Irish in a stew
Desperate Smith can’t stop stars leaving
LONDON IRISH director of rugby Brian Smith is resigned to losing two more England players at the end of this season, but he certainly isn’t resigned to relegation. The Exiles are sitting uncomfortably only a point above bottom- placed Sale after six consecutive league defeats. They go to Gloucester on Saturday with the worst defensive record in the division and have confirmed the end of Shaun Edwards’ consultancy stint. Against this worrying backdrop, the exodus of high-profile players in recent seasons is set to continue. England prop Alex Corbisiero is expected to join Northampton and Bath have been in talks with rookie Test centre Jonathan Joseph. With their contracts running out in June, Smith admits there is little he can do to prevent the pair from leaving.
‘From the moment I set foot back in the club, I made it clear to those two that I wanted them to stay,’ said the former England attack coach. ‘ But I don’t think we’re going to keep everyone at the club.
‘I would like to but over the past few seasons, 10 or 12 big-name players have left. There are probably still a couple more to go.’
Players coming out of contract are free to talk to interested clubs six months before their deals expire and Smith added: ‘There are other clubs with bigger chequebooks, there are other clubs who are proactive in tapping up players and I’ve no doubt that a number of our lads have been worked on since very early in the season.
‘We have made very, very robust offers to those two guys. They have known from day one that I wanted them to stay. I’ve peppered their agents with calls but, to be fair, neither of them has led me up the garden path and they have made it clear that they are keen to play the field in January.
‘We are rebuilding this team and if people don’t want to be here, quite frankly they are not the sort of people we want.
‘We will be picking our team from now on based on character over talent. If anything, so far this season I have erred on the side of talent over character but going down the talent route has got us to where we are now, which is in the poo, really.’