Mike McCarthy is set to leave Connacht at the end of the season in order to take up an offer of a three-year contract from back-to-back European champions Leinster. The 31-year-old has become a prized asset but the news has greatly disappointed Connacht, with whom McCarthy launched his Ireland career, and who had offered him a matching three-year deal to extend his stay with the province.
The London-born lock is in his fifth consecutive season with Connacht, having also played with them in 2003-04. McCarthy has played over 100 times for the westerners, where his conversion into a tightsided scrummager augmented his huge work-rate and ball carrying and helped launch his Test career.
He won his fifth and sixth caps in the autumn games against South Africa, when he was man of the match, and Argentina, and was man of the match again in Connacht’s Heineken Cup win last Friday over Biarritz, which yesterday prompted club president Serge Blanco to put head coaches Serge Mihas and Jack Isaac on gardening leave ahead of Friday’s return meeting in south-west France.
Leinster have been somewhat cursed in their attempts to solve a problem position ever since they were unable to hold on to Nathan Hines, with South African imports such as Steven Sykes and latterly Quinn Roux both suffering long-term injuries either side of a productive three-month deal at the end of last season with All Blacks’ World Cup winner Brad Thorn.
Joe Schmidt and co have clearly decided to go native in a bid to find a foil for Leo Cullen and perhaps even his longer-term replacement, and despite the entreaties of Connacht – who also sought the help of the IRFU to retain the player – McCarthy has opted to tread what has become a well-worn path to Leinster.
The traffic used to flow the other way, and still does to a degree, and the recent cases of Fionn Carr, Jamie Hagan and Seán Cronin (all of whom would surely have seen more game time in the Heineken Cup had they remained in the last two seasons) would not suggest the grass is always greener east of Athlone.
Matter resolved
But then again, they have won two Heineken Cups apiece and not surprisingly perhaps, McCarthy has evidently found the lure of working with Schmidt and Heineken Cup holders too difficult to reject, and at least the matter has been resolved well in advance of next season.
In the last year or so McCarthy has jumped to the top of the queue to fill the void created by Paul O’Connell’s injury problems, and Munster yesterday confirmed O’Connell will see a specialist in the new year in relation to a lower back complaint that has sidelined him for the past two months.
The injury profile of Irish players is becoming a source of concern, with Munster yesterday clarifying O’Connell’s situation, albeit up to a point, in light of speculation that he was to undergo surgery for the injury this week.
A brief statement read: “Paul O’Connell is undergoing treatment for a lower back complaint. His treatment is progressing satisfactorily. He will see a specialist for further review in the new year”.
O’Connell, Lions captain in South Africa in 2009, has effectively ruled himself out of next summer’s tour to Australia, and Warren Gatland will today confirm the surprising news that Shaun Edwards, defence coach on that last tour, and with whom Gatland has enjoyed huge success at both Wasps and Wales, will not be on his coaching ticket.
Having decided on Graham Rowntree, scrum coach on the South African tour, and England’s Andy Farrell, Gatland has opted for his Welsh attack coach Rob Howley to complete a streamlined coaching staff.
The Lions will play their first game in Hong Kong against the Barbarians a week after both the Rabo PRO 12 and Aviva Premiership finals.
Howley will be in charge of Wales during the Six Nations and it is believed the Welsh RFU wanted him to be head coach on their summer tour of Japan as well. The Welsh, already fearful that Gatland’s Lions’ interregnum might be as damaging as Graham Henry’s was when he took charge of the tourists in Australia in 2001, will now be fretting as to how this might affect the relationship between Gatland and Edwards, who had stated his desire to work with the Lions again next year.
Meanwhile, in light of another hugely influential lock, Ulster captain Johann Muller, being sidelined due to the broken arm he suffered in the bonus-point win away to Northampton last Friday, head coach Mark Anscombe is likely to move Iain Henderson into the secondrow.
The 20-year-old, who played at lock in Ireland’s impressive Under-20 Six Nations and World Cup campaigns, broke into the Ireland squad in the November series as a replacement blindside flanker against South Africa and Argentina. Henderson has also impressively filled in there for Stephen Ferris in Ulster’s pool wins over Castres, Glasgow and Northampton.
Speaking at their base in Newforge yesterday, Anscombe admitted Muller was “a massive loss”. With Saturday’s 11,200 sell-out “a week or two too early” for the injured Lewis Stevenson, Anscombe said Neil McComb and Robbie Diack were also options, but the rapidly emerging Henderson looks by far the likeliest one. This in turn should mean a recall for Nick Williams in the backrow, with McComb on the bench.
