MUNSTER AND IRELAND legend Peter Stringer is still not sure where he’ll be playing his rugby next season, but certainly isn’t ruling out a move back to Ireland.
With the World Cup likely to take first-choice scrum-halves away from all four provinces, an experienced distributor could prove invaluable for any club in the first half of the season.
Stringer will end a two and a half year association with Bath when his contract expires this summer. And, still feeling capable of playing at the highest level at 37, the Corkman will be on the look out for another opportunity to extend his illustrious career.
“Wherever, honestly,” Stringer happily agrees when Leinster or Munster were suggested as possible destinations.
“It’s a case of: I see it now as a job, I’d look at all options. And the beauty of it is, there’s only myself and my fiancee, we’ve no kids.
She has quite flexible work and she said to me, ‘let’s make the most of it. Let’s go anywhere’. Whether it’s Ireland, England, France, wherever it may be. There’s only a few years left in it, make the most of it. We’ll be long enough settled in one place.
“We’ll look at all options. Definitely wouldn’t rule anything out and it’s just a matter of weighing up and making sure it’s right for both of us.”
At this pivotal stage of the season, however, Stringer is still being kept in the dark to an extent while his agent chisels out options for his next move. A small effort at plausible deniability for when Stringer appeared as a Setanta Sports ambassador this week or as ‘the Irish man in England’ throughout the Six Nations.
On Saturday April 4th Leinster v Bath in the European Rugby Champions Cup quarter final is exclusively live on BT Sport 1 which is part of the Setanta Sports Pack. To subscribe visit Setanta.com Cathal Noonan / INPHOCathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO
“He hasn’t mentioned them to me yet. So there are probably three or four he’s chatting to. One might be 50-50, but he’s telling me: ‘I’m going to take it out of your hands, I’m going to see how it pans out and I’ll come to you in a couple of weeks with a couple of decisions to make. Rather than if something doesn’t come off, I don’t want you to feel you’re settling for something’.
“Ultimately I want to be somewhere ambitious. I don’t want to be somewhere just for the sake of it in the third, fourth division somewhere dwindling away.
“I still want to play, I still have ambition to win trophies and play at the highest level.”
Munster? Leinster? Peter Stringer still on the hunt for a club to match his ambition
MUNSTER AND IRELAND legend Peter Stringer is still not sure where he’ll be playing his rugby next season, but certainly isn’t ruling out a move back to Ireland.
With the World Cup likely to take first-choice scrum-halves away from all four provinces, an experienced distributor could prove invaluable for any club in the first half of the season.
Stringer will end a two and a half year association with Bath when his contract expires this summer. And, still feeling capable of playing at the highest level at 37, the Corkman will be on the look out for another opportunity to extend his illustrious career.
Last month, Leinster head coach Matt O’Connor appeared open to the possibility of recruiting Stringer for next term, and the man third on Munster’s all-time appearances list wouldn’t flinch if an offer from next weekend’s Champions Cup quarter-final rivals were to come his way.
“Wherever, honestly,” Stringer happily agrees when Leinster or Munster were suggested as possible destinations.
“It’s a case of: I see it now as a job, I’d look at all options. And the beauty of it is, there’s only myself and my fiancee, we’ve no kids.
“We’ll look at all options. Definitely wouldn’t rule anything out and it’s just a matter of weighing up and making sure it’s right for both of us.”
At this pivotal stage of the season, however, Stringer is still being kept in the dark to an extent while his agent chisels out options for his next move. A small effort at plausible deniability for when Stringer appeared as a Setanta Sports ambassador this week or as ‘the Irish man in England’ throughout the Six Nations.
“He hasn’t mentioned them to me yet. So there are probably three or four he’s chatting to. One might be 50-50, but he’s telling me: ‘I’m going to take it out of your hands, I’m going to see how it pans out and I’ll come to you in a couple of weeks with a couple of decisions to make. Rather than if something doesn’t come off, I don’t want you to feel you’re settling for something’.
“Ultimately I want to be somewhere ambitious. I don’t want to be somewhere just for the sake of it in the third, fourth division somewhere dwindling away.
“I still want to play, I still have ambition to win trophies and play at the highest level.”
Paul O’Connell has been named Player of the Six Nations for 2015
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