Leinster’s Matt O’Connor confident of keeping Irish stars

Matt O’Connor is confident that British & Irish Lions Jamie Heaslip and Sean O’Brien will stay with the Irish region.

The two Irish internationals have been linked with moves to France and the Top 14 where Ireland fly-half Jonathan Sexton is now plying his trade.

Heaslip captained Ireland in this year’s Six Nations, whilst O’Brien started the third Test of the Lions victorious series against Australia.

And O’Connor, who replaced Joe Schmidt at the Leinster helm this summer, remains hopeful that Ireland’s stars will be staying on home soil.

“We’ll be having conversations with them and will be having those early to try and sign them up for many years,” he said.

“It is always going to be that the guys are going to have to make a decision. Do they want to stay in a really good environment and potentially win things or do they want to chase financial rewards?

“Ultimately, it is their decision to make, but I’m sure off the back of what Leinster provides and what Dublin provides and what they have achieved in this environment we would be confident they’ll stay here.”