Challenge for IRFU to cater for youth as rugby booms

Such is the popularity of rugby among children aged seven and under, that the IRFU admits it’s going to be a challenge to cater for the Paul O’Connell wannabes as they move up the ranks into school and youth rugby.

These comments from IRFU spokesman Karl Richardson come in the week after RTÉ soccer pundit Eamon Dunphy lamented on RTÉ radio how the outlook for Irish soccer was bleak as “children don’t go out playing soccer on the streets anymore” as rugby was booming and “they’re playing other things”.

Dunphy questioned whether we will ever again “see another Robbie Keane or Damien Duff as the good players just aren’t coming through”.

Over the past eight years, no doubt inspired by the success of the Irish provincial and international teams, the numbers playing school, youth, women’s and men’s rugby has risen by 80,000, according to the IRFU. There are now 152,000 playing rugby in Ireland.

“We have recorded strong increases in numbers in the north Munster region, for instance north Tipperary, areas that wouldn’t necessarily be associated with rugby. We’re also seeing strong growth in Kerry and all over the country, we’re seeing schools who wouldn’t have played rugby before, picking up the game,” he said.

The IRFU’s mini sessions, aimed at children aged five and six, are so successful that clubs are regularly full to capacity at weekends and the IRFU says it will have to build capacity to see these figures through the older ranks.

However, the FAI denies soccer is taking a battering at the expense of rugby. They say that despite the success of our rugby stars and the subsequent rise in popularity of rugby, a recent ESRI/Irish Sports Monitor report into adult involvement in sports found soccer the most popular team sport in Ireland in terms of participation.

“The Emerging Talent Programme is an elite youth development programme based in 12 regional centres and brings together the most talented home-based club players at U15, 16 and 17 age groups to offer them high level coaching to increase their technical and tactical abilities,” the spokesman said. Education of coaches has also improved hugely with 30,000 now qualified.”

The GAA say its Cúl summer camps also recorded huge increases in participation with numbers rising from 66,000 in 2006 to 76,206 last year.