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08th Jan 2014

From Tullow to Toulon, Leinster could be about to lose another star to France

Injury-hit Ireland flanker Sean O’Brien could become the second Leinster player to move to the Top 14 within a year with reports suggesting that Toulon are close to signing the Tullow Tank.

Conor Heneghan

Injury-hit Ireland flanker Sean O’Brien could become the second Leinster player to move to the Top 14 within a year with reports suggesting that Toulon are close to signing the Tullow Tank.

A report in today’s Irish Times suggests that O’Brien’s move to the French side could be sealed as soon as this weekend as negotiations are believed to be at an advances stage, although O’Brien’s agent Fintan Drury denied that a meeting is scheduled to take place between representatives of the player and the club this Friday.

O’Brien is currently sidelined with a shoulder injury picked up over the Christmas period that will see him miss a significant part of the rest of this season, but it appears as if his ongoing battle with a succession of injuries since returning from the Lions Tour in the summer hasn’t discouraged Toulon in their pursuit of the 2011 European Player of the Year.

The worrying thing for Leinster and Irish rugby fans is that O’Brien’s potential departure could be the first in a possible exodus of Irish players abroad, with Jamie Heaslip also linked with a move to Toulon and the future of Munster duo Paul O’Connell and Keith Earls yet to be secured.

Nothing is set in stone so nobody’s about to wave goodbye to O’Brien, Heaslip or anyone else just yet but with our top ranked players attracting such interest from abroad and the players themselves obviously aware of the appeal of moving from a financial and from a career point of view, these are worrying times for the Irish provinces.

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