Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

I said my point.

Its a great long term goal if the irfu (and provinces) put adequate resources (money) into it. It takes a lot to replace the rugby environment of the best private schools, and can't be something just wished into existence.

It won't replace the impact of project players in short term or even medium term.

I'm guessing he meant replicate and not replace.

No, i think its easy to say that we should expand other pathways but that is much more expensive and much more difficult than people let on. Which is the reason most of our players come from private schools.

Just as an example, let's say you identify 15-20 of the best club players, the logistics of providing them the same level of competition, facilities, practice and coaching is really tough compared to basically doing nothing when it comes to private schools. Like, how do you even get them on a field together for the same amount of time around their normal schedule?

The IRFU and the provinces are trying but its a long term and hard thing to achieve. That's what those centres of excellence provinces are building are for presumably. They can provide the facilities for the best local players to be trained together, and workout together.

This is a long term project though. The idea that this can somehow happen quickly is nuts, and also this applies to guys who already play rugby. Expanding that to guys who don't or people from areas who don't is an even more expensive longer term project.

The GAA comparison isn't valid mainly because Rugby wouldn't have a problem if their base was like the GAA base. My local area has clubs with fantastic facilities and it was almost entirely done locally in terms of money and effort. Any rugby club in ireland is free to do likewise.

Yea, making up that gap pre academy selection is the key piece.

Sometimes i wonder if counter intuitively, investing directly into schools for ulster, connacht and munster would be the most efficient way to do this. Make more private school level teams and expand scholarships. That would be expensive and also extremely tough politically in terms of picking and choosing.