.”

While many of his fellow Irish internationals in camp yesterday are still waiting for their first starts of the season, Sexton, now outside the jurisdiction of the IRFU’s player welfare programme, has already played seven games for Racing Metro in six weeks having begun pre-season training at the Parisian club on July 30, just a little over three weeks since his 2012/13 campaign ended with the final Lions Test in Sydney on July 6.

That schedule, Schmidt contends, would be even more punishing for forwards and may dissuade them from signing for a French club despite the riches on offer in the Top 14.

“I think they will be put off,” the Ireland boss said, “for Jamie Heaslip, Sean O’Brien and those sort of players, with the amount of collisions they are involved in during a game, would they benefit from seven games in six weeks?

“Absolutely not. In the end the club they were at wouldn’t benefit either because they would end up breaking them if they used them to that degree.

“Certainly it wouldn’t benefit us. It would be a concern for us if they are over-utilised in that matter. If they can be kept in the country, that is a massive advantage for us.”

Both Sexton and fellow Lion Rob Kearney, who signed a new IRFU contract last spring, have been critical of the way negotiations with their home union were drawn out last season and Schmidt said there was now a greater urgency to conclude contract dealings this autumn, although it was not always the fault of Irish rugby’s governing body.

“The wheels are in motion but while some people may feel those wheels need to be greased a little bit, I think the fact that the wheels are in motions… it’s not from the IRFU end that things stall.

“I know on some occasions that has been a sticking point. I would like to think that prior to November, certainly discussion have been had. It is not something I control and it is not necessarily something the IRFU control because sometimes it is hard to get the right people in the room to start those negotiations or take them forward.

“I think that there has certainly been some start-ups in some of those and I think the IRFU are keen to work their way through them. Now, I guess if they can get some of them done, they can get to other ones.

“They’re trying to work their way through and keep the pot balanced relatively so that there’s a financial reality that has to go with these negotiations.

“At the same time there’s an understanding of the value of some of those guys mentioned and the value of having them in the country.”

Schmidt said he did not think the uncertainty over the future of European club competition with a clear faultline running between Heineken Cup organisers ERC and an axis of Anglo-French clubs was hindering IRFU attempts to tie their star players down to new contracts.

“I don’t think the ERC equation is a massive influence in the decision-making of those players in that negotiating process. I think that the ERC is certainly a distraction but I think it would be a massive loss to European rugby.

“I think (Heineken Cup) is a super competition, and there’s a degree of self-interest in every individual, in every group, anywhere, and so I can understand self-interest. But I can also make a plea for the greater good, and a degree of self-interest has to be compromised for the greater good, and I hope that’s what takes place.”

Schmidt and his new coaching team of defence coach Les Kiss and forwards coach John Plumtree are preparing for their first game of the season when Ireland face Samoa at Aviva Stadium on November 9 with autumn’s Guinness Series also bringing Australia and the head coach’s fellow countrymen New Zealand to Dublin in successive weeks. The former Leinster boss said he would name his captain for the series in the run-up to that opening game of a block that will see his team face three sides all ranked higher than Ireland.

“Les, John and myself are just trying to get settled on the broader group. And, so, it’s not something we’ve really had time to sit down and talk about,” Schmidt said of the captaincy.

“One of the things in this camp was just seeing how people interacted. John’s input is really important. As John said he’s putting faces to names and that. So we won’t name a captain until, at the earliest, a week preceding the preparation week for Samoa.”