Angry Con chief challenges IRFU

A LEADING rugby official has called on the top Irish clubs to unite and challenge the Irish Rugby Football Union to prove they have the grassroots of the game at heart.

Annoyed at a succession of blows suffered by the clubs, Cork Constitution’s outgoing President Der O’Riordan believes it’s time to stand up and be counted before there is any further dilution of the game at club level.

He accused the Domestic Games committee of making decisions without taking account of circumstances on the ground and said the union no longer treated club rugby as the third tier of the Irish game.

“The way things are now,” he said, “we’re regressing towards junior status and that will have detrimental effects on the game; it will affect the amount of players we (clubs) produce and the number of coaches we produce.

“Effectively, the best players will all be put into provincial academies and you wonder what will happen then.

“Where will the hardness come from? Munster’s success in Europe was, in my view, down to the fact that players were prepared by the club system and when they took a step up they were able for the challenge.

“It was down to a mixture of many things, but you can’t ignore the massive role that, say, Shannon, Garryowen, Young Munster and Con played; they produced battled hardened players that came through a tough system.”

Every way the clubs turn, said O’Riordan, they were being slapped in the face by the union; the new rules governing the All-Ireland league in relation to eligibility of contracted players being merely one example.

“Talking to the IRFU over the years, every message is diluted by the time the delegates bring it forward; we want to get it out there that this carry on will potentially kill club rugby, which in turn could kill provincial rugby because the provinces will have to buy in players more, the type of players that would normally be provided through the club structure.

“We have to look after the club game for the benefit of Irish rugby; our view in Con, and I’m sure all other clubs, has always been to encourage and develop talent, to bring them through the ranks into the first team and from there to the provincial set up from where you can talk about playing for Ireland.

“That should still be the case, but people outside the club game do not seem to recognise the work and investment made in the clubs. This year you had the example of Munster A playing Ulster A, a game attended by no more than a dozen supporters. You wonder how that type of atmosphere could prepare players for competitive rugby.

“This coming season, the structure of the Ulster Bank League is good, a new format of home and away games for 10 teams, but it could be way better if more young players were given a chance to participate.

“Theoretically, any one of those 10 clubs could, if they had a millionaire benefactor, go out and buy 20 professional players over the age of 30 to play in the Ulster Bank League, but young contracted players on their way up in the game are being given less and less opportunity to participate.

“In terms of physicality, the hardened pro or former pro would likely wreak far more physical damage.”

O’Riordan said the IRFU had shown, through successive decisions, a lack of respect for the clubs, and referred back to the international ticket row last year when there were threats and counter-threats before an ultimate union climbdown.

But the IRFU, said O’Riordan, had the last word. “Philip Browne (IRFU chief executive) said the clubs would not be penalised, but what they (union) did do was to cut the aid from the Clubs of Ireland scheme (which is government money) by 20%.

“I believe the IRFU also showed their colours in relation to the clubs by insisting the All-Ireland League final (between Constitution and Old Belvedere) this season go ahead at Donnybrook, or Donnybrook Beach as it should have been called.

“Both clubs asked for it to be moved to the RDS or to even play it in another ground, but that didn’t happen. Additionally, there was scant promotion given to the final and a lot of that promotion was left to the clubs. Really, you wouldn’t have suspected that this was a the biggest day in Irish club rugby, but despite everything, I believe both clubs provided a fine match that was a hugely positive advertisement for the game.

“There is a range of issues to be addressed in Irish club rugby and it’s now time for the IRFU to go back and revisit those issues and prove they have the best interest of the game at heart.”