Targeting clubs may also be a big mistake

On Rugby: Last Saturday, Clontarf hosted Shannon at Castle Avenue. Time was, not so long ago, when it would have been the main match of the day. The corresponding fixture two seasons ago drew a larger crowd and live coverage on RTÉ television, writes Gerry Thornley.

Live television coverage? Some chance now.

No two clubs would deserve such exposure more, but the lack of cameras this time around is symbolic of their current plight. Try as they might, these and other clubs feel they are ploughing a rather forlorn furrow. Nobody cares, least of all the union or their provinces, who take and give little in return.

This fixture - like all those in the three divisions - took place to the backdrop of potentially the most far-reaching debate yet about the future of the club game in Ireland. In the current, austere financial climate, the union clearly believe something has to give. Last season it was Connacht. Now, seemingly, it is the clubs.

On Thursday, January 29th the full IRFU committee adjourned a day-long meeting on the sole topic of the AIB League and the club game, to be reconvened on February 20th. The options being discussed at the top level would appear to be threefold: Retain the existing three-divisional structure, which from next season will be 14, 17 and 17 clubs. Alternatively, they could divide the lower divisions into regional sections to reduce costs or, most dramatically of all, it is proposedthe AIL effectively be disbanded, with a return to regional leagues in the first half of the season, from which teams would qualify for a three-tiered all-Ireland, play-off structure.

Powerful union figures prefer the latter option, and defenders of the existing All-Ireland League have privately conceded that they fear they're fighting a losing battle. Implicit in the return to regional/provincial leagues is a belief, held by influential IRFU figures, that there would no longer be an onus on the clubs to produce players for the professional/provincial game. That instead, the schools/academy system would carry this load.

Such a stated policy would be the ultimate kick in the teeth for the likes of Shannon and Clontarf. Munster were undoubtedly central to the relative rejuvenation of Irish rugby since the Millennium, but, lest we forget, in truth the origins of Munster's own emergence as a powerful force in European rugby emanated from the success of their clubs in the AIL, none more so than Shannon with their four-in-a-row.

It was through their success in the AIL that the likes of John Hayes, Mick Galwey, Anthony Foley, Alan Quinlan and others were inculcated with the winning habit. And it was through the clubs that the likes of Galwey, Hayes, Quinlan and others were nurtured.

The under-age game is relatively vibrant, but there is a direct link between nurturing children from mini-rugby and aspirations of both playing for that club in an AIL and perhaps beyond. Without that link, why would clubs be bothered?

And, no less than the players, where are the indigenous coaches to emerge from? The academies or the provincial game as well? Hardly. Home-grown Irish coaches are hardly getting a look in even at AIL first division level, but there's nowhere else for them to cut their teeth, and as the Shannon coach Geoff Moylan asks rhetorically: "Where are the opportunities?"

After guiding Shannon to the AIL crown the season before last, Moylan spoke aloud of his frustrations last season when continually being denied the services of his players at short notice, or having fixtures foisted upon them against their will.Their plight has only worsened this season with the advent of an expanded Celtic League and relatively unnecessary Celtic Cup.

Moylan finds it utterly risible that players will spring forth from the schools and academy structures without at least operating in tandem with a vibrant club/AIL game. "What are they going to do, weights and skills programmes? Where are they going to play matches? Nothing develops a player like playing rugby matches."

Shannon changed their modus operandi three seasons ago, effectively waving goodbye to their test players and most of their contracted players, and instead focusing on developing young players. Winning a fifth AIL the season before last was arguably the club's biggest achievement.

It is through such work at club level that the provinces can dip outside their contracted squad so as to actually field teams on certain over-stretched weekends of the Celtic League.

No one took a leaf out of this Shannon manual more than Clontarf. Their far-sighted Kiwi coach Phil Werahiko, who has been around the club scene for more than a decade with Enniscorthy, DLSP and now the Castle Avenue outfit, led a club policy of continual recruitment and development of players for the provinces, and, accordingly, four of last season's AIL finalists were contracted with Connacht this season.

The day before their first division meeting last Saturday, each club had a further two, non-contracted players called up by Munster and Leinster for their Celtic League matches.

Invariably, both Moylan and Werahiko agree that the standard in the AIL first division has dropped further this season, and that the gap between the club and provincial game has therefore widened again.

Moylan believes a reduction of teams in the top flight, to improve quality, is imperative. Werahiko optimistically describes this as "a new era" for the AIL, and believes improved coaching at club level is the key.

What both men and countless others agree on is that diminishing the AIL and a return of whatever degree to some form of provincial leagues, in which 70 and 80 point mismatches have been commonplace in recent times, will only see that gap widen further.

gthornley@irish-times.ie