A concerted effort by clubs, academies and provinces is needed to solve frontrow issues, writes LIAM TOLAND
LAST SATURDAY afternoon I stood at the foot of Leaba Padraig offering up my soul. Then as I turned to enjoy the view I noticed that time was against me; the clock stood at 14.35hrs and I didn’t have access to George Hook’s Sky+ recorder.
At 762 metres above sea level Croagh Patrick is hardly the most challenging descent but with Leinster kicking off in Toulouse 70 minutes later and the famed underfoot shale ahead of me I wished for the recorder. Thankfully in the end I didn’t have one, but all week no doubt Connacht, Leinster and Munster players will have been pouring over the video footage and with growing disappointment.
Over the coming weeks analysts will pour over the three losses last weekend and panic. Some will draw positives and no doubt being in Ireland the vast majority will draw negatives. But before you do please consider one point – the combined labour costs for Connacht, Leinster and Munster is still below that of Toulon. It is an extraordinary achievement to have provided three Irish provinces to the semi-finals, so no need to panic. So why will the players be annoyed?
Munster for one have lost two in a row. Last season however they were defeated by an awesome Leinster performance. As tough as it was to take then it’s far easier losing to an all- firing team. Biarritz will annoy them, with scrumhalf Dimitri Yachvili and number eight Imanol Harinordoquy, Biarritz were but a scrum and a two-man show. The French scrummage was the killer last week.
So where will the solution come from; the club, the province, the country or abroad? As I stated last week the risk based on a requirement for silverware entices the chequebook out. Before the IRFU start shelling out for Argentinians, Tongans or Georgians a little think-tank could be conducted.
The challenge ahead for our scrum doctors – Dan McFarland (Connacht), Reggie Corrigan (Leinster) and Paul McCarthy (Munster) – is tough. There appears to be no dedicated Ulster scrum doctor.
Let’s remind ourselves that Irish rugby produces a Brian O’Driscoll every 50 years, a Keith Wood every 40 years, a Denis Hickie every 30 years and a John Hayes, only once.
In many cases the backs will look after themselves through a very vibrant academy system. Backrows have never been a problem to source with secondrows a little harder. But frontrows are now almost impossible.
Irish solutions will take time. One immediate solution will be the chequebook. This is expensive business as a South African World Cup-winning prop will cost €350,000-plus. In the immediate future Irish rugby has little option but to shell out. A long- term approach must be thread into the system which will reduce the €350,000 figure by 50 per cent or more. Not unlike the Irish health system, investment with the healthy population will prevent sicknesses long term.
Unfortunately we are a Gaelic nation of 12 and a half stone athletes. We don’t produce the volume of physical players with the required skill set to fill up our frontrow.
One slightly farcical solution is to head to Georgia, Argentina or even South Africa with a teenage cardboard cut-out template for props. If the teenager fits the bill and plays rugby then he is offered an education in Ireland. On completion of which he is then qualified to play in green. Money well spent?
A more realistic option is a combination of the immediate and the long term which will involve the clubs and provinces – both players and coaches alike. France and New Zealand have struggled over the professional era to keep prop production at pace with the game.
Google “frontrow factory” and check out what’s happening down south. Not so long ago the French were in terrible bother with frontrows completely diluted by imports. The Top 14 scrum became so rife with injury that insurance costs threatened the game’s very future. After a time of concentrated domestic development injuries are down and French props are up.
Irish rugby is producing the best referees in the world due to a long-term approach of selection, fast tracking and careful guidance by such luminaries as Owen Doyle and David McHugh. They are supremely well organised and prop production must follow suit. The solution to scrummaging is a concerted effort by clubs, academies and provinces that will increase the expertise of players but firstly coaches.
How many coaches plying their trade around the country really know what’s going on in the scrum? Investment now will pay dividends later but for now RWC 2011 is far too close.
Although an international backrow, Seán O’Brien is ideally placed to move forward. If not him then the next O’Brien who is currently playing schools’ rugby in the backrow and will be ripe for RWC 2019. No need to panic.
Finally, “Girve the Swerve” is about to leave the building, after an unbelievable 14 years playing for Leinster. Who would have thought professional sport could engender such loyalty? Many detractors of the professional game no doubt still question money in our sport.
Girvan Dempsey is the very embodiment of professionalism. The fact he was being paid is a merely incidental. By most he has been summed up as “solid”. But to me he has been sheer class, performing in every arena he has graced. Just how he knew where his opposing outhalf was kicking the ball remains a mystery.
Over his career he has withstood serious challenges at Leinster and Ireland. His positional sense is legendary but it is the grace with which he firstly conducted himself, and secondly hit the line carrying the ball and gliding through the tightest of traffic, that will long stay in my memory. Enjoy easy street.
liamtoland@yahoo.com
