O’Connor confident Leinster will hold star duo

Leinster have belatedly confirmed Seán O’Brien’s French fact-finding mission but continue to proclaim their confidence that both the Carlow flanker and Jamie Heaslip will be with the province next season.

O’Brien was, according to different sources, either in Nice watching Toulon defeat Cardiff or in Toulon itself over the weekend where he was given a tour of the club’s home ground and training facilities.

Either way, with Heaslip also being buttered up by French clubs this week there is an understandable fear that one or both may be lost to the Top 14 even if such leaked club visits are now an accepted part of the game at contract time.

“I think that’s true,” said Leinster head coach Matt O’Connor when asked to verify the injured O’Brien’s continental spin. “He went over there last week to have a look. He’s got the luxury of a bit of time on his hands.

“You wouldn’t want to step in Seán’s way of going down there and looking at an environment and seeing what it offers him individually.

“I don’t think it has changed his opinion. He has expressed his preference [which] would be to stay with Leinster and play in Ireland and that’s all we can go on.”

O’Connor was unable or unwilling to put a timeframe on when contracts — whether with Leinster or otherwise — would be signed but the wheelings and dealings are now in danger of overlapping with Ireland’s Six Nations preparations. The speculation and vacuum of any hard news surrounding the futures of Irish players stands in stark contrast to Toby Flood’s imminent departure from Leicester for France which was swiftly signed, sealed and delivered recently.

“The Toby situation is different,” said O’Connor, who coached Flood at the Tigers. “He indicated as early as this time last year that he was going to the marketplace. He hadn’t been in the marketplace for five years and was looking for a change. Now, I don’t think that’s the situation with Seán and Jamie. There’s a different dynamic at play here. But we would all want it done and dusted but that’s not the reality of it.

“At this point, it hasn’t become a distraction for the environment. It’s part of the professional environment and I’m sure there’s light at the end of the tunnel. It’s not too far away from being sorted one way or the other.”

Whatever direction O’Brien and Heaslip’s negotiations are taking, their importance to Leinster is impossible to exaggerate. Leo Cullen, captain and soon to be forwards coach, voiced that better than most yesterday.

“Yeah, listen, they are two of the best players in Europe and in the world, you know. Jamie’s been incredibly consistent, and Seanie is obviously a pretty phenomenal talent,” said the 35-year old.

“They don’t come around very often so we want to keep them obviously because, personally, I see them as two of the biggest leaders of the team and two of our best players over the last seven or eight years.”

Whatever about Heaslip and O’Brien, fears about the lure of ‘la vie en France’ are likely to be a permanent part of the scene now thanks to multimillionaire owners and mega TV deals.

“People will always follow the money,” said Cullen. “That is the nature of it, but we would like to think here in the provinces — I speak for Leinster but I think it is the same in the others — that there is a very attractive environment for players to become the very best they can become. We would hope there is still a very strong value on that and on the collective will of wanting to represent your home province. We have had a sprinkling of guys from outside who add a bit as well and there is a dangerous flood of guys going to France but we have only lost one player so far so I don’t think it is panic stations as yet.”