Kearney says contract lessons learned

Rob Kearney believes the IRFU have learned their lesson in relation to player contracts with confirmation that Johnny Sexton has been offered a deal to return to Leinster next season.

Speaking the launch of a new five-year sponsorship deal with Bank of Ireland, Leinster CEO Mick Dawson said an offer has been made and a decision expected within two weeks.

Dawson said: “Myself and (IRFU chief executive) Philip Browne have met Johnny and put an offer on the table. We’ve put a very good offer forward.”

Dawson added that the player has already made his mind up and that the decision is not just down to money.

“If it’s just down to pounds, shillings and pence, I’m sure Racing Metro can outbid us.”

And Kearney is anxious that foreign clubs are not given any encouragement in the future to attempt to lure top Irish internationals abroad.

“I’m 13 months out from the end of my contract,” the Leinster full-back said. “I will probably start (talks) soon. The sooner these things are done the better.

“From an IRFU perspective, why wait four or five months for French clubs to start sniffing around and then making it a bone of contention for players? Just get them done early. Get everyone signed up.

“The key for the IRFU is to make sure that non-financial incentives outweigh the other side.

“Your facilities, that you are playing at a competitive club, you’re playing for silverware every year, you’re at home, you’re with friends, you’ve got your family here.

“Provided you put all of those things really strongly to one side, more often than not, they may outweigh the couple of hundred grand bonus on the other side.”

Sean O’Brien echoed Kearney’s comments about the decision being based on more than just the financial might of French sides.

“I suppose an added thing is that he (Sexton) has a child and has a family to look after and a family to think about,” the Leinster back-row said.

“With me, I had none of that, I had no ties and stuff like that. He’s in an even more difficult situation and one which he’ll have to carefully consider and make sure it’s the right thing for him and his family.

“We all know how good a player Johnny Sexton is, we all know what he was capable of when he was at Leinster. We all know what he brings to an environment and how driven he is to succeed and win trophies. And as Mick has said already, they’ve put an offer to him now and the ball is in his court.”

But O’Brien resisted the urge to try and influence his former Leinster team-mate’s decision: “He knows his friends and his former team-mates would love to see him back but you can’t try to push him or be on at him the whole time about it, he has to make his own decision.”

“We all text each other but I’d say I alluded to it the last time I did an interview, stuff like that is private as well and you don’t really want to get into it with him with a conversation, it’s his own decision.

“It would be a big statement (to have Sexton back) but on the other hand as well, people can say what they like about all these big French clubs having so much money but I’ve said before that doesn’t necessarily make a team very, very strong.

“You could have the best players in the world and they might not work well together. That’s what I believe at Leinster. We have such a close-knit group of players and when everyone’s fit and when we are playing the rugby we can play, I think we can beat anybody. Obviously he’d be another added value to that if he did come home.”