Liam Toland: What type of rugby player is valued in Ireland?

Following on from the past two weeks, a thought has struck me. In London I watched the third-place playoff in the Sydney Arms where a passionate Irish rugby man argued that the Argentines were physiologically predisposed to breaking tackles and offloading. He maintained that they were “born that way”. I disagreed but although I believe in the freedom of speech, I believe more in the freedom to listen – so I did.

He suggested that the very essence of their being allowed them to dominate tackles by twisting and turning in contact. That their soccer brethren such as Diego Maradona’s unique low centre of gravity had transcended into their rugby players. They had inherited a unique physique that allowed them to play as they did.

With that benchmark set, he resigned himself to the fact Ireland simply couldn’t compete against this ‘unnatural’ physique. Although there was some merit to his points it didn’t account for the nurture aspect of the Argentine game.

Impact nurture

For instance, nurture's flip side, nature endowed the legend Jonah Lomu with one of his many gifts. Take a look at Wesley College Athletics Championship results 1989; winner 100m, 100m hurdles, 200m, 400, discus, shot, javelin, long jump, high jump and triple jump. Very few people are born that way; so for the rest it's hard work. But we all can impact nurture.

As players, we are no different from the Argentines physically. To make a point I asked him for his thoughts on Ulster wing Craig Gilroy. He had nothing but knee jerk negatives to say; 'he can't do this, he can't do that'. At no point did he consider what he can do. Based on many aspects of his opening thoughts I suggested that Gilroy is the exact player that fits the Southern Hemisphere system. He continued to disagree, qualifying his points and focusing on Gilroy's perceived negatives. However I fancy if Gilroy was Argentinian or Australian he would likely be a star with 30-plus caps. At 24 years of age he has six international caps whereas 24-year-old Wallaby James O'Connor has 44 and Puma Santiago Cordero has 18 caps at 21 years of age.

The try Gilroy scored against Munster in the 2012 Heineken Cup quarter-final in Thomond Park would have been enough to catapult him into the Argentina or Australia side for years. He did pretty okay on his Ireland debut too – scoring off an Irish lineout, against? Argentina!

Major schools

The past few weeks I’ve focused on youths and underage rugby. There’s a PhD in the subject, such as the role of youths over the much regarded schools system.

Why does Cork, 20 years into professionalism and with a population of 400,000 have but two major schools playing rugby? How many young kids with an ambition to mimic great Cork players such as Peter O’Mahony et al have but two serious rugby schools destinations to explore? Should they not get into Pres or Christians, then what of them? Has the system failed them? But as players evolve throughout the schools system, what type of player makes it to the elite level?

That same RWC final weekend, stuck in fog bound Heathrow, I bumped into an academy graduate. We had nine hours to 'discuss'. This guy spent a season in New Zealand where he found himself playing club rugby at fullback. Remember the answer I received at an Ireland squad session when enquiring of our counter attack policy – "we have no counter attack policy". Well, I'd assumed this was a thing of the past, but alas no.

A couple of games in to his time in New Zealand, the young Irish player playing at fullback, came into the half-time huddle. There, a very calm (not crazy parent) coach took control. He soon addressed the young fullback: “why are you kicking possession away; you know you can’t kick the ball?” A tad puzzled, the fullback wondered was this a commentary on his kicking ability or an order to run. But the coach went on to encourage him and remind him the other 14 players were expecting him to counter and run the ball. “Trust them, they will be there for you when you need them.”

Another worthy PhD? How many of our coaches are building a system in schools and youths that encourages fullbacks to counter attack? Then do they teach the remaining 14 players how to maximise the counter – not just to potentially score but to ensure the fullback doesn’t look stupid when caught in heavy opposition traffic.

Exact thing

He revelled in his opportunity and couldn’t wait to get home to Ireland. No sooner was he back and he was admonished for his counterattacking! To justify this, his Irish coach issued a job description of his fullback role. It was scripted and prescribed but nowhere was there space to run with the ball; so he did what was expected of him; he tackled, he caught and he kicked.

So now; we have discussed issues around how we coach our kids (and the style of competitions) and around the style of play which we impose upon them. And finally, we referenced the type of player we seek at elite level. Craig Gilroy is miles down the pecking order. Simon Zebo is on the fringe but continually loses out to 'what you see is what you get' players. Hence there's merit in examining the players making it to the top by asking what type of player are we valuing?

liamtoland@yahoo.com