Alan Good
A JARRING statistic accompanied this week’s announcement of the Ireland U20 side to begin their defence of their Six Nations crown against Italy tomorrow night.
The 22-man squad is infused with it 11 Leinster men, seven from Ulster, three Connacht and a sole Exile — but not a single player from Munster.
In light of the Irish U20 selection, Munster Academy manager Ian Sherwin has predictably defended his employers’ productivity regarding the emergence of top-class young players.
He said: “Of course I’m disappointed that there aren’t any Munster players in it (the Irish U20 squad), but the truth is that in the positions where Munster were strongest at U20 level this year are the positions where the competition in other provinces was strongest too.”
Sherwin added that this year’s Ireland U20 crop was an exceptional group with star potential written all over it, but that he was hopeful Munster’s representation would return to more accustomed levels next term.
So wherein lies the truth? Have Munster got a systemic problem, or is this a one-off?
Sherwin’s assertion regarding the strength of this Ireland U20 side stands up to scrutiny. Take out-half; Ulster’s Paddy Jackson is a phenomenal prospect here. Sherwin points to the fact he has kept last year’s incumbents — James McKinney and Munster’s Gavin Quinn-McDonagh, who are both underage again this season — out of the squad.
This year’s full-back Craig Gilroy has notched five tries in just three Ulster senior appearances, wing Andrew Conway already has a senior Leinster contract and Brendan Macken, a starter last year and long touted for a glittering senior career, can’t even make the first XV.
Up front, skipper Niall Annett, Jordi Murphy and Daniel Qualter are all relatively familiar names, having stood out at schools level for years.
Furthermore, it’s not as if this selection was entirely a surprise to anyone who witnessed the Aviva Stadium’s opening match last July, when a Leinster/Ulster selection hosed their Munster/Connacht counterparts 68-0.
Yet despite the scoreline, their skill levels and physicality weren’t all that superior — but execution, timing and cohesion produced scores at regular intervals. That’s why those guys will be lining out in green tomorrow night.
What of Sherwin’s belief that Munster’s best academy players this year will be underage and in contention again for an Irish U20 place in 2012?
This is certainly true in the case of the academy’s youngest player, 18-year-old out-half JJ Hanrahan, who is only out of Rockwell College since June yet is already running the show for UL Bohs in Division 1B of the Ulster Bank League. Plenty of potential there.
The picture isn’t as clear elsewhere; of the remaining 17 players listed on the Munster academy’s books, only centre Corey Hircock, a former exile who has joined from Bedford Blues, will not be 21 or older before the end of 2011.
Sherwin may instead be referring to members of the sub-academy — for which there is no official public listing — and the identity of those contenders may emerge during the summer when the cream of the crop move up to academy contracts.
A further indicator of where Munster stands in terms of development is provided by the IRFU’s recently-announced national age grade talent squads, which lists 94 players across three grades: U18 schools, U18 club and U19.
The breakdown here isn’t too promising, though; while the squads are a moveable feast allowing for late developers, the current breakdown shows just 17 of the 94 players are Munster men — and not a single one of those appears to have learned their trade in Limerick city.
This is roughly in line with Ulster (16) but the ever-improving Connacht are not too far off on 14, while Leinster have a massive 37 players across the three squads. Exiles make up the remaining 10 spots.
These things nonetheless tend to be cyclical, and no-one needs to press the panic button just yet. Sherwin has previously admitted Leinster are ahead of the curve in terms of conditioning their future stars at an earlier age, but hopes Munster's moves to address that may pay dividends in the next few years.
Nonetheless, Munster followers won’t be looking at these numbers with any great short-term optimism. As the schools cup campaign clicks into gear, they will be hoping some new heroes of the future stick their heads above the parapet.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/SAIcIIB_hKM/post.aspx
Hacking Annuities Christmas Adventure travel Lancashire London
No comments:
Post a Comment