IRFU say Henshaw’s club future up to Schmidt
Pat Fitzgerald said the national team has to come first and Henshaw, who recently signed a contract extension to remain with Connacht until 2016, would have to move.
Connacht coach Pat Lam is determined to hold on to the gifted 20-year old who burst on the scene at the start of last season.
The Athlone native went from playing schools rugby to the Heineken Cup in a little over six months and by last summer he picked up the first of three Irish caps.
Fitzgerald, the first member of a junior club to be elected president of the IRFU when the Longford RFC official was appointed last summer, was speaking on Shannonside radio yesterday when he was asked what guarantee he could give that Henshaw would not be plucked by one of the other provinces.
“That’s a difficult one, I don’t have the answer. All I can say is that if the national coach feels that Robbie Henshaw would be better playing in another province, then the green team, I’m afraid, has to come first.”
Fitzgerald also revealed the IRFU has this week sanctioned increased funding for Connacht, and the president said he was confident the sport would continue to grow in the west.
“We are just about to announce a new chief executive for Connacht, and as of yesterday the IRFU have agreed to continue to fund Connacht and fund Connacht at a greater level than ever before,” he said.
“So from anybody that is thinking about rugby who are living west of the Shannon, the future is looking very bright for Connacht.
“I have no doubt that with the new Heineken Cup, or whatever it is going to be called, that Connacht will be there or thereabouts and with the investment from the IRFU, they are just going to get stronger.
“I have no doubt that the Irish provinces can continue to be successful and one of the reasons I say that is that the academies in the provinces now are really beginning to bear fruit and what we never had in the past, we now have a conveyor-belt where young people are becoming provincial players a lot younger.
“If you take an enormous local example of Robbie Henshaw, he was a year out of his Leaving Cert and I was in Houston with the Irish team and I gave him his first cap last June. He’s still only 20 and he’s an international player with a great future,” he said.
The IRFU president said the threat of cash-rich French clubs targeting Irish players remains an issue despite several internationals signing new contracts this season.
“It is a worry, even now when we have signed the Jamie Heaslips and the Sean O’Briens and all the guys who were targeted by the French clubs with the big cheque books.
“But we have realised if we have to compete at cheque book level we ain’t going to be able to, so we have to offer something else. What we offer is lifestyle, number one, it is how we protect them, in a lot of cases we nearly protect them from themselves. A professional player playing for Ireland will play around 24 games a year. Jonny Sexton and people like that will probably play closer to 40 in France. It prolongs their shelf life if they stay in Ireland.”
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