- Joined
- Jul 9, 2007
- Messages
- 8,310
- Country Flag
- Club or Nation
With last weekend marking the halfway point in the 2013 six nations, it's as good a time as any for taking stock of where Irish rugby sits at present. The tournament, much like the past 18 months of international rugby, has proven to be a disappointing time for Ireland, with losses against both England and Scotland leaving the national team facing the possibility of finishing outside of the top 4 for the first time since the introduction of Italy in 2000. Since the 2009 Grand Slam we've managed to win only 20 of 43 games, and have failed to register a win over the traditional "big five" since the 2011 World Cup. The IRFU is beginning to feel the financial pressures that have been all to present in every other aspect of Irish life over the past few years, while the departure of Leinster's talismanic outhalf Johnny Sexton to Racing Metro could very well be the start of a mass movement of players abroad, akin to the one that has blighted the Welsh game in recent times. Despite all of this, there's plenty of reason for optimism, which we'll take an quick look at in the rest of this blog.
- 74 days and counting....
As many of you know, the current Irish coaching ticket has somewhat invoked the displeasure of the vast majority of the Irish rugby following public. Despite a decent showing at the World Cup and a Grand Slam in 2009, Declan Kidney and his coaching staff have recieved a lot of negative press, for failing to take advantage of the immense playing talent at their disposal and their apparent reluctance to adapt their gameplan to one which would suit the current crop of Irish players. No fear though, with record losses to New Zealand over the summer, as well as 3 very mediocre 6 nations campaigns in a row (this one included) the current coaching ticket is unlikely to have their contracts extended in the summer. Finding a suitable replacement may prove to be more tricky, but there should be no shortage of ambitious coaches ready to try their hand at the international game. I wonder what Fabien Galthie is up to when his contract expires....
- New Players Aplenty on the International Stage
Say whatever else about these last couple of years with Deccie at the helm, we've seen a lot of new players come through. In the past few months alone Simon Zebo, Luke Marshall, Craig Gilroy, David Kilcoyne, Paddy Jackson, Richardt Strauss and many more have won their first caps, drastically reducing the age profile of the squad, and providing some real options when some of our more experienced players finally decide to hang up their boots. Whether this was by design or merely forced upon us by circumstance is somewhat irrelevent – whoever takes the Ireland job in the summer will inherit a young and hungry squad, a situation comparible to the one Eddie O'Sullivan found himself in at the early part of the last decade. If that doesn't inspire optimism, then I quite frankly don't know what would.
- Problem Positions Finally Starting to Sort Themselves Out.
I don't need to tell anyone here about the complete lack of options Ireland have endured in a few key positions over recent years, particularly at tighthead prop and outhalf. Looking at the latter first, the problems at 10 which saw Ronan O'Gara as the only viable option at 10 for much of the past decade before the emergence of Johnny Sexton were quite strange. Ireland has never had much difficulty producing good outhalves, and considering the prevalence of Gaelic Fottball and Soccer in the country, it shouldn't have been hard to find someone who was good at kicking a ball. Yet there we were. An over reliance on foreign imports at provincial level left Irish players lacking gametime, however it appeared that the talent wasn't there in the first place. This situation looks to have righted itself at last, with Munster, Ulster and Leinster all set to start next season with starting Irish 10's, and players such as Gareth Steenson and Johnny Sexton plying their trade abroad. Youngsters like JJ Hanrahan and Stuart Olding are also on the way up, so the situation which plagued Irish rugby in the mid part of the past decade shouldn't be an issue for a while.
At tighthead, the situation is also starting to come under control. While Mike Ross remains the only viable Irish Heineken Cup starter, the improvements to Stephen Archer's game over the past season have been encouraging. Leinster have, in Martin Moore and Tadgh Furlong, two fantastic prospects in the postion, while Paddy McAllistar up at Ulster was showing a good deal of promise last season, before a serious injury ruled him out of contention this year. While it may take some time, perhaps our issues at the scrum will begin to resolve themselves over the next couple of seasons.
- The West's Awake
Having long been the poorest of poor relations, Connacht finally seem to be making some serious progress. The past two seasons of Heineken Cup rugby have no doubt massively benefitted the weakest of Ireland's four provinces, allowing them to attract a higher profile of player through increased exposure and revenue, but that's just the tip of the iceberg really. For every Nathan White and Craig Clarke that has come into the province, there has been a serious talent developed from within the academy. Connacht's youth structures have been churning out talented players recently, examples including Dave McSharry, Kieron Marmion and Robbie Henshaw, all of whom are likely to pick up international caps at some point in the future. What's more impressive has been the ability of the province to retain these talents. Should Connacht be able to continue to produce 2 or 3 players a season from their academy, and supplement these with the calibre of import (be it foreign or domestic) they've been attracting lately, then the gap between them and the other provinces can be expected to continue to close. No pressure Pat Lam, but Eric Elwood has left you some big shoes to fill.
- Provinces Pulling in the Same Direction
For as long as I've been able to remember there has been the impression the Munster play an in your face, abrasive kind of game, while Leinster love to throw it around in the backs and lack the bite up front. While the influences of Tony McGahan, Michael Cheika and Joe Schmidt have changed this up a bit, there has always been a noticable difference in the way the provinces play. With the appointments of Mark Anscombe at Ulster, Pat Lam at Connacht and Rob Penney at Munster however, the styles of the provinces are likely to grow more similar, as the 4 Kiwi's in question will all look to play a more expansive game. This has already been seen at Ulster and Leinster, to great success, while the seeds have been planted down south. So how does this benefit the national side? Well, having players from the four provinces play in a similar manner should increase the cohesiveness of the national team, particualrly if we can get our hand on a coach who pulls in the same direcation. At the very least we can expect an improvement in terms of handling and awareness, as Anscombe and Schmidt have both brought.
I'm sure there are lots more reasons to be optimistic, and just as many to make you depressed as hell, but I'll leave it here for now. If you're to take anything from this blog, remember that for the smaller nations rugby always goes in cycles. We don't have the playing pool to survive a poor coach or a bad crop of players and still be ultra competitive. Hopefully we're reaching the end of a bad patch, and it's back to better days.
Back to Blog
