The return of the United Rugby Championship (URC) following a five-week playing hiatus will be eagerly embraced by a majority of provincial players for whom much of November provided an unsolicited break from rugby.
A small group of senior professional contracted players lined out in the All-Ireland League (AIL) but they were a minority while all provincial players not required by the Ireland squad for the Autumn Nations series were given some time off over the past month.
Since the start of the AIL in the first weekend in October the number of provincial academy players featuring on a weekly basis ranges between 25 and 35 in number. There are six travelling to Dubai this weekend in the men's senior and development Sevens teams - three in each squad - while Leinster centre Jamie Osborne and Munster secondrow Thomas Ahern spent some time in Ireland camp.
This is the first season in which the URC has shut down for the November Test series rather than running concurrently. It will be the same for the Six Nations Championship. The knock-on effect is that what traditionally would have been a period for coaches to blood or develop young players and provide game time for the majority of the squad isn't available.
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The net effect is less match minutes for players throughout the provincial squads. The AIL might have been able to pick up some of the playing slack in that six professional players, only three of whom can be forwards, are permitted to play in Divisions 1A and 1B.
Significant numbers
There were two stumbling blocks, one the provinces didn’t appear to be that pushed to release players in significant numbers to the clubs, secondly a lack of AIL fixtures. Since the start of the season there were no club games in those divisions from October 16th-30th and from November 6th-19th.
It is compounded by the fact that there is currently no British&Irish/Celtic/Cara Cups this season for the provincial ‘A’ sides, the latter restricted to infrequent interprovincials - the latest round of which was last weekend.
The URC is back for two rounds of fixtures, before shutting down for another three weeks with the Irish provinces returning to action on St Stephen’s Day, December 26th. In the interim the Heineken Champions Cup takes centre stage on a brace of weekends. The AIL elite divisions have no matches from December 11th to January 15th.
There are no URC matches between January 8th and January 29th while just two rounds of fixtures for the northern hemisphere clubs will be played during the seven weeks of the Six Nations Championship on February 19th and March 5th as they represent rest weeks in the latter tournament. The AIL shuts down for three weeks in January/February and two in March.
The URC is no longer going to offer the same player development pathway for the Irish provinces it once did in its previous iterations. The chance for the provinces to drill right down to teenagers in some cases will be thwarted by the fact that frontline or senior players will be on hand more often because they won’t be away on international duty.
Previously the Irish provinces’ squad depth meant that they could better absorb the disruption of losing players to the national team during the November and Six Nations windows far better than their Scottish, Welsh and Italian counterparts; that is no longer applicable. It’s levelled the playing field appreciably.
The non-Irish constituents of the league will argue that it will make for a better spectacle with stronger teams playing and therefore more attractive to spectators and sponsors but the Irish provinces don’t have identical criteria as measuring tools.
A real concern for Leo Cullen (Leinster), Johann van Graan (Munster), Dan McFarland (Ulster) and Andy Friend (Connacht) is being able to provide players with enough meaningful game time over the current season in its new format. It's a sliding scale in that respect as Leinster, bulk suppliers to the Ireland team, can go a little deeper squad wise than, say, Connacht.
If the Welsh, Scottish, Italian and South African teams opt for strong selections then there is less scope for the Irish provinces to rotate their squads if they aspire to win the tournament and/or ensure European qualification.
Counterproductive
The provinces traditionally use well in excess of 50 players during a season but squad sizes may become smaller in the future. Certainly fringe and academy players are going to find match minutes more difficult by which to come. Any shrinking of the talent pool would be counterproductive from an Irish rugby perspective.
There would be enormous pressure on those on a one-year contract for example who were trying to secure a future in professional rugby on foot of four to seven matches in a season. Academy players would be squeezed even more for games, and in affording coaches an opportunity to benchmark progress.
A disconnect between clubs and provinces in terms of a player pathway, complicated further by A matches, is a long-time puzzle that no one has been able to solve, nor is there a solution in sight. When there is a few quid in the coffers again it’s likely that some form of British & Irish Cup will be reconstituted.
It will be viewed as a reasonable playing vehicle for the extended provincial squads and with contempt by the clubs whose playing ranks will be pillaged or at least that’s how they will regard it. The URC will do a great deal less for Irish rugby than the leagues other constituents; the challenge to Irish rugby to ensure its player pathway does not become constricted.
