INTERVIEW: OMAR HASSANEIN AND BRIAN O'DRISCOLL:OMAR HASSANEIN immediately gives the impression of a man who knows his audience. That's always half the battle.
“Why don’t I get Brian O’Driscoll to join us?” he suggested last Wednesday. We enthusiastically agreed and duly gathered at the Irish Rugby Union Players Association (Irupa) offices on Lower Leeson Street the following afternoon.
When discussing player welfare the pressing topics are education and insurance from injury.
But it goes much deeper than that. Irupa’s primary roles are to safeguard player interests in the present while also cushioning the inevitable fall from the rarefied atmosphere of elite sport back into the real world.
Niall Woods’s last act as Irupa chief executive six months ago was to rubber-stamp Hassanein as his replacement. His penultimate act was to oversee the arrival of a new players’ board with O’Driscoll as chairman. The board will also include Paul O’Connell, Rory Best, Shane Jennings and Gavin Duffy.
“There is no doubt having these guys on the board is a huge benefit,” said Hassanein. “They carry the voice of the playing group and are, ultimately, the most respected.
“Having the two most high-profile players in the country, in Brian and Paul involved, it gives us a little more impetus as an organisation.”
Denis O’Brien is a non-executive board member, as are Ken Belshaw of Grafton Recruitment and Aer Arann managing director Pádraig Ó Céidigh.
Hassanein’s arrival in Ireland earlier this year went largely unnoticed. The focus was understandably elsewhere and pretty much has been until now.
Like most Australian rugby men who have landed on these shores, he is a product of the Randwick club. Fellow backrower and former Leinster coach Michael Cheika was his captain for five years and coach for three.
He was a good enough flanker for the NSW Waratahs to be capped by Australia A before taking the usual nomadic route of Southern Hemisphere players – turning up in Japan, France and Padova, Italy before hanging up his boots aged 30.
Unlike most, however, he attained a degree in marketing and a postgrad in finance during those eight years as a professional. He recently added a qualification in Sports Law to his CV. It undoubtedly helped that the Australian Rugby Union, via the players’ union, paid for a large chunk of this education.
The financial support from the IRFU for Irupa is a fraction of the arrangements in place in Australian, New Zealand and England. But Hassanein is keen to accentuate the positive working relationship already struck up at all levels with the IRFU.
“With no disrespect to this part of the world, in the Southern Hemisphere they are ahead in that respect. It’s a pretty high benchmark and we’re not expecting anything to jump rapidly to that level but we are looking at our player service programme. It needs to be expanded and we are looking at the best way of doing that.
“We are also looking at broadening what the programme offers. We have got the obvious education offering and the transition into the workplace but we also look at what players are offering the game whilst they are playing; that they are good ambassadors for the sport, good role models and also the player himself is in a good mental state to be able to play rugby.
“I think the administrators at provincial level and national level in Ireland realise how important this is.”
The Australian players’ body employs six full-time staff in their players services programme. Irupa currently have the highly-regarded expertise of Hamish Adams. The Kiwi native covers a wide variety of roles that ensure players continue their education during their playing days to brace them for the aftermath for a career that concludes, at best, in one’s late 30s – just when other non-sporting career paths are beginning to accelerate.
This unavoidable situation has had a lot to do with O’Driscoll getting involved with Irupa: “I suppose, from my point of view, it was a little bit of a case of I’ve been given an awful lot and it was my turn to give a little bit back.
“It concerns me to see guys coming out of school and thinking ‘I am going to be a professional rugby player’ and giving everything to that. It is honourable but it is naïve because so much can happen.”
He speaks of the ample time available to a rugby player to expand horizons, especially in the early stages of a career.
“There are guys in their late 20s who are realising, ‘I might have to retire in five years, I better get going’. You’d be surprised how many guys go back to college. If for no other reason than to keep your brain ticking over.
“You don’t have to be doing a Felipe (Contepomi) – having a family, studying medicine and playing international rugby (all at once). That’s never going to be done again but some third-level education can be.”
The fickleness of this life is something O’Driscoll has seen first hand.
Too many times in fact. The IRFU have an insurance plan in place but so does Irupa.
“Thankfully I haven’t needed to call on my insurance to date but it is the best money I have ever spent because you can play away and don’t have to worry about it.
“Players will go: ‘Oh, I spent thousands over the years and it is dead money.’ It is not dead money because it had your back. I’ve seen many guys who have had 10- and 12-year careers but I have seen a lot of guys who have had two- or three-year careers. No one more pertinent than someone like Ciarán Scally. You realise that it can be incredibly fickle.”
Scally, one of O’Driscoll’s oldest friends, is the four-times capped international scrumhalf who was forced to retire as a 20-year-old in 1999 with a knee injury. He seemed primed for a hugely-productive innings at the elite end of the game.
“There are a lot of guys that go under the radar and the general public don’t know about them because they are not international players,” O’Driscoll continued. “Some freak accident or some injury is capable of happening to anyone.
“I would always advise a new guy to insure themselves. It gives them some stability that allows you to play your game as freely as your talent allows you.”
The growing numbers forced out of the game in this manner has inevitably decreased the insurance payout. Retirement through injury of a 25-year-old or younger in Ireland used to be covered by up to 75 per cent of his wages for 10 years. The maximum cover now is for four years.
Hassanein comments: “Any insurance policy is only as sustainable as the number of claims in that particular year would allow it to be and that’s the nature of these policies. We certainly do our best to keep the benefits as good as possible for the players. That’s almost a year-to-year proposition.
“It is one of the highest priorities for us as a players’ association – income protection and the cover they have within their contract with the IRFU.”
O’Driscoll: “Yeah, I think the game is becoming more physical but we must remember the players are getting in better shape too which gives them a better opportunity to fight injuries. It balances itself out to a degree.
“It is always a work in progress. We are going to fight our corner as best we can, and get the best policies we can. They are going to tighten things as much as they can. That’s the way of the world. We are both trying to get the best deal out of it.”
But O’Driscoll is equally keen to stress that insurance and income protection is financial assistance that merely provides a bridge to their next career path.
“The mentality among the players has to be that insurance isn’t there to set you up for the rest of your life. It is a little bit of breathing space to forge their next path without worrying financially about overheads they currently have.”
This is the crux of Irupa’s role.
Hassanein has personal experience of having to make a fairly rapid switch from professional rugby to civilian life only four years ago.
“Yeah, I can speak from experience. There was a period of time when there was a lot of money going out on various investments and nothing coming in. But more than the financial side of it, your identity as a rugby player is suddenly taken away from you and you struggle in your own mind to work out ‘what is my identity’. Even if you are well educated. That is tough mentality for guys.
“The players’ services programme looks at the mental health of guys. Aside from the insurance offering, there is a real emphasis for us to ensure that players are equipped for that next stage of their lives so the transition is much smoother and easier.”
Not that the Irupa chairman feels the need to adopt a militant stance. On the contrary, O’Driscoll is adamant he would not be in his current physical shape if he had decided to leave the centrally-contracted IRFU environment and ply his trade overseas.
“No way, because we aren’t the commodity that English and French clubs make their players. First and foremost we are national players, sub-contracted down to our provinces. That allows the Irish coaches to have the over-riding say. There has been no occasion where I have been forced to go out and play through injury.”
Of course, it has been evident down through the seasons that he has dragged his body through big games.
“But that’s on me. I have wanted to play in big games. Listen, it is a long time since I was 100 per cent fit. You are always going to have some muscle injury even from a contact session during the week. That is what rugby is.
“Look at Richie McCaw. Only he really knows what pain levels he was putting up with. The goal of wanting to achieve success means you put your injury woes to one side for 80 minutes and just pick them back up after the final whistle. That is just what we do.”
