THE IRFU ARE on the point of adding a promising young Australian number eight to the playing roster here before the eligibility law is extended from three to five years.
And Eric Elwood, who has taken charge of the Connacht academy, looks set to benefit with Melbourne Rebels back row, Harley Fox, set to be posted to the Sportsground.
The 21-year old has spent the past two seasons with the Melbourne Rebels but did not feature in Super Rugby and, with them now facing an uncertain future, Fox has been persuaded to move to Ireland and work his way through the academy structure.
He will become the third Australian player to be added to the extended squad at the Sportsground, with back rower Jarrad Butler joining from the Brumbies after almost 50 Super Rugby appearances, while former Australian U-20 out-half Andrew Deegan is also poised to move to Galway as New Zealander Kieran Keane takes over from Pat Lam.
Fox, who spent his early years playing rugby union, has been identified by the IRFU as a possible project player with performance director David Nucifora apparently keen to get him to move to Ireland.
Former Connacht coach Elwood, who has taken over the academy at the Sportsground this summer, is set to monitor and nurture the progress of the young Australian and will be boosted by having such an experienced player in the set-up.
Fox is a former rugby league player who made an instant impact after switching to union after eleven years, and was named captain of the Australian schoolboys team in 2014 not long after making the switch.
He was drafted into the Melbourne Rebels extended squad in 2016 after representing Australia in the World Rugby U-20 Championship in Manchester, a tournament where, ironically, Nucifora’s nephew, Harry Nucifora, was scrum-half for the Aussies.
Fox could become one of the final project players to qualify to play for Ireland after being here three years before the eligibility criteria rises to five years in 2020.
New coach Keane is due to arrive in Galway in the next two weeks from New Zealand after the Chiefs’ involvement in Super Rugby concludes.
The League of Ireland is in a sorry state. This carry on is is not going away. As a Drogheda United we know more than most what its like when ones club chases the rainbow. How any player in the lower echelons of League of Ireland think its a good idea to be a footballer in Ireland is beyond me. All of these players will be out of contract at the end of the season, claim the dole and then go back to earning peanuts again. Its hardly a long term career plan. The FAI should use the their competition as a measure of how they as an association are performing….well its failing miserably. I’d love to see it get better, even to see it get to a Scottish standard with stadiums, facilities and televison deals would be enough but we are light years away from that.
@Patrick McHugh: so long as we keep ploughing our money into the EPL and the plastic paddy’s up north then we will never have a decent domestic league. Always love coming on here and seeing guys who proclaim to be Irish fans but will then on an EPL thread announce themselves as fans of UTD or Liverpool. The FAI don’t help though that much is true. If ever proof we’re needed then just look at the photos of Delaney or Mo’N in Inchicore poring over plans for the Richmond Bowl and on TV saying how good it will be for the game here. Oh, wait you can’t, Because they don’t exist!
@David Lawlor: Hi David, what do you mean by ‘ploughing money into the EPL and the plastic paddy up north’?
@Sean McFadden: Spending millions on trips to England and Glasgow Celtic. Non Irish teams.
@David Lawlor: Ok I get the EPL connect. The other part a reference to Hoops supporters from the North in particular?
@Sean McFadden: where does it say anything about people from the North? Very clearly talking about Celtic being north of England
fai imposes stoopid faux “licencing” bs scheeme on clubs wastes money on junkets 4 blazers & psuedo corporate fluff stuff (eg. Consultants) organization needs complete restructure & repurpose. Ireland’s soccer set up is unsustainable for long term ignoring grass roots development & proper investment in & development of local LofI &subsidiary league clubs & structures.
All our senior clubs have faced financial crises in recent times. The dundalks corks rovers etc included all hv faced financial catastrophe. FAI top brass response 2 ongoing recurring situations is 2 further distance itself from domestic scene.
Soccer is no.1 sport in ireland in terms of active players and reach, yet unlike other orgs like gaa irfu fai is appalingly run wthout proper strategic leadership or direction
When will the FAI realise that you can’t sustain a two division league system in this country and how many more teams have to go out of business for them to realize this and how do many of them get a licence year on year .Have one league with 14/ 16 teams but we all know its about money from UEFA ????????
@James Kelly: I think there’s some stipulation that you have to have at least 2 leagues to allow teams qualify for European competitions. I think
@Zossima: Nah, Gibraltar (the obvious one I could think of!) only have one division.
Love to see what that chancer Fran Gavin has to say about this.
It’s sad when this happens a club . Players have to be paid at the end of the day ! Some junior players are getting paid and they hold down jobs also , this is a stumbling block also to the clubs , why would a guy bother playing and travelling all around the country to train and play ! FAI have a lot of work to do when they get their heads out of the sand