IRFU’s improved approach to contract negotiations impresses Kearney
Kearney’s deal, which will keep him & at Leinster until 2018, was announced yesterday having been agreed four weeks ago, according to the 28-year-old.
The speed in which the negotiation process was carried out was in stark contrast to his previous IRFU deal, a two-year contract that expires this June but which only got over the line midway through the 2013 Six Nations.
That proved a frustrating experience for Kearney just a month after the governing body’s shortcomings in this area had been exposed when Leinster and Ireland team-mate Johnny Sexton rejected his contract offer, triggering a move to Racing Metro in France.
Sexton’s return next season after a two-year spell in Paris helped Kearney make his decision to stay at the province he made his competitive senior debut for in September 2005, three months after his first Test cap.
The full-back, chairman of the Irish players’ association IRUPA, was impressed with the way the negotiation process had improved since he last sat down with the IRFU.
“I can only speak on my behalf, but the process has changed hugely,” Kearney said. “It was done very quickly over two meetings lasting about 15 or 20 minutes each. The whole process from start to finish took 10 days or two weeks. I think if that can happen for all the players throughout the country it can only benefit both the provinces and the national team.
“It was all done very quickly and was very stress free. It’s great security going into the November internationals knowing that your future’s safe, never mind going into the Six Nations like it was a couple of years ago.”
Kearney was speaking at Ireland’s training camp after Joe Schmidt’s squad reconvened following their victory over South Africa last Saturday and began preparations for the visit of Georgia to the Aviva Stadium next Sunday.
He said out-half Sexton’s return to Leinster next summer had made the province a more attractive prospect but his decision to come home had not necessarily put players off a move to France.
“Johnny went away in the first place a little bit against his will. He was a man who didn’t want to go away. So I think he was always going to be not unhappy but never going away fully committed to the cause.
“We have had very few instances to judge the whole moving away to France thing on, maybe Johnny has shown it’s not as fantastic a thing as everyone thinks.
“An important part of my decision was him coming back. You stay around in your home club because you want to win competitions and to continue to be there or thereabouts in all the big competitions and Johnny coming back has ensured we will do that.”
Ireland’s win over the Springboks last weekend has given increased hope that Schmidt’s side can make a big impact at the 2015 World Cup, which begins next September in England.
Kearney called the 29-15 victory over South Africa “fantastic” but, drawing a parallel with the Grand Slam team of 2009, he warned against complacency setting in.
“Yeah, 2009, I think we went 12 months unbeaten, we beat South Africa in Croke Park in the last game in November too and everything was rosy in the garden then, and expectation had built up massively.
“So again, I just stress that it’s just so important not to get too carried away.
“But listen what happens inside our team room and in our meetings is very different to what goes on in newspapers and stuff and subsequently at times when we are being written off, within the room we know we have hugecapabilities and we have it within us to win big games, we have the ability to do that too.
“One of the strengths of the quality of players that we have and the coaching staff is that we all take a pretty realistic view of where we are at that moment of time.”
“The scalp of getting a southern hemisphere team and the confidence that it will bring to our teams as a whole is probably the biggest benefit of the whole thing.”
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