O'Driscoll has the Midas touch

In the aftermath of Sunday's famous win, one of the jokers in the Irish squad took out his chequebook, tore out a blank cheque and, on behalf of the IRFU and whoever else might want him, tossed it to Brian O'Driscoll. "Fill it in yourself," was the gist of the joke about the boy wonder's market value.

After O'Driscoll's virtuoso performance at the Stade de France that value is nearly as incalculable as his contribution to the Irish win. You'd wager the IRFU wishes they'd done the deal a few weeks ago. In some ways it serves them right. Almost all professional sports organisations - take football for example - negotiate improved, longer deals with their leading lights while there is still a year or more left on an existing contract.

By prevaricating until almost the last moment, not just with O'Driscoll but with around another 90 provincial and international players whose contracts expire on June 1st, the union have backed themselves into a corner.

With each passing game they are going to have to pay more than they bargained for - especially with regard to O'Driscoll, but not just him.

Rumours vary as to whether London Irish, for example, are offering the player in the region of Stg £125,000, although you would have thought O'Driscoll was now worth every penny of such a basic sum for that club particularly. The going rate in the English club game is about that, and in O'Driscoll's case at least two agents now reckon he is in the £150-200,000 price bracket.

The London Irish coach, Dick Best, yesterday said of O'Driscoll: "He's probably the best centre in the Northern Hemisphere already. His all-round game in Paris was outstanding. "We have had discussions with him and his father and the next step will be to talk to his agent. They (the IRFU) have more money than us because they don't have a salary cap and no doubt his price is going up by the day. Like all things it will probably be decided by money."

What will elevate O'Driscoll to the top salary level even more now is that the French have entered the equation. At the very least, overtures have been made to O'Driscoll by Stade Francais, whose benefactor and president, the radio entrepreneur Max Gauzzini, is estimated to be one of France's 20 wealthiest individuals.

It might not stop there, especially after last Sunday in Paris, for Castres and Toulouse (who have reportedly approached Peter Stringer and Ronan O'Gara), to name but two, can compete in the market place with their Parisian rivals.

From the IRFU's point of view, the unnerving thing about French clubs entering the market is that, under French law, an overseas player's salary in the first year of a contract is tax free.

So agents who place O'Driscoll's market value at £150-200,000 per annum basic (plus win bonuses and so forth) also estimate that the player's off-the-pitch commercial earning potential is at least £100,000 per annum, what with that fresh young face and boyish charm to go with his rare talent. "He's gold dust," as one agent put it.

Donal Lenihan said last week that the Irish management preferred that contractual negotiations between the union and players would not be conducted during match weeks, so some negotiations which have already started will be resumed this week, including O'Driscoll's, according to one union source.

But nothing is likely to happen with regard to Warren Gatland's position until after the final Six Nations game against Wales at Lansdowne Road on Saturday week, in part because the IRFU president, Billy Lavery, is in Hong Kong until early next week on official duty at the Hong Kong Sevens.

Gatland's contract expires on April 1st, but it has not been discussed at union level yet and, according to the IRFU vice-president Eddie Coleman, "there's no chance whatsoever of anything being discussed before then and because that is in the days before the next match, in all probability not until after the Welsh match. "That is probably the week when minds will be made up and when decisions will be made. This is not due to a reluctance on our part, it's just not practical at the moment."

There were no injuries to report in the Irish squad out of Sunday's game, and a squad for the Welsh will be announced next Thursday, with the team to be revealed the following Wednesday.

Shane Horgan may return to action with Lansdowne this weekend, and might then return to the squad.