MIKE McCARTHY’S DECISION to move from Connacht to Leinster is more than just a case of losing an important player, according to Connacht CEO Tom Sears.
The second row will make the move east at the end of this season to fill a position which has long been a weak link for the back-to-back European champions in a move which has irked the westerners.
“We made Mike an exceptionally good offer and we know he found it a very hard decision,” Sears told Newstalk’s Off The Ball this evening.
“He has been very open and we’ve had excellent dialogue. But eventually, after repeat approaches, his head has been turned and that’s a huge disappointment for us.”
Sears insisted that he and his club were “not naive enough” to believe that an out of contract player would always shun the advances of a bigger, more successful organisation.
However, in an impassioned interview, he reaffirmed his stance that it would be to the benefit of the game in this country in the long run if Connacht were better equipped to retain top-bracket internationals such as McCarthy. Not only for the benefit he brings to the team on the field, but what he is capable of representing.
Beacon
“We’ve got a responsibility to develop Irish rugby. Mike has come through our system, we’ve developed him as a player.
“He wasn’t on the radar of Leinster when we picked him up. He has developed into an Irish international. We wanted him to be the beacon for all our young players to see that a guy can come through and represent Ireland.
“We’ve got a great calibre of players coming through our academy system and we want good players around those youngsters. If we lose players like Mike and players that have gone before then it’s going to be very difficult.”
Sears stuck by his assertion that the move is bad for Irish rugby as it will force Connacht’s hand in recruiting overseas, ”because there is not another Irish lock as good as Mike McCarthy.”
He also lamented the current contracting structure which gives the western province more budget constraints over personnel than if they housed a stable of Irish internationals.
“We don’t compete on even footing as the other provinces. We don’t have the financial muscle they do, we don’t have players on national contracts which frees up more money.
“It would have been nice if Mike McCarthy could have got a national contract. What a message it would have given to young players coming through our province: that they can come through and win a national contract and see what’s achievable.”
Listen back to the full interview in the second part of tonight’s Off The Ball show here.
As a pool fan, houllier blamed all around him/ yes bad cross from ginola but what about the centre back that the striker strolled past
The French do love to hate each other don’t they…
Players make mistakes, and that one will haunt Ginola for the rest of his life, no two ways about it. Gerard falling on his arse against Chelsea and Jesper Olson passing the ball into the path of Butragueno in the But 1986 World Cup spring to mind.
But France’s World Cup hopes weren’t just shattered in the match against Bulgaria. The full facts are as follows; With two matches left to play in their group, both of them at home, France needed just 1 point. First up was Israel, who France had beaten 4-0 in Tel Aviv, and hadn’t a single win to their name, and Bulgaria who had already beaten France in Sofia, so they should have had a fair idea of what they were dealing with.
The French led both games (2-1 and 1-0 respectively) but went on to lose both, I believe, in injury time.
Houllier has repeatedly blamed Ginola for the entire failure due to his part in the Bulgaria defeat, but the blame lies with himself more so than anyone else.
What an emphatic collapse, I remember it fondly.
The Israel game was the biggest Mess up by far, instead they blame the defeat where they lost in the last minute to the eventual World cup semi finalists
yea finals should have kept the ball down at the corner flag and killed off the game but what about the keeper getting beaten at his near post.
* finals is typo for ginola in my post above
If it was an Irish player today he would have passed it back instead of take the shot!