LAST YEAR, IT was the Emerging Ireland tour that caused frustration for the provinces while this year, it’s the Combined Provinces series that will be an annoyance for the All-Ireland League clubs.
The IRFU’s decision to send an Emerging Ireland squad to South Africa in late September/early October 2022 at the same time the URC was running caused friction with its own provinces.
The union believed that bringing a group of promising young players away for a three-game trip could help to get some of them better acquainted with how Andy Farrell’s Ireland do things, even if the boss himself didn’t travel. His assistant coaches, led by Simon Easterby, lauded the short stint with that promising crop and even if the opposition were no great shakes, several of the Irish players impressed.
Jack Crowley and Joe McCarthy were part of the tour and ended up playing at the World Cup, while others kicked on with their provinces. Of course, the provinces would argue that those players might have kicked on earlier had they not been taken away for a few weeks, but the IRFU has the final say on these things.
Now, the union is set to bring together a Combined Provinces squad for a series of games against Italian opposition in the next two months, as first reported by Brendan Fanning of the Sunday Independent.
The Combined Provinces squad will be exactly what it says on the tin – a group made up of players from the four provinces’ academies. It’s unclear whether each of Munster, Leinster, Connacht, and Ulster will provide the same number of players to the squad, which is expected to be officially announced soon. It’s unclear who will do the coaching.
There are due to be four games, with two taking place in Parma, Italy on Sunday 10 December and Friday 15 December, before return fixtures in Dublin on Sunday 14 January and Friday 19 January.
The Italian squad is expected to be made up of promising young players from the Benetton and Zebre clubs who are part of the URC.
Those dates are Champions Cup weekends, so it’s unlikely that any of the Irish players selected would have featured in their provinces’ senior teams. Indeed, it’s thought that the provinces themselves may even be responsible for nominating players to be part of the Combined Provinces side.
However, there will be direct clashes with AIL matches.
As the IRFU regularly points out, promising young Irish talents play the majority of their rugby in the AIL. While we have seen lots of promising players getting chances with their provinces’ senior professional teams in recent weeks, the bulk of academy prospects’ game time comes in the AIL, all the more so with the recent demise of A games.
There is no longer a British and Irish Cup for the provinces’ A teams to play in, while other A games, including inter-provincials, are few and far between, seemingly pulled together at the last minute and sometimes not even officially announced.
As much as ever, ambitious young players need the AIL in order to learn and develop. The top clubs have been enjoying access to their academy players, so the prospect of this Combined Provinces series has naturally caused frustration.
The four dates for the Combined Provinces games clash with four rounds of the AIL, which has enjoyed a resurgence in the last couple of years post-pandemic.
It has been encouraging to see Munster and Leinster training against AIL clubs recently, with both stating how impressed they were with the quality of the sessions.
But as shown by the Emerging Ireland tour, IRFU performance director David Nucifora has been keen for young Irish players to get exposure to international competition after they have graduated from the Ireland U20s and before some of them can push into contention with the senior national team.
It’s understandable and as we wrote last week, that gap in international involvement can be long and frustrating for those who are good enough to make the leap.
Lots don’t make the leap, but it can be many years before some of the most talented age-grade players get a chance to be part of an international team again. Emerging Ireland, Ireland A, and now the Combined Provinces are nods to Nucifora and the IRFU’s intent to bridge the gap.
As with the Emerging Ireland trip, the naysayers can easily and fairly point to the quality of the opposition as a drawback again. They can also point out how academy players will be denied continued momentum with their clubs, who might suffer in a key position or two for several vital AIL games.
What about the players themselves? Young fellas trying to break into the game don’t tend to be vocal on these matters. Being an academy player can be tough in this sense. Your ambitions are clearly in the professional game with the province you’re attached to. Progressing for Connacht or Leinster or Ulster or Munster is the priority.
But you want to be a good clubman too, being available whenever possible and delivering performances that underline why you’ve been given a place in the academy. There can be pressure with that, but the best players handle it and deliver on all sides.
You’d have to think that most young players would be excited about playing for the Combined Provinces team, particularly with a trip to Italy thrown into the mix. It’s not the worst place in the world to show your potential.
For the AIL clubs, it’s the latest in a long line of fixtures in this layer of the game that they question the value of. Nucifora, who will be succeeded by David Humphreys next year, would surely acknowledge the AIL’s importance as a place for emerging young players, but he hasn’t been all that vocally supportive since his formal suggestion of a two-tier semi-professional league was knocked back by the AIL clubs in 2019.
The Australian is on the record as saying friction is welcome and necessary in the Irish rugby system and there’s a bit more of it with this new venture.
