Ireland Team Talk XII: Farrell's First Fifteen

Leinster do not have unlimited funding. Where have you gotten that idea from? They had extra money from central contracts because they're the only province that has proven capable of developing test quality players. Possessing a large squad hasn't been an issue for Leinster when it comes to ushering in new players.

Taking that funding away would only serve to make their job of developing players harder. That would be the height of stupidity.

They don't. The IRFU didn't cause anything. Munster for example, had a golden era in the noughties but did nothing to build on it.

There has been a significant change in the last 18 months with CC Contributions (esp from Leinster) being changed and as for Leinster being able to buy whoever they want, have you ever seen the list of players Munster signed from overseas in the last 15 years.???

Milne, Barron, Loughman, Beirne, Patterson, Farrell, Nankivell, Kleyn, Jager, Salanoa, Abrahams, Haley, OBrien, Kelly, Kilgallon.

Current Munster players who were signed from other clubs. The system is Not set up for Leinster, Leinster have just been far better as making the best of the resources available. And other provinces have plenty of players who went through the Leinster academy and played for Leinster in their ranks.

The IRFU have already changed how CC work and that money is being ringfenced for player development at the other 3 provinces. T

Leinster are "set up to dominate" in the sense that they're home to Dublin; the major population centre and economic hub of the country.

They've taken full advantage of that and have ushered through many quality young players. But to say they've unlimited funding is just incorrect. They operate under the same strictures as every other province. I'm sure they have a bigger budget but that's mostly down to being the only one of the four to consistently develop test quality players. They have the majority of central contracts because of that. Front row is a particular issue for the other three especially. 8 of the 9 front rows selected in the Ireland squad for November are either playing for Leinster or came through that academy.

Robbie Henshaw signed for Leinster 9 years ago. That's the sole Irish test regular they've signed from another province. It's utterly irrelevant to any argument you're trying to make. Snyman was signed from Munster as they weren't allowed have two NIQ locks which was a policy the province would have been well aware of. They chose Kleyn over him.

Leinster has about 40% of the total population on this island. Yet regularly make up 80% of the starting team and have for along time.
I am not having a go at Leinster, my issue is with the IRFU.

That’s not sustainable. It’s not good for Ireland or Leinster. All it takes is for the Leinster conveyor belt to slow down and Irish rugby will be in a very sticky spot.
The IRFU answer to this is to ensure that one conveyor belt keeps humming, not to fix the conveyor belts in the rest of the country.
it’s very naive and short term thinking.

Back in the noughties Munster players regularly made up 50% of ireland match day squads but only 20% of the population.

It's Munster Ulster and connacht primary responsibility to fix their pathways and develop players, which to be fair, have much improved but the fruits of that are probably still 5-10 years away from being fully realised.

It's also not helpful when some people always bring the problems of the national team back to Leinster, but I don't see you or anybody else calling describing it as such when that happens. It's bores my tits.

When Munster were at the top of the tree in Europe, they spent their money on redeveloping Thomond Park and then signing reams of international talent instead of ensuring they had sustainable player pathways and top notch grassroots level facilities. See also: Ulster.

They're doing it now, but it's about 20 years behind the curve.

There's a lost generation of Munster and Ulster forwards that Ireland is still suffering from. Other than POM and Henderson there hasn't been a single home grown forward from either province who became an Ireland regular in the last 15 years. That's a long time to go with zero contribution from two of the bigger provinces.

There seems to be some improvements there with McNabney, Gleeson and Edogbo etc hopefully coming through. But we still need more. No real hope about front rows however. That's still firmly Leinster dominated.

We’re still looking for red herrings to justify the poor standard coaching I see…

And we wonder why these issues are never solved.

Was listening to one of the more recent Rugby Weekly podcats and Murray Kinsella was full of praise for Toomey's scouting and development prowess. Bernard Jackman was equally as complementary.

At least The IRFU are keenly aware of the issues the other three provinces have in developing front rows and have appointed Toomey as their performance pathway scrum coach for the whole island. It'll still take years to come to fruition, but at least we're now seriously looking at improving those provinces.

They’re completely separate issues and not at all mutually exclusive.

Do we have coaching issues? Yes, it certainly looks like it.

Do we need a wider player base from the provinces? Yes and we have done for a decade.

Unless it improves the standard of coaching in the Irish set up then who cares, we’re still going to have the same issues going forward.

What’s the point of having great coaches if we don’t have the players to match?

We need both. Leinster won’t go on producing this number of players forever.