It's religious orders selling the grounds out from under the school with the school powerless to stop them.
Out of interest, is this the schools selling the spaces to developers or are they government owned and sold by gov?
Um, what? St. Paul's, Raheny - used to have extensive playing fields and a swimming pool. (Playing fields used to be used by Clontarf under-age teams and local GAA teams)... Sold off to developers.
Chanel College, Coolock. Used to have fairly decent playing fields out the front. Sold off to developers...
That's been replicated in many, many privately owned (religious order) schools around the country. And the new secondary schools going up don't have big gyms or playing fields.
RUC TV 🤣🤣
His timing might be perfect as they have big players just coming back into the side and they were looking like a rejuvenated team the other day. Until they weren't.
Absolutely he will. They are playing less than the sum of their parts, and he's the right guy to ship them into shape
Steve Diamond taking over reigns at Edinburgh with immediate effect. Wonder will he have a bounce effect as they've slipped badly down the table recently?
She is Spanish but a fluent Italian speaker.
Read elsewhere that his partner is Italian.
Fekitoa signed for Treviso, didnt see that one coming!
Apparently I have 72 unread posts in the URC 2022 thread but boards appears to be acting up because instead it showed me 72 unread posts from the schools thread...
Unfortunately lads, I being impoverished went to a school without our own playing fields. We had to saunter across the bridge to Fairview Park! I've not been the same since. No cafeteria, no library. Devastating.
I work in the field of education and I don't know of a single secondary school in Ireland that has "next to no sports infrastructure". P.E., and the sports facilities that it requires, is a mandatory offering in Irish schools.
Its completely incorrect to say "It's extremely common for schools to have next to no sports infrastructure." Even just go have a look at the websites, or Google maps imagery, of any secondary school near you and you'll see they'll all have extensive facilities.
Your posts honestly read like someone who hasn't been anywhere near an Irish school in decades, if ever.
I'm confused... so Blackrock College to win the 22/23 URC despite some public schools having an equally good gym? 🤔🤔🤔
You're the one playing the poverty card, so again I'm not sure how to respond.
You don't need "infrastructure" - you need a field, a ball and people with the motivation to put them together. That's where most schools fall down; they don't have the culture or the people necessary to be successful.
Thank the gods for the private schools, so. Fair play to them. Long may they churn out talented rugby players.
I've never been inside it but Newbridge is a private school, a mansion of a place. It may be no different to GAA behemoths like SKC but it's hardly an average secondary school! Maybe it's not equal to Michael's in terms of infrastructure but it's a lot more equal than the vast majority of schools.
My grandfather went there, AFAIK, over 100 years ago, and won a Leinster cap. The pipeline has been there a while.
Yes but not all schools are equal. The schools always contributed the vast amount of players to Ireland, long before the game went professional. For the most part, the schools other than Michael’s and Blackrock are no different than any GAA school in this country. The main benefit of schools rugby is access. The setups in Clongowes or Newbridge is nothing like Michael’s.
'hedge school', 'impoverished', 'creepy'...
Not having a rugby team or a swimming pool doesn't equate to destitution. It's extremely common for schools to have next to no sports infrastructure.
And to be honest there's no good reason why they should.
3/4 of the intake from schools, 1/4 from clubs. Without the schools you've either 75% fewer players in the academy or you take in 6 less good players. Tector went to an elite private school.
I'm not sure what point you're trying to make as everything you're saying confirms the fact that (fee-paying) schools provide the bulk of the academy and, eventually the professional squad.
25% is a good start towards expanding the player base. 50 would be a marked improvement.
I didn't say it's average. My exact point is that it's an outlier that's not driven by fees, so there must be something else making them so good at hurling.
However, it's closer to the average than the hedge schools you seem to imagine as being widespread.
If you went to a school that placed no emphasis on sports and the kids came from impoverished backgrounds, then that's unfortunate. Your beef is with your school, not with schoolkids playing rugby in 2023.
In the 2022/23 intake, there were 2 players from Michael’s, 2 from Blackrock, two from the clubs pathway and one each from Newbridge and Clongowes. So Michael’s only provided a quarter of the intake.
You seem to feel, that without the schools. The players would never be as good. There is no evidence of this though. It may delay development but players like Tector don’t seem to be that affected by not benefiting from going to Michael’s. Our Academy system has far more impact than the schools. Something people seem to want to completely ignore.
It's not comparing apples with oranges, both orgs publish their accounts and the WRU takes in just as much revenue as the IRFU. They have a stadium that's 50% bigger than Lansdowne Rd, it gets used for more events and concerts and whatever, they get their TV money from the BBC or ITV exactly the same as England or Scotland do. It's what they do with their money is the problem.
If St. Kieran's is your idea of an average public school I can see where the confusion comes from.
I'm amazed Welsh Rugby did so well in the past without private schools. Perhaps, just perhaps the problem lies with the WRU and is absolutely nothing to do with fee paying schools.
And do you not think it's reasonable to assume that without the pipeline of players from the schools the Provinces would have to spend money on foreign imports to plug all the holes in the team?
In terms of sheer numbers if you have 10 players coming through at 18yo who look like prospects you can take most if not all of them into your academy, have them continue in a structure similar to what they're used to, pay them a nominal amount and hang on to the 3 or 4 who turn out to be the genuine article.
You can't do that with foreign players. They either come in ready to play or close to it, will need a proper salary and you can take in maximum one or two. If they don't work out, or get injured early, you're stuck and either have to spend again or compete with lesser players.
You can go through the club route and bring in a load of young players to the academy that way but they're going to be a long way behind in their development.
Using centres of excellence to supplement and eventually supplant the school system would be ideal. That could take a long time to come to fruition and the players will still have less day-to-day involvement in the sport.
I didnt misquote you. I read you.
Are you that removed from reality that an accurate description of schools with little to no funding for sports seems like Hollywood fiction?
Not sure what to say to this really. I went to a community school in the 1990s. We had very successful GAA, athletics and swimming teams, soccer was next in line and somewhere down the list came rugby and golf. None of this required "funding", it requires 20 kids, a teacher and a ball. It requires parents to facilitate their kids in sport, and it requires a culture in the school of sport being important. Some schools focus exclusively on one sport.
Look at St Kieran's in Kilkenny. Utterly dominant in schools hurling which is played far more widely than rugby. It's not fee-paying.
The 'rich daddies' thing is a red herring. Claiming that kids in the public school sector don't have enough to eat or only do PE in first year with some creepy janitor looking on is an entire shoal of red herrings.
It should be, though you want to keep ignoring the reality of the situation. It would never be possible for the IRFU to replicate what happens in Michael’s. Short of setting up and funding a school for gifted potential professional players. So it’s not a case of the IRFU or Leinster branch saving anything by having Michael’s there. Leinster have invested heavily in their high performance centers and development pathways outside of the schools. They also fund development officers for the schools. Which is all they could ever do, even if Michael’s didn’t exist. The only difference is, Michael’s have a captive population and can structure their development around that. Where as the Leinster coaches only have access outside school hours.
Well don't deliberately misquote me and deliberately misinterpret me then. It's not hard.
(no idea how to multi-quote on this POS)
"Portraying non-fee-paying schools as something from the director's cut of Angela's Ashes is about as dishonest as it gets tbh."
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wa.vanillicon.com/v2/a7648e5247392a59dda7feb1d4fc693b.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://wd.vanillicon.com/v2/dd23f423fe14831a2a84d9f17c825ecc.svg)
