Academy Scouting

EdgarAllenPoo

Can someone give me a little information on how players are scouted for academy spots?

Do they basically only look at a certain few teams(Blackrock,UCD,Shannon,etc) or would they have an eye on let's say Coolmine RFC or Navan as well.

I notice that most of (though not all) the players listed on Connachts academy team are from Dublin.

Goodluck2me

actually only very few of the Connacht Team are from Dublin although many of them study there. The Academy Players are normally watched through schools and picked from there, and without being elitest, most of the academy suited and worthy players tend to play for the bigger school although exceptions exist. Sean o Brien Whilst now playign for UCD was playing his rugby for Carlow u18s and was drafted straight into the Leinster Academy and u21 squad. i dont think he ever played u19s even though he was underage to do so. so if your good enough your old enough and "from dublin" enough! i would also imagine that if you (from a management point of view) had a player who was excelling at a certain club/school the coaches would be more than happy to check them out. get them to come to a few games.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

connundrum

I knew a guy who was playing Ireland under 19's having played with Tullamore U16's and 17's. He did later move up to a Dublin school later, but point is that he was spotted in Tullamore. I guess if you're good enough then you'll shine

Goodluck2me

connundrum wrote:

I knew a guy who was playing Ireland under 19's having played with Tullamore U16's and 17's. He did later move up to a Dublin school later, but point is that he was spotted in Tullamore. I guess if you're good enough then you'll shine

Sean o Brien?

connundrum

goodluck2me wrote:

Sean o Brien?

Anthony Kavanagh. Well I think that was his story anyways, he was in my class in school like.

Edit - Sorry he went into Garryowen. My bad

csk

goodluck2me wrote:

actually only very few of the Connacht Team are from Dublin although many of them study there. The Academy Players are normally watched through schools and picked from there, and without being elitest, most of the academy suited and worthy players tend to play for the bigger school although exceptions exist. Sean o Brien Whilst now playign for UCD was playing his rugby for Carlow u18s and was drafted straight into the Leinster Academy and u21 squad. i dont think he ever played u19s even though he was underage to do so. so if your good enough your old enough and "from dublin" enough! i would also imagine that if you (from a management point of view) had a player who was excelling at a certain club/school the coaches would be more than happy to check them out. get them to come to a few games.

I'm sorry I couldn't let this go as a proud Tullow RFC man.:D
Sean played his rugby for Tullow RFC which is situated in County Carlow, as opposed to the CO. Carlow team that is in the upper echelons of the AIL.
If you were from the area you'd understand;)

Players like Sean do seem to be the exception rather than the rule though and only get picked up due to their exceptional ability.
Surely there is a lot more of these players out there with potential who don't go to the Big Rugby schools, I can't help but feel the IRFU is missing out on a lot of untapped potential.

pisslips

Yes actually, having played with Sean for Tullow underage , it would annoy me to think that the general concensus is that he played for Carlow RFC.