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The Sean O'Brien to France situation is slowly inching towards a resolution and it isn't a good one for Leinster.

The Tullow Tank is set to fly to France this week for more talks with Toulon ahead of a potential move and with Ireland and Leinster team-mate Jamie Heaslip also linked to the French club, the "floodgates" could open according to The Irish Times' Gerry Thornley on Wednesday Night Rugby.

"These two are very much benchmark cases. If these two go as well, other players will see this and the main reason that players stay in Ireland is because the provinces can win Heineken Cups and are competitive. If they go down a little bit like the Welsh and the Scots do, it could become conceivably floodgates," said Thornley who believes Leinster will lose out massively if the deals go ahead.

The IRFU are in a difficult situation when it comes to the contract wrangles given that the French Top 14 clubs are flush with money, following their deal with Canal Plus.

Irish Rugby Union Players' Association co-founder Liam Toland has reservations about the negotiating processs.

"The first part of the jigsaw is what the true value of someone like Sean O'Brien is. We talk about yards carried and yards after contact carried and I wonder do the IRFU understand the true value in numbers of how many yards Sean O'Brien carries and who is the next guy in Irish rugby who can actually do that, like you would in American football. With Peyton Manning, you know he does x amounts of yards and with Sean O'Brien you could mathematically establish that. But I don't know if the IRFU think in that sense. I think there's an opportunity missed from the negotiating point of view to really understand his true value. The same applies to Jamie Heaslip in a very different way."

The lads also looked ahead to the final pool games of the Heineken Cup and Thornley backed Ulster as having the best chance of gaining a home quarter-final.