Brian O'Driscoll staying in Ireland

cruiserweight

Looks like he will be around for a while longer anyway, but not up until next WC!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_union/international/3666161.stm

Brian O'Driscoll is poised to commit to playing his rugby in Ireland, BBC Sport has learned.

The 25-year-old Ireland captain is to sign a new contract with the Irish Rugby Football Union later this week.

The deal, which lasts until the end of the 2005/6 season, will come as a relief to his provincial side Leinster.

They feared O'Driscoll would be tempted by big-money offers from England and France, while two leading rugby league clubs were also interested.


O'Driscoll could virtually have named his price - his profile has soared since his international debut against the Wallabies back in 1999.

But after much speculation and protracted contractual talks with the IRFU, O'Driscoll has made up his mind to remain in Dublin.

O'Driscoll, who won his 50th cap against Scotland in March, took over the captaincy from Keith Wood, who retired at the end of the last World Cup.

He subsequently led the side to their first Triple Crown for 19 years and in the process lifted his record try count to 24.

O'Driscoll has led Ireland on 13 occasions, the first back in the autumn of 2002 when the team beat Australia for the first time in 23 years.

Dublin-born O'Driscoll will be in action for the Barbarians on their end-of-season tour to Scotland, Wales and England, which starts on 22 May at Murrayfield.

MarVeL

O'Driscoll could virtually have named his price - his profile has soared since his international debut against the Wallabies back in 1999.

Sounds like he did name his price (350k is being mooted around on irishrugby) but noone was willing to pay it. Probably a good thing even apart from a desire to see him stay here as there are enough clubs with financial difficulties as it stands.

daveirl

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spanner

Originally posted by daveirl

I would have prefered him to go to France or England where he'd be made perform. He hasn't exactly done brilliantly in the Leinster jersey recently.

god no!
i hope he definately wont leave ireland, i think the reason why irish rugby is doing so well is that we are able to keep most of our top class players here in ireland, having top class rugby teams like munster and to a lesser extent lenister and ulster has helped the national team which in turn helps all levels of irish rugby,
although i do agree he hasnt really given any great preformances for leinster.
world cup and 6 nations didnt help, hopefully next year we will see a better preformance from leinster(espeically hoping that darcys preformances werent a flash in the pan)

daveirl

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MarVeL

To some extent you would have to figure him as being the dominant player in any team, particualrily with the size of pay packets being thrown around. Hopefully D'Arcy's presence will prove that there is some challenge (both in Leinster and Ireland) to his automatic selection. A Horgan-D'Arcy midfield is nothing to be scared of unless you're on the other team. If O'Driscoll doesn't perform there are now options