O’Donovan: Irish sides set for Europe despite star arrivals
O’Donovan believes Ireland’s future problems are closer to home — thinking the Irish club scene has to be sorted out — but he smiled when asked about the possible influence of southern hemisphere players on the European game.
“Obviously, quality players coming into a club can make an impact, but there’s more to it than that. We have actually seen the same trend after the last two World Cups, a trend at a time when Irish provinces were not nearly as strong or professional as they are nowadays.
“Just because you sign a top player doesn’t guarantee automatic success. I think that if you look at the Irish provinces as a whole, they’ve been pretty successful. Some of the guys weren’t the biggest names in the world of rugby, but they made very positive contributions.
“I suppose a case in point, from Munster’s point of view, was John Langford; a good quality player but a hugely-influential figure way beyond the reputation he arrived in Ireland with. There is so much more than natural talent to consider when signing players from overseas; it’s got to be about what he can bring to the squad and the lengths he is prepared to go to do that.”
As Ireland embark on a pre-World Cup battle at Murrayfield with a team made up of second-choice but talented players, O’Donovan feels the game here has come on hugely.
He said: “In a short time, I’ve seen guys come through at a very young age and they are physically as mature as people in their mid-twenties a decade ago. It’s the way the game has gone; there has been an amazing transformation and a huge leap forward in terms of what guys are prepared to do in order to succeed.
“Every year there has been an improvement. We introduced a 10-week build-up to the season just four years ago. Guys have moved up a step every season since; they’re building and building. Last year they were in great nick; this year they’re in better nick and the people who have planned that, among them Mike McGurn, the fitness man, deserve the highest of praise.
“Go back ten years and it was a different game; people are fitter, faster and more powerful. They don’t go back down and start again; they stay where they were and then build.”
New Zealand coach Graham Henry, with huge playing resources, can afford to move players in and out of his national side at will. However, it’s been tougher for Ireland.
“It’s no secret that we don’t have similar playing numbers,” says O’Donovan, “But what I feel we’ve done in the last couple of years is to utilise our resources to the best of our ability. It has been a slow process, but progress has been made and we’re getting to the stage where the top players are being pushed from below. That’s a very healthy scenario.”
As coach Eddie O’Sullivan and company look forward to Murrayfield today, however, everything in the garden may not be rosy, as O’Donovan sounded a note of warning.
“I must say I have a soft spot for the clubs because that’s where I came from. I firmly believe there is a place in the whole setup for them because it was the clubs that originally made the provinces what they are today.
“OK, we can’t have 48 teams at the exact same level because they’re not at the same level. My own feeling is that there has to be something positive between the clubs and the provinces, whether that’s looking at ten stronger clubs and staring a premier AIL or whatever.
“Something needs to be done to bring the clubs out of where they are at the moment. The structure and stepping stones have to be put in place, no matter who those clubs are, because the gap is getting too wide. Fine, the Academy system is great, but we can’t just rely on that because good quality players in different clubs are not always going to be spotted.”
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