Ireland's Propping crisis at tipping point.

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Leinster should try and link up with an RFU Championship club to loan players out to get experience - Furlong could learn more from a season in the Championship than from a handful of bench appearances for Leinster. Sale has done this with Leeds and our academy players are coming on much stronger.

This makes a lot of sense. If there's one thing English club rugby is really good at, it's scrummaging. Coming up against grizzled veterans every week could be the making of him. It depends on how far along in his development Leinster think the player is. I'd like to see Tadhg Furlong stick around and fight for game time because he's that good. Martin Moore could be a better candidate for a loan move to the Championship. He's a scrummager, pure and simple - a Mike Ross or BJ Botha clone. 15-20 games for significant minutes on the field in the Championship would do him a hell of a lot of good. More than 5 or so games for Leinster anyway.

 

[Peat]

The problem with Court and Deccie Fitz is that they're at best solid at international level, while Paddy Mac and Macklin are potentially beasts, but we've only so much gametime for props to go round and Ireland next props now not in a few years. Hopefully over the next couple of seasons the latter can overtake the former somehow.

edit - Snoopy, is that a political possibility? I'd have thought the IRFU would be dead set against it (although I notice a lot of Ulster youngsters are abandoning academy contracts for moves overseas and whispers are this might be being encouraged).

 

[Feicarsinn]

Leinster should try and link up with an RFU Championship club to loan players out to get experience - Furlong could learn more from a season in the Championship than from a handful of bench appearances for Leinster. Sale has done this with Leeds and our academy players are coming on much stronger.

Sent from my HTC Incredible S using Tapatalk 2

Very much so. As it stands an awful lot of Irish players end up in the championship in their early 20's if they're not able to make the step up from the academy to starting for the provinces. That said, Ben Prescott was Championship tight head of the year the season we signed him and he was pretty useless. The standard does appear to have risen at the top end of the league since 2010 though.

In Munster: David Kilcoyne looks like he could have a bit of potential, but its hard to say after only a handful of games. John Ryan seems to be highly rated, I remember B-J talking about how he was brought along on the HC trips to give him an insight into what the mentality was like, I think (not too sure) that he can cover both sides of the scrum. Alan Cotter is also doing very well in the AIL (not a bad thing for a prop). All in all I see Archer being replaced by both Cotter and Ryan as a viable option for Munster, and Kilcoyne could well overtake Horan this season.

If I were Ryan I'd look at picking my side immediately and sticking to it. The prop that can play both sides is a dying breed, being rendered redundant by 23 man squads.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

The problem with Court and Deccie Fitz is that they're at best solid at international level, while Paddy Mac and Macklin are potentially beasts, but we've only so much gametime for props to go round and Ireland next props now not in a few years. Hopefully over the next couple of seasons the latter can overtake the former somehow.

Agreed. Court and Fitzpatrick are solid but will never be world class. For the moment they're useful backups to have. Long term you'd be looking for better. Ideally each province will have two players who are interchangeable per position. Leinster are getting that way in the pack. That will only benefit Ireland in the long run.

I hold out quite a bit of hope for Paddy McAllister. Slightly less for Adam Macklin because his scrummaging needs work. Game time is what both of them need. McAllister will see quite a bit, Macklin will struggle for it though given the presence of John Afoa and Declan Fitzpatrick.

edit - Snoopy, is that a political possibility? I'd have thought the IRFU would be dead set against it (although I notice a lot of Ulster youngsters are abandoning academy contracts for moves overseas and whispers are this might be being encouraged).

I doubt the IRFU would be too happy but they should have thought of the consequences of offering international contracts to the likes of Donncha O'Callaghan, Denis Leamy, Gordon D'arcy and Paddy Wallace. Too many over the hill players are clogging up space in the provincial setups. We need to be more ruthless about cutting people adrift.

I'd say the IRFU would rather players go to Connacht if they need games but don't see how that would benefit Connacht who wish to be more than just a development tool for the other provinces. There is a precedent with Gareth Quinn McDonagh's loan move to Doncaster from Munster last season.

Perhaps more realistic is a streamlined 8 or 10 team AIL with no promotion or relegation where academy and A team players from the provinces play against former pros and the top amateur players in the country. Currently academy players are scattered across any number of teams in 3 different divisions in the AIL.