So it's official. Jimmy Gopperth is talking to Wasps about a possible move there next season.
For this one post can we please, please put a pin in all the "MOC out" and "Gopperth has been poor" talk. Plenty of time to get back to it before or after matches between now and the end of the season...here, I want to address another point.
I have never been comfortable with this process of players declaring mid season where they plan to play down the line, while still staying with their present club. Of COURSE I don't begrudge them looking out for their futures, and of COURSE I don't expect anything less than the utmost professionalism from players at the highest level.
Still...the idea of a player having talks with a club which his present one has still to play while he's still there does not sit right with me. Leinster play Wasps in our final Pool 2 match in January and qualification or (dare I say it even) a home quarterfinal could well be on the line.
My heading is merely a Wasp-related pun, just to be clear. I'm not really suggesting any kind of a conspiracy. It just goes against what I reckon sport should be about in terms of fairness.
Having said that, it does beg some questions...I'm assuming it was Wasps who reached out to the player - he hardly went to them? If so, should they have been allowed to given we are still to play them? I mean...if it was another team in the Pro12 there's not much we could do but a club in our European pool is a different matter I would have thought?
I don't know. These are just my initial thoughts. Maybe after sleeping on it for a couple of nights I'll make more sense of it, though it has been rumoured for a while now and it never seemed right.
We'll see what happens. #COYBIB JLP
