THE SATISFIED SNORES coming from the west wing of Carton House last night told the tale of a contented young rugby player with his medium-term future tied up in a bow.
Yesterday we revealed that the IRFU had agreed contract extensions with Leinster and Ireland props Cian Healy [summer 2016] and Mike Ross [2015].
Healy was so thrilled to have his negotiating wrangles put to bed that he tweeted and posted an Instagram picture of his new contract before he tucked himself in at Ireland’s training headquarters:
(Credit: @ProperChurch)
Healy and Ross have been selected to start against Wales in the Six Nations opener on Saturday.
The IRFU’s negotiating position may have been strengthened somewhat by the fresh television rights deals struck with RTÉ and Sky Sports.
The RTÉ deal is an extension of Irish, free-to-air television rights for the Autumn internationals until 2017 while the Sky Sports agreement is also for the same series of games from 2014 until 2017.
This is the first time that Sky Sports has been granted rights to show home Ireland internationals.
