Norm says...

Leinsterblue

As far as I know I am afraid it does mean that the IRFU can chose him for the country against the provinces wishes. From a country vs province perspective the rights or wrongs of that can I gues be argued, but the nature of IRFU central contracts will contractually at least give them the overriding decision I think, again the rights and wrongs of the structure can be tossed around.

However from a player welfare perspective and for the holistic well being of irish rugby in the longer term ( by that I mean province and country) it is insanely myopic and I would say very cavalier particularly when the prime issue is not IRB rankings or provincial starts to the season, it is the well being of players so taking players half fir into a series liek this and particualy this one is wrong!

Posted 12:10 27th June 2012

leinsterblue says...

leinster_goy - thanks, got a bit confused as I thought you were talking about the back row...

mcdb06 - in theory, we do have a good player management policy in that anyone who plays in a summer series, can only play one of the first four games of the new season to ensure that they are rested...however, it would seem that the player management policy for bringing injured players on tour would need to be looked at...

this also brings up the interesting point of club Vs country - a debate that always seems to rage in soccer...as O'Brien is centrally contracted, does that mean that the IRFU can make the decision to bring him on tour, even if injured and knowing that there is a bigger impact to Leinster post surgery...

Posted 09:26 27th June 2012

mcdb06 says...

@leinsterblue. Well said. Irfu and provincial player management should come under more scrutiny. Given denis leamy was forced to retire due to a very similar injury they should not have brought o'brien to nz or not have played him. No need to risk one of Ireland's best talents on a nothing tour

Posted 23:14 26th June 2012

hhlamazing says...

Jonesy2 and his usual trolling. Nothing better to do lately?

Posted 16:18 26th June 2012

leinsterblue says...

dreadful news for O'Brien and Leinster, but a real chance for Dominic Ryan to step up and hopefully show the potential that we are all hoping he has...

more worryingly for me is player management - why was he let play with the injury?..surely he should have gone under the knife immediately after the Heineken Cup and missed the end of season tour, that way ensuring that he could return to Leinster in October timeframe...

leinster_goy - not too sure if we need a medical joker for the backline...we have McLaughlin, Ciaran Ruddock (normally a lock, but he could be converted), Coughlan and Ryan as well as Heaslip, so we should be covered....

Posted 14:44 26th June 2012

Kevin83 says...

Never mind the November tests. I'm keeping an eye on the HC fixtures to see if he'll be back for the Clermont Games.

Huge miss if he's not.

Posted 14:19 26th June 2012

leinster_goy says...

hopefully he'll be back for the clermont games (presumably those will be in december if sky have their way). the silver lining is that this will give Dommers some valuable time at openside and show us what he's made of

with Fitzy, Mallers and now Kearns the Younger out, it looks like we're going to have to bring in one of these "medical jokers" for the backline, just to tide us over until the new year

Posted 08:49 26th June 2012