Ireland's Rugby Selection Process

Bob Casey; Sean Cronin; Darren Cave; Keith Earls: Each is a player either of immense potential or proven ability given no opportunity to prove how good he is or how good he can be in an Irish context. I'm not even talking about Senior Irish squads here: but even at A squad level opportunities have either been non-existent or perfunctory at best. Would Eoin Reddan be anywhere near the Ireland team if his performances for Wasps hadn't made him the media's darling prior to World Cup 07? Has Neil Best (who was Rugby World's Best No.6 in the world 2 years ago) become such a poor player that he doesn't figure in the frame even as a squad player in 2008? Why is it that Ireland's best natural opensides, Johnny O'Connor, Keith Gleeson and Shane Jennings can't prove to the management that they have something valuable to offer? These examples are only illustrative - I am not suggesting that all or any of them should have played against England earlier this month. But I would certainly hazard a guess that if they and others like them, believed that they really did have a chance to stake a claim based on form, then the competitive pressure would have added at least 15% to Ireland's performances.



How is it possible that in a country with such a small playing population our pool of players is being further restricted by a system of selection that does not provide opportunities for players to put forward their case? Are we in such a comfortable playing position that we can effectively ignore talent, concentrating all our efforts on just a tiny proportion of people that have been lucky enough to get a break?



We need to do everything in our power to ensure that not one single player of international standard is lost to us. We need to turn the selection process into a feeding frenzy of ambition and competition for places. We need to make all players feel that they can make it into the national set up if they play well enough and that once there they need to keep performing at the highest level. Ask many of the current professional players in Ireland and I doubt very much if they currently feel that that is the case. It may well be that this is purely down to Eddie O'Sullivan's ridiculously rigid approach to selection (laughably called 'loyalty' in some circles), but whatever the reason, I certainly doubt whether Casey, Gleeson, Jennings and others feel that how they play matters a jot.



Here's a suggestion: How about reintroducing a national trial. I'm not talking about probables v possibles but perhaps two 120 minute games over a weekend, each split into 3 40 minute periods, in which the top 50 or so players (chosen based on any of experience, form and potential) are mixed up and told to play for their positions. Clearly it's not perfect and there will be some players that the coach will pick one way or another, but we have to create a larger pool of players all of whom feel that there is a chance that if they push themselves to constantly improve then the ultimate honour can be theirs. We also need transparency so that we can trust that the players representing us the fans are the best possible. To my mind that trust is not there at the moment and neither, for that matter, are the best players necessarily.

Six Nations Ireland Blues

So the 2008 6 Nations Championship ends with Wales winning a Grand Slam and Ireland a pretty poor 4th place. Not only did we only manage to get wins over Scotland and Italy, but over the course of the entire tournament we played unimaginative and undistinguished rugby.

After the Scotland game, we were being talked up again, not least by Eddie O'Sullivan. However, in doing that, it struck me that experience and expertise don't seem to translate into an ability to analyse in an objective way the evidence of one's eyes. We beat Scotland comfortably on the scoreboard but the reality was that we were dominated in most aspects of the game and if Scotland had had a cutting edge we would have been well and truly beaten. Against Italy the same thing could be said, while it was only against France that we dominated any of our opponents (and even then France still won).

Ireland have been running on empty since the end of the 2007 6 Nations. Quite clearly an infusion of new ideas and new blood is required. To all those who say that Eddie has done great things for Ireland and point to his win/loss statistics, I would just say this: the coach of any sporting team has one job and one job only - that is to consistently get the best out of his players. Has O'Sullivan achieved this? Quite clearly he has not. Because of his failure in this regard, Ireland have only won 3 Triple Crowns under his tenure. Regardless of what Tony Ward and others might think, that is a paltry return in an era when England, France and Wales have all won Grand Slams, Championships and World Cups between them. Have we been poorer than those teams since 2001/2 in terms of personnel? I certainly suggest not.

It's not rocket science: Ireland need a modern and innovative coach who can provide inspiration, is not afraid of change and promotes players on the basis of form and ability. I have to hope that the IRFU confines to the dustbin their stated intention of promoting Irish coaches because there is not a single Irish coach who could bring Ireland on to the next level the way that Pat Howard, Wayne Smith, John Mitchell or even Matt Williams could.