NIGEL CAROLAN IS the man behind much of the superb work being done bringing academy players through at Connacht and he’s also the man in charge of the Ireland U20s.
The Connacht academy manager knows a thing or two about the development of young players, so when he says Ireland are falling behind their international rivals “physically and technically,” it is certainly reason to sit up and take notice.
The Ireland U20s’ preparations for next month’s World Rugby U20 Championship in Manchester continue today with a meeting against a Munster Development/A side that includes Donnacha Ryan, Robin Copeland, and Niall Scannell.
The U20s finished third in this year’s Six Nations and recorded a magnificent win away to England, but suffered at the hands of Wales and France. With New Zealand and the Welsh in their World Championship pool, tough tasks lie ahead.
While the schools game in Ireland, particularly the Leinster Schools Senior Cup, has a superb reputation for producing players of a high calibre to feed into U20 and professional levels, Carolan is not convinced that it is the be-all-and-end-all.
“With my experience with international age-grade sides over the last few years, I hope that I benchmark players internationally,” says Carolan. “When I look at what’s required for a player it’s at international level, rather than at provincial schools cup level.
“While it’s a competitive model and, for a period of time, it does create that energy around players, I’m not sure that it’s the only tool that’s required to develop players.
“We’re certainly finding that at national U20 sides; players coming out of that system are not always equipped to deal with their equivalents from the other nations.”
In which aspects of the game?
“In every aspect; technically, tactically and more importantly physically,” says Carolan. “We’re a little bit behind.
“Our plan in the academy programme, and it’s aligned to the IRFU, is to try and push all of the resources downward so that we’re able to provide a wraparound service to the 16-year-old with a primary focus on skill and physical development.”
Carolan stresses the need for Irish rugby to be stronger at identifying the players with the greatest potential to be successful at as early a stage as possible, allowing them to provide that ‘wraparound service’ sooner.
While Irish rugby does appear to be providing a steady stream of young players into the professional ranks, Carolan underlines the need to benchmark their quality in an international sense.
“That’s the important thing, that we look outside at our competitors,” says the former Connacht wing. “If we just look at our own players and compare them to each other, we’re going to miss the boat.
“We’ll be successful, but in a bubble. We must look beyond and even countries like Italy are moving on and starting to resource players earlier.
“We’re finding that, at age-grade international sides, we’re a little bit behind the eight ball physically and technically.”
In terms of finding players earlier, Carolan has certainly developed an eye for potential in his role as Connacht’s academy manager.
Along with bringing through Connacht-born players, Carolan has helped to lure talent from further afield into their system. The likes of Munster underage star Ultan Dillane, Leinster native Peter Robb and Kieran Marmion, who played in Wales as a youth, are all examples.
“When we started the academy programme more than 10 years ago, the IRFU funded Connacht to the tune of 50% of the other provinces,” explains Carolan.
“So, in the last 10 years, we’ve grown the academy into a model which not only looks after the players from within the province, but we realise that there are players in other areas who are not getting picked up and we made it our business to make sure there was a home for those guys.
“It’s based on work ethic, coachability, those players are adaptive; some of them have been successful. Ultan, Kieran, Eoghan Masterson [Leinster underage] have been some of the success stories.
“It doesn’t work for all of them, but Irish rugby is too small to turn a blind eye to some of the players. The devil in the detail is trying to spot the potential. It’s easy to pick the strong players, but trying to spot the guy with potential is what the knack is.”
The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!
I agree, whether I’m in a nightclub, pub, at a wedding supermarket, walking the dog, waiting for the train, at the docters, library, anywhere, I always ask myself “how can I score from here? “
Henry did something similar down in Argentina and now look at how good they are with the ball in hand in comparison to Argentine sides of the pre 2011 years.
Cullen & Dempsey asked for this themselves. If you can get a chat with a guy like Henry for a couple of hours over dinner then you’d take it. If you can get him for a couple of weeks then brilliant. It’s up to the two lads to ask the right questions and remember and understand the answers.
Leinster’s basic handling skill have been neglected for 3 seasons now. If we need to employ a coach to tell us to run and pass straight and not drift 30% across the field then we really are bad.
We have a team coached to win collisions rather than coached to score tries.
Henry is just off the plane, he is espousing his general philosophy, not analysing what is or isn’t happening at Leinster. Give it time.
One of Schmidt’s key mantras was getting Leinster to be one of the best passing teams in Europe. He succeeded, but it took time and a lot of effort, so it’s not as simple as ‘employing a coach to tell us to run and pass straight’. I’m sure Henry can bring much more to the table than that too.
I do find it funny how people have turned getting one of the best coaches in world rugby as a consultant into a negative thing though! Ah the Irish rugby fan.
Have to agree with Rascal here, Chris – Leo and Girv are relatively inexperienced coaches, but they are certainly not clueless. Henry is hardly going to give a detailed explanation of his coaching philosophy in a few off the cuff remarks to journalists, either.
I thought Leo did reasonably well in his first year as Head Coach, given how little experienced support he had around him – only McQuilken (50) was proven, and it was no coincidence that Leinster’s defence was by a mile the best aspect of their game last season. There was, I believe, also a substantial RWC hangover – Leinster had 23 players at the tournament
Experienced support of the highest order is what they have brought in here, and it speaks volumes of Cullen’s humility and desire to improve that he requested it. Quite the opposite of the situation that Axel has found himself in (and I do not mean that as a criticism of Foley or Munster – more that Leo was smart enough to learn from others’ misfortune and to actively seek to avoid a similar fate).
Cullen (38), Dempsey (40), Fogarty (38) are all very new to coaching at this level. It seems pretty clear that Henry’s task here is to assess and improve the coaches, not the players. That can only be a good thing. It was announced as a two week stint, although I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the relationship were extended beyond the announced fortnight.
Brian I never said they were clueless but honestly our basic handling skills are poorer than they were 3 years ago.
We play a win the collision/impact game rather than keep the ball alive and move it so we can create and finish chances
Agreed that the ball skills are considerably worse than they were when Schmidt left. Both players and coaches are of a considerably lower standard since, unfortunately, although there are some mitigating circumstances: we lost the best coach Irish rugby has ever had, the two best centres Irish rugby has ever produced, Sexton went to France and has yet to consistently find his groove since returning, Isa (arguably Irish rugby’s greatest import) hung up his boots in his prime (he’s still great, but not what he was), Rob Kearney lost his mojo, and the only decent winger we had was perennially injured (or playing centre!).
All of that being said, there is little doubt that standards slipped dramatically during MOC’s tenure. I think Leo may well be up to the task of bringing those standards back up again (less certain of Girv). The fact that Johnny has had a summer of rest could be the biggest factor ultimately – aside from being our key player, he is also the guy who most drives the standards in the squad.
Brian hopefully Johnny, Cian and Sean all come back after their first summer off in God knows how long refreshed and raring to go.
We have issues in the centre of the pitch teo, Luke and Madigan all gone and rob henshaw is injured.
Hopefully someone will step up and do the job.
I hope we don’t use a stop gap like switching Ferg or Zane and play some of the younger players.
I’m hopeful or a return to the good old days and with a bit of luck and fingers crossed we will
You think Darcy was better than Mike Gibson, Brian?
Arliss – good point; no, I’d have to concede that I don’t think D’Arcy was better than Michael Cameron Henderson Gibson. I think my point probably stands, nonetheless
Chris – I know, centre looks dreadfully thinly stocked. I’d imagine the Luke had been pencilled in as at least cover at 12 – he was excellent there last year. Now or never for Eoin O’Malley: he certainly has the attacking talent.. Can he learn to defend? I suspect not tbh. Tom Daly is going to see quite a lot of rugby, I think, and Ringrose is looking like a relative veteran!
*meant Noel Reid, not Eoin O’Malley. Such a shame we lost O’Malley to injury.
I can’t help but feel a lil more positive about the provinces minus Connacht o course
Ulster have a second season under kiss with him been there from the start this time around plus a few tasty signings
Munster have a new DOR plus D coach
Leinster have henry even if it is for only a few weeks and connacht need to continue their upward curve they havent lost many from their squad plus a new south afrian flyhalf no reason why all the clubs should be aiming for a knockout spot in europe
Sounds good, but you’d have to wonder about Cullen and Dempsey if they’re falling down in the basics. The positive is that the issues are being addressed, but is two weeks long enough? Will Henry be staying in touch afterwards and providing tips?
I hate when a troll slips in below the radar and gains traction like this.
Aww, I take it your not a fan of those terribly amusing panel shows programmes with humorist celebrities. PLEASE everyone take Rugby seriously for Rascal. Now what defensive lineout routines do you envisage him utilising? For league? In Europe?
You’ve lost me, Timmay…
Reminds me of the Steve Staunton/Bobby Robson combination Ireland brought a few years back.
Hopefully Henry doesn’t go and die too