YOU WOULDN’T BLAME Irish rugby fans for eyeing their French club counterparts a little enviously this week.

Racing Metro cut Dan Carter a massive check while Toulon fired back by snapping up Ma’a Nonu and Napolioni Nalaga.

It must be titillating to be a French rugby fan because every time you open a paper you can be fairly certain your favourite team will be linked with a massive name.

The year before the World Cup always sees a flurry of recruitment as players from the southern hemisphere venture north for one last big payday before their career ends.

The rules in place here mean that the provinces can’t assemble of team of galacticos from around the world. However, they have shown in the past that if they recruit shrewdly – Rocky Elsom, Doug Howlett, Ruan Pienaar etc – then the impact can be just as telling as when Mourad Boudjellal gets out the check book.

Leinster forwards coach Leo Cullen stressed the importance of home-grown talent to Leinster and how everyone in the set-up as bought into the process of producing players for the national team.

However, with Jimmy Gopperth likely to leave at the end of the season, at least one spot should be open for an overseas player.

“We are allowed sign three foreign players and a couple of project guys on top of that maybe so we are in a very different situation to Toulon.

“The process we have here is that we are trying to nurture talent through and we are in the business of trying to develop players to play for Ireland. We are pretty limited with what we can sign.”

The IRFU and Leinster once again demonstrated their commitment to Irish talent today by signing Devin Toner to a new deal that runs until 2017. It is becoming increasingly apparent that Johnny Sexton absconding to France has made the IRFU far more vigilant in ensuring the country’s best players stay at home.

More players are being signed up to longer deals and the process usually plays out quietly (unless one of the French equivalents of Match magazine prints another piece of gossip).

Cullen has spent a long time watching Toner develop, and is delighted that Leinster are holding onto a player who is moving into the prime of his career after a couple of seasons where he was learning his trade.

“You need to be a little patient with front five forwards so they can grow into their bodies a little bit,” Cullen said.

“Devin is a classic example of that. It might have taken awhile to get that consistency of performance but once he established himself a couple of years ago and got a few games under his belt, he has been pretty key to what we do. If you walk around the streets of Dublin there are very few guys who have those physical attributes.”

Cullen didn’t hesitate when asked what Toner’s specialties are within the Leinster team.

“The experience he has in calling lineouts, the presence he has around the field,” Cullen said.”

“6’11 and he has very good aerial skills. He is a great distributor and I think he gives us a lot of really good options. It is great having guys who come through the system like that, who want to stay and play for Leinster.”

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