Irish Rugby – What Next ??
Francis Saili has had some very interesting things to say about Ireland and the fact that they will face New Zealand twice in 2016. He believes that they are a long way from gaining a first victory over his fellow countrymen later this year either in Chicago or Dublin.
After the close calls of June 2012 or November 2013 , people felt that a win over New Zealand wasn’t too far away but against that the heavy defeat in the 3rd Test in 2012 and the narrow two point defeat of November 2013 has set people thinking that they may never see the day an Irish team will beat New Zealand.
New Zealand are probably the greatest nation to play the game of Rugby Union since it came into being. They have won three World Cup’s in 1987, 2011 and 2015. In that time Ireland have failed to get passed the Quarter Final stage.
Francis Saili has pointed to the skill level of the players in this country along with the weather. This is an old argument that is brought up every four years or after a poor 5 or 6 Nations campaign. Sailli feels that although Ireland have come closer to getting that prized victory , they are still some distance from achieving that goal.
In Ireland of course , Rugby Union competes with the GAA and Football for its players along with a number of other sports. This particular issue isn’t exactly a problem in New Zealand as Rugby Union is the number 1 sport and only when you decide not to play the games are you guided to play other sports like Cricket , Rowing and Football.
Saili doesn’t seem to see this as a problem and I think while his argument has a few valid points he fails to recognise that in Ireland you have to compete with so many sports that you are not always going to entice the best players to play Rugby Union.
Another problem for Rugby in Ireland is that it is still fairly elitist in where it gets the majority of it players from. School Rugby still produces the majority of the players with only a small number of players coming through the club system.
In the last 20 years or so , Academies have been brought into each Province to try and help the production and introduction of young players into each team. Leinster and Connacht have had the most success in bringing players through and in Leinster’s case some of their players have moved South and West to add quality to the squads in Connacht and Munster. Lads like Andrew Conway and Fionn Carr have made the move with mixed results in both cases.
Back to the crux of Francis Saili’s point that a win over New Zealand won’t happen in the near future. Having spoken to players about this issue you will get two responses, one will say the win will happen and the other will tell you that Saili is spot on.
Some Ex Pros have pointed to the fact that the skill level is not what it should be and that if you still have to practice passing drills on your weaker side, we as a rugby playing nation have a way to go before we can really think about challenging for the games to prize……
Ireland have two new chances to defeat New Zealand in November 2016 in Chicago and Dublin , I have a feeling that certain Irish players will want to make Francis Saili regret ever saying that a win over New Zealand may never come for those that run and play the game in Ireland.
By
Cian Mc Gibney
23/03/2016
