Spreading the IRFU net far and wide

You get the feeling that at least some of the natives are growing restless. Not entirely because Irish results and performances haven't panned exactly as they would have liked, but more because, increasingly, there are less natives wearing the green. Ireland for the Irish, and all that.

Next Friday evening, another three non-natives join the ranks of Irish representative players when the Aussie centre Matt Mostyn, and the Kiwi centre Mike Mullins, along with his countryman and West Hartlepool teammate, hooker Shane McDonald, make their debuts for the Irish A's against the Italians in Donnybrook.

They will swell to five the number of non Irish-born players in the A squad, along with the seven non-natives in the Test squad for Saturday's game against the Italians. So is it time to call a halt to this growing trend? Er, hardly. The bottom line is, if they're qualified, they're willing and they're good enough, then they're Irish enough. More than anything else, the international team is the flagship of the game in this country. It's success can do more to swell the coffers of the game, support for the game and the numbers playing the game than all the other commercial and coaching initiatives combined. That's the way of these things.

A cursory glance at the success story of the Irish international football team in the late 1980s and first half of the 1990s hammers home the point. They were successful, and signalled a boom for the game in this country. Unfortunately, some poor husbandry meant that this was not reflected in the domestic game or even, in the short-term, at under-age level, but the increased revenue and popularity ensured that the benefits are again being accrued.

Irish rugby relies on an even smaller reservoir of talent to tap into. Decade after decade the IRFU allowed the roots to be tended exclusively by the slightly elitist schools' game. Of the 15 native players on duty in Saturday's Test squad, 14 of them learnt the game at schools' level. Yeah, that's wonderful and hats off to the schools' system. But in ways it only highlights the problem. Only Trevor Brennan came from outside that system.

For years Mick Galwey was ploughing a pretty lonely furrow, although the A squad shows signs of the net being spread with the emergence of players such as Jeremy Staunton and Martin Cahill.

The IRFU, in fairness to them, have belatedly begun to take on their responsibilities in the 1990s.

Eddie Wigglesworth's blueprint for the development of the club game clearly places greater pressure on the clubs to create and nurture more under-age teams as an alternative to finding players purely in the schools. Of course, this principle is already established in some clubs. Which is why it would be good to see DLSP reap some tangible reward for their enduring under-age system with promotion to Division One, and likewise Barnhall's impending elevation to All-Ireland League Division Four.

There's also another crop of likely lads coming through the ranks, and thanks to the academy, and the development officers scattered throughout the provinces, there's a good chance more of it will be better nurtured in the future.

With the advent of professionalism, and the potential carrot of £25,000 provincial contracts (not particularly sizeable for the typical Irish schools' product perhaps, but more so beyond those confines) this wider developmental work is more important than ever.

However, nothing would give this whole process a greater boon than a successful Irish team, beginning with a strong showing in the World Cup this October. In the short-term though, there's little doubt that Ireland suffers a class shortfall in certain positions. Hence the casting of the net to first and second generation Irishmen and the somewhat softish A caps next Friday, though the timing makes sense, all the more so as the result will scarcely merit a footnote in history and it's not as if the A's have covered themselves in glory.

AND IF Matt Mostyn turns out to be a 23year-old flyer with good hands at outside centre whose prepared to give a long-term commitment to Irish rugby, then great, let's have him.

After all, who was complaining in Ulster or Ireland when Simon Mason, who hails from Birkenhead, was kicking Ulster to Euro glory, or Andy Ward, a native of Whangerei, was the main man in most of their campaign? Nor could anyone doubt their commitment to Irish rugby.

And who wouldn't want Dion O'Cuinneagain in the Irish ranks now? The guy is almost too nice. He's modest and unassuming, friendly and even self-critical, with scarcely a shred of arrogance about him; which, you would have thought, almost disqualifies him from being South African at a stroke. And most of all, he's an exceptional rugby player.

Besides, as the flight of O'Cuinneagain's parents to South Africa (like so many expatriate Irish medical people) underlines, we're a migratory people. How many other countries has the likes of a Rose of Tralee, for heaven's sake? (If they're good-looking enough, they're Irish enough?)

In any event, the New Zealanders and, less so, the Australians, have brazenly used the pacific islands as a breeding ground for years. The French are not averse to nationalising a Moroccan or a South African or whoever, while the Italians will have a rather useful Argentinean as well as, not for the first time, an Australian in their team next Saturday. Even Wales aren't averse to picking a couple of Kiwis, one of whom even played for the All Blacks.

The Scots, it is felt, are a bit more selective and effective in their trawling of the Southern Hemisphere. But for John and Martin Leslie, there have been a fair few others as well. Indeed, it's worth noting that the Scots had more non-natives in their ranks in both the A and Test matches last month than Ireland did - the Leslies being two of four New Zealanders and seven non-natives in their Test squad, while the Scottish A's drew on a South African, an Aucklander, a Queensland hooker, a former Welsh schools' player and a Worthington-born flanker.

John Leslie won't even be touring with them this summer, as he's only contracted with the SRU to play Tests, and so will be plying his trade in Japan during the close-season. What about the morality of that? Yet he's possibly been the centre of the championship, and has helped Gregor Townsend flourish. We'd be glad to have him.

The fault lies not in flaunting the system, but in the system in itself, and there the buck stops with the International Rugby Board.

Nah, let's get real. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.