Davidson accepts London Irish deal

In what constitutes a significant statement of intent for the coming season, London Irish yesterday announced that their Lions' lock Jeremy Davidson has signed a new three-year deal with the club.

Given Davidson was technically out of contract and received covetous overtures from Cardiff (who reputedly offered to make him a millionaire in three years) as well as Harlequins, it is a major coup for the Sunbury club.

Undoubtedly, Davidson's long-standing relationship with his onetime Dungannon mentor Willie Anderson was a sizeable factor in the player's loyalty to the club. The deal is believed to be worth in the region of £500,000.

Neither player nor coach was available for comment yesterday, as London Irish are currently on tour in France, but in a prepared statement Anderson said: "I am delighted that Jeremy is staying with the club. Following his performance last season with London Irish and recently with the British and Irish Lions, Jeremy will be a major force in the team's drive in the Allied Dunbar Premiership."

At the risk of tempting fate, this development would seem to signal a more stable era in the often volatile history of London Irish where heretofore players and coaches came and went as if through a revolving door.

In trouble financially yet again after flirting with relegation last season, the club were salvaged by a consortium of Irish businessmen headed by Geoff Read, the chairman of London Irish Holdings' Ltd.

Read, the former owner of Ballygowan, heralded Davidson's resigning yesterday when commenting: "In the time Jeremy has been with us a lot of time and effort has been invested into helping him become the player he is and we want to benefit from that now. He is a real star and he showed that with the Lions."

In keeping with the club's stated change of policy, Read vows that Davidson will not be the only bigname player at the club, nor will this be confined to Irish-born players.

"There's a lot to be done. We're coming in with the season about to start but we want to help Willie Anderson to develop the team he's got, to add key players where necessary and they can be from anywhere, whether they're Irish or New Zealand. We're going to have the best players for the best positions. That's the way we're going."

This much quickly became apparent to many of the London Irish players during last season's difficult campaign, although quite a sizeable injection of cash would be required on the playing front.

While maintaining that "the situation is slightly over-hyped at the moment," Read says that through re-negotiated sponsorship, television income and increased membership from 1,500 to a projected 5,000, "we're looking at a minimum of £.5 million over this year, taking us to approaching £2 million in players' costs."

He added: "This year we aim to stabilise our position and next year, our centenary year, we want to be winning everything in sight.