McCarthy’s exit casts a shadow over big Euro tie

Date Published: 13-Dec-2012

Dara Bradley

A shadow has been cast over Connacht’s Heineken Cup Pool Three rematch away to Biarritz on Friday (8pm) with confirmation that the province has lost its battle to hold onto Ireland international, Mike McCarthy, who has signed a three-year deal with Leinster.

“We did everything we possibly could to try to keep him at Connacht . . . everything we knew, everything we could put in front of him,” a bitterly disappointed Connacht CEO, Tom Sears told Tribune Sport this week.

McCarthy will join the reigning Heineken Cup champions on a three-year deal when his Connacht contract expires in June. The Connacht Branch was informed of the senior player’s decision on Monday.

The 31-year-old, who launched his international career from Galway, had previously turned down repeated approaches from Leinster but the writing was on the wall in September when the English-born lock delayed putting pen to paper to renew his Connacht contract.

The official man-of-the-match in the glorious win over Biarritz at the Sportsground on Friday night, McCarthy was offered a matching contract by the Western province – three years on the same money – but the lure of a possible Heineken Cup medal, and additional revenues from Leinster’s lucrative sponsorship deals, appears to have proved too attractive.

“We have been aware of Leinster’s interest in Mike for some time. It is disappointing they have persistently targeted Connacht players in recent years, particularly when often not in the best interest of Irish rugby,” Sears said in an official statement.

It’s hard to disagree with him. When Leinster swooped two seasons ago and poached Connacht’s three top performing players, winger Fionn Carr, prop Jamie Hagan and hooker Seán Cronin, their careers looked on the up but have nosedived since, suffering from a lack of game-time.

What good does it serve Irish rugby to have one of the best finishers in the country, Carr, getting chilblains on a bench at the RDS? Hagan, a regular in Connacht’s front-row before heading east, may have a Heineken Cup medal but what good is that to Irish rugby, given that he, too, is getting splinters on the bench having been under-utilised by Leinster?

Ditto Seán Cronin. One of the best hookers in the country while at the Sportsground, Cronin is now only second choice at Leinster, which has affected his confidence and his game; and the noises emanating from Donnybrook in recent weeks indicate that he may slip to third choice behind Richard Strauss, if the rumours turn out to be correct and they recruit another hooker from overseas, who will become first choice.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.