WHEN JACK CHARLTON first became the Ireland football manager he apparently went around to various clubs in England and placed a sheet of paper on their notice boards with a message like this:
Do you have Irish parents or grandparents? If so, I want YOU for the Irish national team.
Irish rugby does something similar, although instead of a noticeboard they use more modern methods.
The Irish Exiles are a branch of the IRFU that operates in Britain and they are sort of like a fifth province at underage level. As that tweet suggests, they try to find hidden gems or Irish qualified players who have fallen through the cracks and reroute them into the provincial academies and ideally, the national team.
Mark Blair, who is the development manager for the Exiles, spoke to The42 about how the talent identification process works and also illustrated how it used to be done a lot differently.
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“My predecessor John O’Driscoll used to drive around to different schools and clubs looking for any Irish player,” Blair said.
“He might get a tip about someone or he would scan a team-sheet looking for an Irish name.”
It is a much more organised and professional set-up today. The Exiles have divided England, Scotland and Wales into four regions and each year they host two ‘festival days’ in each region that basically serve as trial matches.
The Exiles play the provinces at underage level every year. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
Then there is an inter-regional tournament featuring the promising players and the pick of the four regions are then invited to a training camp from which the Exiles teams will be selected.
The games the Exiles play against the provincial sides are important because if someone impresses they could be invited into one of the academies. Blair expanded on how he works with the provinces.
“We work very closely and we have meetings with them and Colin McEntee who is the IRFU high performance manager,” Blair said.
“They do a thing called gap analysis and identify positions where they need players. We don’t have a brief on what players we should ideally get but we have an idea of what the provinces need. When the Exiles teams play against the provinces it is a good marker of what talent we have. And they do their homework too so they’ll know if there is somebody in our set-up who they could want.”
A lot of well-known players have come through the Exiles system like Guy and Simon Easterby, Rob Henderson and Kieran Marmion. Blair says that every year is different with regards to the talent they produce – last year they had four players enter into provincial academies while it was just one the year before.
If a player is good enough to move over here and play professionally, the IRFU help in the process of placing him with a team.
“Again it is Colin McEntee who plays a role there and it comes down to a number of factors like lifestyle or family, not just rugby,” Blair said.
“Some of these guys would still have some family members in Ireland so that would be taken into account when they are being placed. If Ulster and Munster both were interested in a player then Colin would weigh up all of those issues.”
Blair is particularly proud of one Exiles graduate who is having a fantastic season for Connacht. Kieran Marmion made his Ireland debut during the summer and his explosive sidesteps and sniping have been a constant feature of Connacht’s strong season so far.
Want to know how Kieran Marmion represented Ireland? He came from the fifth province
WHEN JACK CHARLTON first became the Ireland football manager he apparently went around to various clubs in England and placed a sheet of paper on their notice boards with a message like this:
Do you have Irish parents or grandparents? If so, I want YOU for the Irish national team.
Irish rugby does something similar, although instead of a noticeboard they use more modern methods.
The Irish Exiles are a branch of the IRFU that operates in Britain and they are sort of like a fifth province at underage level. As that tweet suggests, they try to find hidden gems or Irish qualified players who have fallen through the cracks and reroute them into the provincial academies and ideally, the national team.
Mark Blair, who is the development manager for the Exiles, spoke to The42 about how the talent identification process works and also illustrated how it used to be done a lot differently.
“My predecessor John O’Driscoll used to drive around to different schools and clubs looking for any Irish player,” Blair said.
“He might get a tip about someone or he would scan a team-sheet looking for an Irish name.”
It is a much more organised and professional set-up today. The Exiles have divided England, Scotland and Wales into four regions and each year they host two ‘festival days’ in each region that basically serve as trial matches.
Then there is an inter-regional tournament featuring the promising players and the pick of the four regions are then invited to a training camp from which the Exiles teams will be selected.
The games the Exiles play against the provincial sides are important because if someone impresses they could be invited into one of the academies. Blair expanded on how he works with the provinces.
“We work very closely and we have meetings with them and Colin McEntee who is the IRFU high performance manager,” Blair said.
A lot of well-known players have come through the Exiles system like Guy and Simon Easterby, Rob Henderson and Kieran Marmion. Blair says that every year is different with regards to the talent they produce – last year they had four players enter into provincial academies while it was just one the year before.
If a player is good enough to move over here and play professionally, the IRFU help in the process of placing him with a team.
“Again it is Colin McEntee who plays a role there and it comes down to a number of factors like lifestyle or family, not just rugby,” Blair said.
Blair is particularly proud of one Exiles graduate who is having a fantastic season for Connacht. Kieran Marmion made his Ireland debut during the summer and his explosive sidesteps and sniping have been a constant feature of Connacht’s strong season so far.
Blair hopes that the success of Marmion brings some notice to the Exiles and encourages more players to come down to their training camps.
“Kieran Marmion is definitely one of our biggest success stories,” Blair said.
“We worked hard with Nigel Carolan [Connacht academy manager] during his development and we placed him over in Connacht.”
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Six Nations guy easterby Ireland Kieran Marmion Simon Easterby the exiles