Irish Rugby getting Stronger

Nukem

Was just reading the paper when i came accross an article on Ulster may be signing a New Zealander (with Irish Roots) his name is Isaac boss from Wellignton Hurricanes. Seems the Kiwis think highly of him but he is eligble to play for Ireland,good news.

But the main thing that caught my eye was a few lines about how Kiwis such a Spice(Ospreys) Holwell(Leinster) are coming over here. From the Sunday Independant

there would be concerns in New Zealand about the flow of young players over seas.

Just shows that we have very competitive teams if the Kiwis are exporting and getting worried.As anyone heard of any other players coming in to the Provinces.

Mungaman

Justin Marshall is due to go to Leeds after the Lions and rumor in NZ is he won't be the only current All Black to leave after the tour. Europe has a much stronger competiton than it did in previous years but the Kiwis that have come over have little to no chance of making the All Blacks and want to make the most of a European season or two. Its turned from being a retirement project into being a serious venture for players who are at a top level. It will be very interesting to see what happens with the new club that Sean Fitzpatrick, Zin Zan Brook and Fransoir Pinar have bought.
With South Africa picking Test Players that play outside of SA you will def see more of them making the journey to Europe rather than playing a pritty poor standard Curry Cup

spanner

is that rule still in affect that you must play club rugby in new zeland in order to play with their national team

Mungaman

Yeah that rule is still in place. I agree with it you have to try and keep your players home to develop your own national competition. I'm very surprised that Ireland manages to keep the bulk of there players here. I know BOD was talking about going to France and Johnny O'Connor, Si Easterby play away but I would be surprised if we don't lose more players out of the country if the European teams keep forking out the cash for top players.

evilhomer

Yeah i am suprised by that too, the IRFU don't pay huge money to the players compared to the cash in the zurich premiership. I heard that the gate recipts in the ZP are well up this year across almost all clubs.
Rugby is definately on the up in the northern hemisphere. the Heineken cup has a lot to do with that in my opinion

Hairy Homer

evilhomer wrote:

Yeah i am suprised by that too, the IRFU don't pay huge money to the players compared to the cash in the zurich premiership. I heard that the gate recipts in the ZP are well up this year across almost all clubs.
Rugby is definately on the up in the northern hemisphere. the Heineken cup has a lot to do with that in my opinion

Most of the Kiwis that have come over so far are either at the end of their international careers (Cullen, Marshall etc) or were not real contenders in the first place.

It's great to see the likes of Cullen etc playing for Irish provinces (nothwithstanding my reservations about his form in the past) but there is a balance to be struck. The more we depend on imports for key positions, the harder it is to develop home-grown talent.

An illustration of this is our out-half situation. For the past few years this has been an area of strength, with Humphreys and O'Gara vying for the slot. Now with O'Gara out, who is our back up to Humphreys?

Let's see:
Leinster's outhalves Contepomi (Argentinian) and Holwell (NZ) Fine players but we can;t use them

Connacht: Eric Elwood (nobody admired Elwood more in his prime than I did but he's nearly as old as me FFS)

Ulster: Paddy Wallace a great hope that did not materialise.

Munster: Paul Burke (solid player but international classs? Hmm) And he'll be the one on the bench for Italy and Scotland.

And as for props. Don't get me started.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

evilhomer

Hairy homer

I agree with you on that.
it seems the strength of irish rugby may be it's downfall in the near future.
i was thinking about that situation with the out-halfs.
we will need to blood some new players soon rather than bringing in players from abroad.

perhaps the resumption of the International A games will help us to try out some new players over the next year or two?

don't think we can solve the prop problem anytime soon, unless anyone knows of someone good in the pipeline!

damnyanks

Wasn't R O'Gara offered 11million 1 or 2 years ago to kick for the Miami Dolphins?

If so it shows that most players aren't interested in huge wages that they are happy with what they can get here. Of course it will get to the stage where it must increase.

There are one are two decent young Fly Halfs playing in the AIL. Mcalister for Clontarf is reasonable and has done alright when he has come on in the Celtic league for Leinster. He's about 21 lots of time there

damnyanks

Was also the u-19's finishing 3rd wasn't it in the world cup last year?

Hairy Homer

damnyanks wrote:

Was also the u-19's finishing 3rd wasn't it in the world cup last year?

Second actually. Great to see but no guarantee of future success. The Great Eamon Dunphy once wrote a piece about under age soccer that contained a gem of a line that went something like: 'of the 22 players who played in the Ireland England schoolboy international of 1960-something in which I played, only one ever made it to be a senior international, and I think we can all agree he didn't exactly set the world on fire'

Only two of the Irish under 20 side that came third in the Soccer World Cup in 1997 made it to the senior side. And one of them was Glenn Crowe.

Can't imagine rugby being any different.

BolBill

damnyanks wrote:

Wasn't R O'Gara offered 11million 1 or 2 years ago to kick for the Miami Dolphins?

Apparently that story was complete cack.

evilhomer

cack! love that word

BolBill

evilhomer wrote:

cack! love that word

Well gimme some positive feedback mate, I don't get much (if any)