Signs are that Heaslip will stay at home

Jamie Heaslip could be set to turn his back on a lucrative move to French Top 14 club Toulon and sign a new contract with the IRFU that will keep the Ireland and Lions number 8 at Leinster.

Speculation is mounting in France that Heineken Cup champions Toulon, who face Leinster in the quarter-finals of this season’s competition in April, will lose out on a second Irish international in the space of a week following the decision by Heaslip’s provincial, international and Lions team-mate Seán O’Brien to sign up for a new two-year contract with the IRFU.

That deal will keep the 26-year-old ‘Tullow Tank’, currently facing a long spell on the sidelines due to a shoulder injury, at Leinster until at least the summer of 2016 and reports from France suggest 30-year-old Heaslip may sign a similar deal.