CORK CONSTITUTION WILL compete in this weekend’s All-Ireland League final, a remarkable fourth straight year on Irish domestic rugby’s marquee day.
It’s no accident, nor is it a default position for the 137-year-old Temple Hill institution. That age, the wealth of history and depth of characters plays an enormous part.
There’s Lion and a Grand Slam-winner Donnacha O’Callaghan jogging around training…there’s long-time Munster stalwart Duncan Williams talking up the skill levels and pitching in wherever coaches need a hand.
And they are merely the younger servants giving back to the club who produced them. Yet, as coach Paul Barr explains, there is also a growing willingness to grow and change.
With three final appearances behind them entering this season, there were ample reasons to stick with a direct forward-focused style of play in-keeping with Munster teams of old, but Barr ripped up the playbook and encouraged the players to, well, play.
“We kind of took a bit of a gamble to be honest,” says Barr as the Aviva Stadium pitch is being carefully manicured by groundsmen behind him.
Ireland u20 back Sean French has thrived in Con's revamped gameplan. Ryan Byrne / INPHO
Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO
“We kind of took away all their calls a little bit at the very start of the season, and we tried to peel it back – almost to like a mini rugby player first running down the steps – and said: ‘what would you do on the pitch if you got the ball?’ And let’s build it back from there a little bit.’”
The old style is innate, there was little danger of losing the direct power with many consistent pack members remaining in situ. Winning one final out of three appearances evidently didn’t feel like success enough for Barr and director of rugby Brian Hickey.
“With direct comes a little bit of predictability for defences. It was working (against) a lot of the teams, especially maybe against some of younger profile teams, the university teams. You might be able to subdue them with that, but when you got to the likes of Lansdowne and Clontarf and these kind of teams they were able to cope with that physically.”
Paul Barr at the Aviva this week. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
“One of the things that I picked up on the tapes over the years: if you have a three-phase sequence call, or a complex sequence of calls, often a player will be running from A to B without actually looking in front of him because the call says: ‘I go from A to B’.
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“We asked ‘what happens when a defender falls over? Do you even see it? Would you notice that space emerging in front of you?’
I think we forced teams to look at Con across the pitch, and that has opened up the internal spaces that were walls beforehand, and maybe are little gaps internally.”
The more expansive approach is reflected not just in Con’s move from finishing the last two regular seasons third and fourth to taking the summit this term. It has also pushed their try-scoring bonus points to 12 from 18 matches this term. That’s more than the combined total of their previous two seasons, and also more than any table-topping side has managed since Division 1A expanded to 10 teams in 2011/12.
“We decided to use the strengths we had, which were really good, but teams were able to prepare for them. By asking different questions across the width of the pitch, it meant that the internal channels were less defended, because they couldn’t prepare for us to be there, with nine possessions out of ten kind of thing.”
“That’s really it. It’s nothing more than that really. It’s encouraging them to use the full width of the pitch. There’s a lot of talent there that maybe was only getting the ball within a certain pattern of play format.”
That sort of sea-change takes no small amount of confidence in the underlying base of a team and a club and second row Brian Hayes readily admits that the innate confidence, so often consistent throughout Rebel county teams, is indeed present in this Con group.
Con celebrate this year's Munster Senior Cup victory. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
“We place a higher importance on ourselves than we should. We think of ourselves very highly as a group – of players, not the club,” says Hayes, “we’d have an innate confidence in ourselves. We wouldn’t see ourselves as much inferior to some of the standard of professionals.”
To that end, Barr adds with a little gratitude that the club, at this level, are not trying to engage in the high-wire act of a professional outfit. If this experiment was not successful it was not going to signal a disastrous crumble.
“I think sometimes we’re very fortunate where we are, in that the conservatism that is imposed on (professionals) through a fear factor, a livelihood factor, in their approach – that’s removed from us.
“Like, we can have a real cut at it without the same financial Sword of Damacles hanging over our heads that they would experience.”
The relationship to the professional game obviously has its hurdles for the club scene, but around Con they speak of a strong relationship with the players they generate for Munster and it is certainly reciprocated as pros return in a variety of forms to lend their support knowledge or weight to the cause.
Hayes is one of many players around the AIL to taste the professional scene, but returning from a spell in Pro D2 with Aurillac he was thrilled to be embraced by a club with tireless devotees helping continue a proud tradition and keep a senior side playing at a high level.
“To get to come back to a club like Con, where you have the core club that has been there since I joined – the likes of Noel Walsh, Stan Waldron, Doug O’Riordan – the fellas that are always there. Always putting the club forward. It makes a big difference.
“It’s something to enjoy. It’s a cliche, but you play with your friends and we’ve the same team for the last four years… it’s enjoyable to play with them. They put in the work, it’s not that they’re only playing on the Saturday; it’s a Monday to Saturday thing.”
The names of behind-the-scenes stalwarts who deserve untold credit keep rolling, Barr glows about groundsman Michael Boland, who tends to the field as if it were a child of his own, before stopping himself in his tracks to trumpet the efforts of Kenny Murphy, an Ireland international as was his father Noel.
“Kenny is Mr Con, but what I like about Kenny is that he works with the person and the player is secondary to the person. He has the best interest of the person at heart, and I think that grows that really strong sense of community, when the person has a loyalty to the club, and the player reflects that.
“So I think that’s probably what they (the club) have, that makes them contend for a long number of years.”
Oisin Keniry / INPHO
Oisin Keniry / INPHO / INPHO
Barr adds: “I’m only a bit-part player in the history of that, but if I was asked to identify it to somebody coming in from the outside into Con, I think there is a really strong sense of community in the club, within it, and it starts off with guys like Duncan (Williams) at six years of age, and Alex McHenry at six years of age.
“They might leave to go to school or university, but with Con it’s like coming home.
“Like, Donncha O’Callaghan is jogging around the pitch every evening at training these evenings. He’s watching the training, he’s watching the matches. You hear Ronan O’Gara referencing the club…
“There’s something there, maybe in their childhoods growing up, and in their career as young players. It’s still their home club, no matter where they’ve been, and I think that comes from a sense of community, and people doing great work with youngsters from six years of age right up through the structure.”
It’s a work that is funnel towards days like tomorrow’s 3pm kick-off at the Aviva, but then again it’s about much more than that.
Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella are joined by Andy Dunne to discuss all the week’s rugby news.:
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'With Con it’s like coming home': Solid foundations allow Cork club to change and grow
CORK CONSTITUTION WILL compete in this weekend’s All-Ireland League final, a remarkable fourth straight year on Irish domestic rugby’s marquee day.
It’s no accident, nor is it a default position for the 137-year-old Temple Hill institution. That age, the wealth of history and depth of characters plays an enormous part.
There’s Lion and a Grand Slam-winner Donnacha O’Callaghan jogging around training… there’s long-time Munster stalwart Duncan Williams talking up the skill levels and pitching in wherever coaches need a hand.
And they are merely the younger servants giving back to the club who produced them. Yet, as coach Paul Barr explains, there is also a growing willingness to grow and change.
With three final appearances behind them entering this season, there were ample reasons to stick with a direct forward-focused style of play in-keeping with Munster teams of old, but Barr ripped up the playbook and encouraged the players to, well, play.
“We kind of took a bit of a gamble to be honest,” says Barr as the Aviva Stadium pitch is being carefully manicured by groundsmen behind him.
“We kind of took away all their calls a little bit at the very start of the season, and we tried to peel it back – almost to like a mini rugby player first running down the steps – and said: ‘what would you do on the pitch if you got the ball?’ And let’s build it back from there a little bit.’”
The old style is innate, there was little danger of losing the direct power with many consistent pack members remaining in situ. Winning one final out of three appearances evidently didn’t feel like success enough for Barr and director of rugby Brian Hickey.
“With direct comes a little bit of predictability for defences. It was working (against) a lot of the teams, especially maybe against some of younger profile teams, the university teams. You might be able to subdue them with that, but when you got to the likes of Lansdowne and Clontarf and these kind of teams they were able to cope with that physically.”
“One of the things that I picked up on the tapes over the years: if you have a three-phase sequence call, or a complex sequence of calls, often a player will be running from A to B without actually looking in front of him because the call says: ‘I go from A to B’.
“We asked ‘what happens when a defender falls over? Do you even see it? Would you notice that space emerging in front of you?’
The more expansive approach is reflected not just in Con’s move from finishing the last two regular seasons third and fourth to taking the summit this term. It has also pushed their try-scoring bonus points to 12 from 18 matches this term. That’s more than the combined total of their previous two seasons, and also more than any table-topping side has managed since Division 1A expanded to 10 teams in 2011/12.
“We decided to use the strengths we had, which were really good, but teams were able to prepare for them. By asking different questions across the width of the pitch, it meant that the internal channels were less defended, because they couldn’t prepare for us to be there, with nine possessions out of ten kind of thing.”
“That’s really it. It’s nothing more than that really. It’s encouraging them to use the full width of the pitch. There’s a lot of talent there that maybe was only getting the ball within a certain pattern of play format.”
That sort of sea-change takes no small amount of confidence in the underlying base of a team and a club and second row Brian Hayes readily admits that the innate confidence, so often consistent throughout Rebel county teams, is indeed present in this Con group.
“We place a higher importance on ourselves than we should. We think of ourselves very highly as a group – of players, not the club,” says Hayes, “we’d have an innate confidence in ourselves. We wouldn’t see ourselves as much inferior to some of the standard of professionals.”
To that end, Barr adds with a little gratitude that the club, at this level, are not trying to engage in the high-wire act of a professional outfit. If this experiment was not successful it was not going to signal a disastrous crumble.
“I think sometimes we’re very fortunate where we are, in that the conservatism that is imposed on (professionals) through a fear factor, a livelihood factor, in their approach – that’s removed from us.
“Like, we can have a real cut at it without the same financial Sword of Damacles hanging over our heads that they would experience.”
The relationship to the professional game obviously has its hurdles for the club scene, but around Con they speak of a strong relationship with the players they generate for Munster and it is certainly reciprocated as pros return in a variety of forms to lend their support knowledge or weight to the cause.
Hayes is one of many players around the AIL to taste the professional scene, but returning from a spell in Pro D2 with Aurillac he was thrilled to be embraced by a club with tireless devotees helping continue a proud tradition and keep a senior side playing at a high level.
“To get to come back to a club like Con, where you have the core club that has been there since I joined – the likes of Noel Walsh, Stan Waldron, Doug O’Riordan – the fellas that are always there. Always putting the club forward. It makes a big difference.
“It’s something to enjoy. It’s a cliche, but you play with your friends and we’ve the same team for the last four years… it’s enjoyable to play with them. They put in the work, it’s not that they’re only playing on the Saturday; it’s a Monday to Saturday thing.”
The names of behind-the-scenes stalwarts who deserve untold credit keep rolling, Barr glows about groundsman Michael Boland, who tends to the field as if it were a child of his own, before stopping himself in his tracks to trumpet the efforts of Kenny Murphy, an Ireland international as was his father Noel.
“Kenny is Mr Con, but what I like about Kenny is that he works with the person and the player is secondary to the person. He has the best interest of the person at heart, and I think that grows that really strong sense of community, when the person has a loyalty to the club, and the player reflects that.
“So I think that’s probably what they (the club) have, that makes them contend for a long number of years.”
Barr adds: “I’m only a bit-part player in the history of that, but if I was asked to identify it to somebody coming in from the outside into Con, I think there is a really strong sense of community in the club, within it, and it starts off with guys like Duncan (Williams) at six years of age, and Alex McHenry at six years of age.
“They might leave to go to school or university, but with Con it’s like coming home.
“Like, Donncha O’Callaghan is jogging around the pitch every evening at training these evenings. He’s watching the training, he’s watching the matches. You hear Ronan O’Gara referencing the club…
“There’s something there, maybe in their childhoods growing up, and in their career as young players. It’s still their home club, no matter where they’ve been, and I think that comes from a sense of community, and people doing great work with youngsters from six years of age right up through the structure.”
It’s a work that is funnel towards days like tomorrow’s 3pm kick-off at the Aviva, but then again it’s about much more than that.
Gavan Casey and Murray Kinsella are joined by Andy Dunne to discuss all the week’s rugby news.:
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