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Jeremy Staunton joins Harlequins
By The Prof August 31 2004
Mark Evans has been wanting to bring Jeremy Staunton to The Stoop for a few years and now, with Paul Burke doing the reciprocal transfer, he has finally managed to sign him.


Name: Jeremy Staunton Jeremy Staunton
Position: Fly half/utility back
Date of birth: 7th May 1980
Place of birth: Limerick
Height: 6’ 1” (1.85m)
Weight: 14st 9lbs (92kg)
School: St Munchins College, Limerick
University: University College, Limerick
Previous Clubs: Munster, Garryowen
Honours: Ireland, Ireland A, U18, U19, U21, Ireland Youth, Ireland Schools
Signed for:

2 years, 2004/5, 2005/6

Staunton has been to The Stoop before, he played for Munster against us in the Heineken Cup in October 2001, he also played against us in the away leg in Limerick when he came on for the last five minutes to replace Dominic Crotty at fullback.

Although Munster have been using Staunton at fullback for most of this season he sees himself as a fly half. He has been behind Ronan O’Gara’s in the pecking order at fly half at Munster, the signing of Christian Cullen meant he would have trouble getting first team games at fullback, and the signing of our own Paul Burke as fly half cover probably made the offer from Harlequins of a lot more first team rugby much more appealing.

Staunton picked up a groin strain in the Heineken Cup match against Perpignan a season ago, and it continued to effect his play all last season. He agreed to play through his injury while Ronan O’Gara was away at the World Cup with Ireland, a trip that a fit Staunton may well have found himself on. His injury got worse, in fact he ended up having trouble running or kicking, not a good thing for a fly half! This meant that a lot of the Munster fans started to get on his back and after O’Gara returned and Cullen was signed he spent most of his time at Munster on the bench. This wasn’t helped by him picking up a jaw and wrist injury after recovering from the groin injury.

But this has not always been the case, as a schoolboy there was talk of Staunton being the next white (or should that be green) hope. He was an incredibly skilful player with a lot of flair who stood head and shoulders above the other players in his team. One of the few other players of his age group that was spoken of in the same way was Gavin Duffy, a player who has played on the same junior teams with him for Ireland.

At the age of 18 he rose from being on the periphery of the Garryowen senior to playing  for Munster under 20, Munster A, Ireland Youths, Ireland under 19, Ireland under 21 and Ireland A. On his 19th birthday he was named in Ireland’s touring squad for the trip to Australia. He only played in one match on tour when he came on as a substitute in the match against New South Wales County. However he had already pulled on the green shirt at senior level, but it was in a non-cap game against the Barbarians. The month after the Australian tour he was packing his bags to head off to Argentina with the U21 squad.

In 2000 he scored a personal tally of 30 points in the drubbing of the Italy A team, scoring two tries and kicking ten conversions, the 20 year old was even managing to keep Ronan O’Gara on the bench at Munster. In the summer of 2001 he recorded a personal tally of 28 points for Ireland A against South Africa A, scoring one try, and getting a 100% success rate with the boot with four conversions and five penalties, in this game he was playing fly half and Gavin Duffy was at full back.   He got his first cap in playing against Western Samoa in Dublin in  November 2001 and he topped off his debut with a well taken try.

He is an attacking player who loves to run with the ball in hand, he can move off both feet with incredible speed and he certainly isn’t scared to try things, but he is also a very experienced and reliable place kicker with a high success rate.

His move to Quins will hopefully reinvigorate his international career, the chance of playing more first team rugby will do his chance of selection of the Ireland team no damage at all, after all it has been successful for Gavin Duffy who is currently on tour with Ireland.

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