McLaughlin’s faith in club culture

International back-rower Kevin McLaughlin has highlighted the importance of the club rugby to the development of young Irish talent.

McLaughlin, who could be back in Leinster action this weekend, served his All-Ireland League apprenticeship with University College Dublin before joining St Mary’s College.

And he believes that greater onus should be placed on the AIL as a springboard to provincial and international honours.

He admitted: “It’s difficult (for everyone) because you have semi professional guys in, say, the Leinster Academy who aren’t training with their clubs until the Thursday, and then the clubs have the dilemma where they have to decide whether to play a guy who has been training week in, week out, or do they bring a player in from the Academy for the weekend game.

“That can cause upset in the club but on the other hand it is critical for developing younger guys who won’t always be getting games with Leinster (or other provinces) for the next few years.

“The AIL, particularly Division 1A, is a very good level of rugby, it’s important to keep that as competitive and as positive as possible.

“Provincial rugby has been brilliant for Irish rugby but I think people should realise that the club game is still being played at a really high level.”

Backing the concept of the British and Irish Cup and highlighting the competition’s growing importance to the development of the provincial players and the overall game, McLaughlin feels there should be ample opportunity to provide Academy players the required level of exposure at club level, exposure which he has no doubt would stand to both player and province in the years ahead.

“I suppose timing of games could be important, making sure we don’t have A games on the same weekend as AIL. I know there has been talk of that already and it is very difficult because there is a lot of emphasis now on the B and I Cup to develop players. But there are still lots of guys in academies who are not getting on B and I teams and they need exposure at other levels. There is a need to make sure there are weekends when a guy playing for the club can commit to the week’s training; there were scenarios last year where guys weren’t even training on a Thursday, just showing up on Saturday and playing a game and it’s not ideal for anyone involved.”

* McLaughlin was speaking at an the launch of the IRFU’s “Your Club, Your Country” fundraising initiative in association with Community Rugby Partner Ulster Bank. Terms and conditions are available on www.irishrugby.ie/yourclubyourcountry