O’Brien deal set to benefit Heaslip
Sources in France believe the reigning European champions and their multi-millionaire comic magnet Mourad Boudjellal had prioritised O’Brien’s signature but that they will now focus their attention on securing his compatriot.
O’Brien, who was chased by more than one Top 14 club during prolonged contract negotiations, was hosted by Toulon in Nice for their game against Cardiff last week and reportedly offered in the region of €35,000 per month.
That would have made him one of the highest-paid forwards in the cash-rich Top 14 with Thierry Dusatoir of Toulouse believed to be top of that tree on a salary of €43,000 per month, according to Le Journal du Dimanche last August.
The same publication also reported Racing Metro’s Dimitri Szarzewski and Toulon’s Bakkies Botha pull in just €2,000 less every month while Jonny Wilkinson, at €56,000 per month, claims the league‘s biggest salary.
Needless to say the IRFU were not able to match such figures.
O’Brien’s new deal may work out at just over two-thirds what Toulon had on the table but a proportion of those funds set aside for the Tullow Tank have now been diverted in an attempt to sway Heaslip whose agents are in France this week.
Montpellier have also been touted as a possible destination for the Leinster and Ireland No. 8 although it is unlikely that their interest remains high with Australia skipper Ben Mowen said to be joining the club next season.
Toulon will lose local boy Virgile Bruni to Perpignan during the summer while former Springbok Joe van Niekerk is also set to depart the club, all of which would leave two large gaps to be filled in the club’s back row stocks.
O’Brien’s decision to stay put is no great surprise given his injury record, his age and his continued involvement in his home community in and around Tullow — including a backroom role with the Carlow footballers.
Heaslip, who himself has numerous business interests in Dublin, has spoken in the past about the possibility of playing abroad — even in the southern hemisphere — and his age and playing record would appear to be far more attractive to any potential buyers.
His durability is astonishing.
The Ireland vice-captain has made 143 appearances for club and country to the 107 managed by O’Brien since the man from Carlow made his senior debut for Leinster, against Cardiff at the RDS, back in September 2008.
Heaslip is accustomed to playing the full 80 minutes on a weekly basis and he has been rewarded for that dependability having been made the highest-paid Irish player under contract with the IRFU when he signed his last deal in 2011.
Yet, whatever Heaslip’s ultimate intentions, the importance of O’Brien staying in Ireland can hardly be overstated despite the player’s absence for the next number of months as he recovers from shoulder surgery.
“It is flattering to find yourself the subject of interest from some of the biggest rugby clubs in the world,” O’Brien said in a statement, “but in the end I made a decision based on the standard mix of professional and personal considerations.
“It was a very difficult decision but, with a World Cup next year and the fact that I believe Leinster can continue to win trophies, I have decided to commit my immediate future to the club.
“I am very excited about what Ireland can achieve under Joe Schmidt and I am confident that, under Matt O’Connor, Leinster will remain the power in Europe it has been over the past five or six years.”
O’Brien made a point of thanking Leinster and the IRFU for their commitment but also the overseas clubs with whom he held discussions even if such words are likely to appear very hollow now to his erstwhile suitors.
Already yesterday there were mutterings, rightly or wrongly, among the Top 14 ranks suggesting that this was merely another example of a high-profile Irish player using the French clubs to secure a better deal with the home union.
Should Heaslip follow suit and remain in Dublin, Jonathan Sexton’s switch to Racing Metro last season will look increasingly like a one-off and the bargaining power that has secured his erstwhile colleagues this year would surely evaporate.
