• Current
• Archive

Our Perspectives

Where to for Irish rugby in 2010?

13 November 2009

Barry Egan

What a year 2009 was for Irish rugby - Grand Slam champions, Heineken cup winners, a Lions captain and the largest ever Irish contingent in a Lions squad. Heady heights for a small nation and one that should fill us all with optimism for the coming year and - dare I say it - the World Cup.

 

However, the danger with any form of success, be it in sport or business, is that very often it can serve to intoxicate us and engender a false sense of comfort that we have finally uncovered a magic formula which will continue uninterrupted for the foreseeable future - witness the implosion of the Celtic tiger as a case in point.

 

It may therefore be useful to cast a critical eye over our recent rugby success to assess if all is as rosy in the garden as some may believe, or if we have in fact simply arrived at another false dawn which will crystallise into a sea of gloom if the team fails to meet our expectations in 2010.

 

If we examine the current reign of Declan Kidney as Irish manager there are many positives over and above the Grand Slam success - the blooding of new players, a more open management approach, a less structured approach to game management empowering players to make decisions during the course of a game etc. One might argue that it was the combination of all of the above that led to our first Grand Slam success in 60 years.

 

However if we examine the actual rugby played during the course of the last 6 Nations Championship, can we really say that we played that well? Aside from the wonderful win against France, few if any of the other games delivered a high standard of play. The game against England, a somewhat limited side, was at best a dogfight from which we emerged only as one point winners. Furthermore, had the Stephen Jones kick gone over in the dying seconds against Wales, would our perspective now be very different?

 

In professional sport, the lines between success and failure are incredibly tight and players’ reputations and coaches’ careers are defined by the narrowest of margins. The 2009 Grand Slam success was a fantastic achievement grounded in the hard work and commitment of the player, coupled with a dedicated management team. However, it is not unfair to say that we also received some luck along the way, without which our fortunes would have been very different.

 

The acknowledgement that luck played a significant part in winning the Grand Slam should not detract from the achievement.  It merely points to the fact  that for a small country like Ireland to compete and beat all the teams in the 6 Nations, it is likely that we will always need some element of luck.

 

Put another way - for Ireland to realistically compete with the southern hemisphere sides in the World Cup, we cannot afford to be unlucky. Our biggest weakness is our small player base and the limited number of professional players. Although we probably now possess our strongest ever professional squad, so many of our players remain irreplaceable, John Hayes, Brian O’ Driscoll, Paul O’ Connell, David Wallace and even Rob Kearney.

 

This remains the biggest challenge for the Irish management team - how can we best manage our irreplaceable players to the next World Cup, to keep them fit and healthy? Secondly, what are we doing to build alternative player options in such positions before the World Cup?

 

Although it is in human nature to be greedy and we all want success all the time, a win against Australia and South Africa and another Grand Slam would do just fine in 2010, thank you very much. If we really want to compete as serious contenders in the next World Cup, then 2010 and 2011 will be critical to finding alternative options to our “irreplaceable players”.

 

Therefore, I don’t think the win loss ratio of these autumn internationals or even the next 6 Nations are the key issues. A much bigger and critical issue in the next two years will be how we develop alternative player options to cope with player injuries or loss of form. In a sport where the physical and emotional demands are becoming ever greater, injuries and loss of form are commonplace, hence without realistic backup in key positions, Ireland may find itself ruthlessly exposed come the World Cup.

 

I believe this is why Australia is adopting a policy of infusing youth into its team with a keen eye on building towards the ultimate prize. If this mean putting aside short term gains in terms of lower win/loss ratio at international level then so be it!

 

For me 2010 needs to answer some key questions – firstly, can we find a viable alternative to John Hayes?  Secondly, can Sexton step into O Gara’s shoes? I would also love to know if some of the younger players can make the step up. What about Sean O’ Brien, Donnacha Ryan or even Felix Jones? All of these players are potential options for the next World Cup.

 

If we can answer such questions over the next 18 months, I believe we will have really moved forward as a rugby nation. We can then look forward to the World Cup and even hold out a genuine prospect of winning the biggest prize of all.

 

Maybe I’m getting carried away – but then again, who said a small nation shouldn’t think big!

LEAVE A COMMENT