Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

This is a ridiculous point. If the IRFU were to choose they could distribute kids at academy level, there are universities in all the places where provinces are based. The IRFU already subsidises the academies and they should properly be recognised as Irish rugby academies, etc. Anyway, the objective is to improve the standard of rugby throughout the country, having a top heavy Leinster side for the last ten years hasn't delivered. Back to the drawing board.

Honestly, that's getting beyond my expertise. Better coaching is an easy but realistic answer.

Ulster has made serious efforts to move outside it's typical heartland. A consistent flow of money dedicated to outreach would be ideal.

I agree, and am not advocating for it at all. Just making the point that if one is going to suggest fairness, they would have to take the rough with the smooth that comes with that across the board.

At least Barnes is retired, never seemed to favour us in games and pinged porter 3 times v new Zealand which cost us the game

A cold hard look would tell all, that Leinster are the main team that has produced talent for a decade. That's the truth. Munster are doing better now. Move all the Leinster prospects. I'm all for it if we win a world cup.

I don't think that's accurate. Dublin schools have produce all the talent and Leinster has benefited from it, purely an accident of location. These players are literally falling into Leinster's lap. If limerick had been the business, legal and administrative HQ of Ireland Inc for the last 150 years we'd be talking about Munster producing the assembly line of Irish players. The schools have a massive legacy of rugby to build on and, for some reason, many of them have decided to get into an arms race with each other for Senior and Junior Cups, resulting in fantastic levels of resources being poured into rugby programs. Provincial fandom really does blind even the smartest rugby fans to some of the underlying forces in the Irish game. Taking the best and most motivated 18 year olds coming out of the Dublin school system and turning them into pros is not rocket science, Leinster do it well but with the resources that have it would be hard not to.

The question is whether some of the players with a few appearances, or those who fall out of favour, are potential internationals who just aren't getting the development opportunities at Leinster. Take a guy like Will Conors (setting aside his injuries), would he be getting more opportunities tomolay somewhere else and be in the running for caps? He was a phenomenal prospect when he came onto the Irish scene. There are several instances with Farrell where a guy not getting picked at Leinster turns into a major asset with different coaching and opportunities. Leinster coaches have the cream of the crop and don't use all of them in ways they might be used elsewhere. AND they're not winning anything (in Europe) with them. Would Leinster be less successful if they had fewer of these players? Would the other provinces (and Ireland) be more successful with greater access to them? Those are the questions the IRFU should ask.

Humphreys could be pretty ruthless. Let's not forget he moved Brian McLaughlin on as Ulster coach after the 2012 HEC final, and in fairness his replacement Mark Anscombe took things to the next level in 2013 when they probably should have won a trophy. The point being he has shown he isn't afraid to make tough decisions popular or not...similar to David Nucifora.

I'm not sure Conway is diluting the culchie authenticity of Limerick anymore than Henshaw or Doris or Tadgh are turning the Leinster crowd into Irish people.

Has their Rugby program dropped off or the level of schools competition declined in Munster?