The IRFU president has said that Connacht’s only current international
Robbie Henshaw
will have to move to another province if Irish coach
Joe Schmidt
insists on it.
Pat Fitzgerald said that the national team has to come first and that Henshaw, who recently signed a contract extension to remain with Connacht until 2016, would have to move.
Connacht coach Pat Lam is determined to hold on to the gifted 20-year old who burst on the scene at the start of last season. The Athlone native went from playing schools' rugby to the Heineken Cup in little over six months and by last summer picked up the first of three Irish caps.
Fitzgerald, the first member of a junior club to be elected president of the IRFU when the Longford RFC official was appointed last summer, was speaking on Shannonside radio yesterday when he asked what guarantee he could give that Henshaw would not be plucked by one of the other provinces.
“That’s a difficult one, I don’t have the answer. All I can say is that if the national coach feels that Robbie Henshaw would be better playing in another province, then the green team I’m afraid has to come first.”
Fitzgerald also revealed that the IRFU has this week sanctioned increased funding for Connacht, and the president said that he was confident the sport would continue to grow in the west.
'Greater level'
"We are just about to announce a new chief executive for Connacht, and as of yesterday the IRFU have agreed to continue to fund Connacht and fund Connacht at a greater level than ever before.
“So from anybody that is thinking about rugby that is living west of the Shannon the future is looking very bright for Connacht. I have no doubt that with the new Heineken Cup, or whatever it is going to be called, that Connacht will be there or thereabouts and with the investment that the IRFU is going to put into Connacht they are just going to get stronger.
“I have no doubt that the Irish provinces can continue to be successful and one of the reasons I say that is that the academies in the provinces now are really beginning to bear fruit and what we never had in the past, we now have a conveyor-belt where young people are becoming provincial players a lot younger.
“If you take an enormous local example of Robbie Henshaw, he was a year out of his Leaving Cert and I was in Heuston with the Irish team and I gave him his first cap last June. He’s still only 21 and he’s an international player with a great future,” he said.
The IRFU president said that the threat of cash-rich French clubs targeting Irish players remains an issue despite several internationals signing new contracts this season.
