Exiles ponder legal route on Warwick

TRANSFERS PAUL WARWICK CONTRACT ROW:THE difference of opinion between London Irish and Munster over the playing future of Australian-born outhalf Paul Warwick continues apace and may require mediation from the IRFU.

The Exiles club have reiterated that they have Warwick’s signature on a contract in which he agreed to move to London for two seasons, joining the Guinness Premiership side on July 1st.

The problem for London Irish is it appears that the player no longer wants to leave Munster, a state of affairs of which the Premiership side have been appraised informally.

To this end they issued a second statement yesterday which read: “London Irish reconfirmed today (January 30th) that Paul Warwick signed a contract with the club on January 13th. The contract is for two seasons and has a start date of July 1st, 2009.

“London Irish nevertheless understands through informal channels that Paul Warwick is now seeking to withdraw from the contract on the back of revised terms presented by Munster Rugby.

“London Irish has written to Munster Rugby and Paul Warwick seeking formal clarification of their position but to date no response has been received.

“London Irish is considering its options and will not hesitate to take all such action as it deems necessary to fully protect the best interests of the club.”

It seems that Warwick did give a commitment to join Irish at a point when he was unhappy with the terms of a proposed new contract with Munster. It apparently wasn’t a financial stumbling block. Since then the Australian has expressed a desire to remain with Munster.

However, London Irish are unhappy with this volte face. Chief executive Graham Walpole confirmed last night Warwick had signed a full contract after negotiations involving the player and his agent, and the club were expecting him to honour that agreement.

He further explained that they had written two letters, one to Munster and the other to Warwick, seeking an explanation as to why the player now wanted to remain where he was and at this point hadn’t received a satisfactory response.

“The matter is now in the hands of our lawyers pending clarification from Paul and Munster.”

Munster chief executive Garrett Fitzgerald didn’t want to comment on the matter other than to stress that: “Munster have replied as requested to correspondence received. I have no other comment to make.”

It’ll be interesting to see whether the IRFU step in to mediate on the matter. They hold ultimate sway over contractual and financial issues with the provinces, while London Irish has constituent ties to the Irish union.