Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

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Are there players in Munster/Ulster/Connacht falling through the cracks or not getting to an academy standard because systems in place there aren't up to the job?"

Specifically on this point above, I suspect that in the case of Ulster, that is very much what has happened. However, some of the cause / blame lies in the school system which has been emasculated for dubious political benefit by one group of 'politicians.' I remember posting well over 10 years ago on UAFC that Ulster Rugby was facing massive decline unless changes were made within it and the Ulster Branch with regard to selection and recruitment. The team were o.k. at the time so I was derided by some who couldn't see beyond the end of their nose. The demographical changes have been part of the quintuple whammy that has weakened the whole set-up.

1. Crap Academy organisation and staffing.
2. Destruction of the State / Private Grammar School system.
3. Demographics
4. The changes in Higher Education and the 'brain drain' to G.B.
5. On top of that is the differential on earning power between Ulster and the other provinces. Ulster have to pay VAT on tickets at 20%. They also have to pay a vast sum every year to the Council in Business Rates which apparently were overlooked when the new stadium was commissioned. That required the unexpected payment of several hundred thousand pounds and is ongoing every year. Then of course there is the end of career tax break for retiring players in the other Provinces. I know that all the players are employees of the IRFU but why would a high quality International from Dublin move North for a similar income but lose out on the tax break for those years earnings? WE know some have done it but it might be another block on movement. Then there was the debacle over moving the La Rochelle game to Dublin which cost Ulster £900,000 loss of income when all the dust had settled.

Having said all that it is still down to the demise of rugby at all levels. Just as success breeds success then failure breeds failure. Ulster's failures have been little by little by little until we end up 14th in the league table.

Perhaps this anecdote will give a flavour of what I mean. A great friend of mine was a highly regarded coach. He had coached a major team in Belfast, played at the highest level below Ulster and was unlucky not to be in that mix in the 1970s and 80s. He was rugby to the core. He carried a disabled rugby player to the top of Slieve Donard in the Mournes, all 2786 feet of tough terrain. He led a team of others to the top of Kilimanjaro in aid of disabled players. He ran marathons to raise funds for that charity. A rugby hero in my view. Sadly he died 2 years ago. Even in his final months, riddled with cancer and in a wheelchair, he still attended the games at Kingspan.

In his later years he coached a local club's U16. He came to visit me one evening and told me about this kid who played for his team, a 10. He said this guy was the best he had ever seen in his rugby years. So I went along to the next game. He was right. That young man had everything. Pace, power, size, skills and he kicked goals from all over his half. I attended one of the club's evening coaching sessions at which the head of the Academy was to visit. He turned up as the teams were doing warm up drills. He stood about for 5 minutes or so and then stated "There's nothing here," got in his car and left. I went with the team to play an U16 cup semi final. They won by over 50 points and the 10 was just out of this world. When the final came around I went along and the result was the same, they gave the other team a fearful drubbing, winning again by over 50 points and the 10 was just astonishing.

A few weeks later, when the U16 representatives were selected, none of my friend's players were selected and the team was made up entirely of players from the 2 sides that had been royally thrashed. The coaches of the 2 losing teams were responsible for the U16 selection.

Scroll forward a year or so. The young 10 moves up to the senior team group of players. He is by for the best player they have probably ever had. However, the Club captain played 10 so the young man got shoved in at full back week in and out and sometimes out. At the end of the season he packed it in and moved to a local soccer team in the amateur league.

Ulster Rugby in a nutshell.

Tector has looked better and better as the season has progressed.

I wouldn't go that far, the level of opposition he has played is pretty much all URC based.

He's never played high end CC games....yet

He's a class act though & exactly what ire need...pity he's made of glass

IRFU deal for McCarthy

Would love to see TOB get a run out vs Italy