Ruddock says next generation ready to step into the breach

Mike Ruddock has no desire to see talents like Sean O’Brien disappear to France but the Ireland U20 coach believes their loss would at least have a silver lining for the next generation.

The former Wales coach has been in charge of the U20 grade since 2010 and has been responsible for some standout results while smoothing the path from age-grade to senior representative rugby for a host of talented youngsters.

JJ Hanrahan, Kieran Marmion, Luke Marshall and Iain Henderson are just some of the players to have graduated to better things.

Ruddock spoke only last summer about how the conveyor belt feeding younger players into the senior provincial and national set-ups had gathered pace and he feels more are ready to step up in the event that the likes of O’Brien move on.

“Obviously you never want to lose your best players and you always want to keep what’s been a very successful model intact if you can. Certainly, looking back on my time in Wales, both as a coach and a player, every time players went to rugby league they always seemed to bring another guy through.

“That said, there are only so many opportunities available for youngsters emanating in bulk from the academies and probably the best example of that is at Leinster where a number of outstanding back rows have struggled to earn auditions.

Conor Gilsenan, Jordan Coughlan and Jack Cronin formed the back row of Ruddock’s U20 team which won a Grand Slam two years ago and ~proceeded to defeat the Springboks, England and France in the Junior World Cup in South Africa.

Since then the trio have managed just one senior appearance off the bench for Leinster who are already embarrassed by their riches in that department with the likes of O’Brien, Heaslip, Rhys Ruddock and Jordi Murphy in situ.

“I’ll put it this way, there’s a lot of talent coming through in Irish rugby and some guys are very unlucky not to have had greater exposure,” said Ruddock who yesterday unveiled another U20 squad loaded with potential.

“I’ve been very lucky that there’s such a good talent pool available because they certainly would have been players (who) could have kicked on pretty quickly after that World Cup. That shows you the strength in Irish rugby at the moment, particularly in the back-row.”

Connacht coach Pat Lam touched on this subject earlier this season by challenging young Irish players to show more ambition and up sticks from provinces where game time is limited and move westwards instead.

Ruddock wouldn’t wade in on that one, preferring instead to point out that patience can be just as much of a virtue with JJ Hanrahan’s recent emergence at Munster proffered as a prime example.

Hanrahan was nominated as one of the top three players at that Junior World Cup where Coghlan, Cronin and Gilsenan also shone and there seems considerable potential for the latest crop to make names for themselves in the months to come.

Ruddock has named only two players who featured in the Six Nations this time last year — Lansdowne’s Peter Dooley and Peadar Timmins of UCD — but four others were drafted in time for the World Cup in France where the side again fared so well.

Among them is Dan Leavy, who adds the armband to those he wore for St Michael’s in the 2012 Senior Cup-winning campaign and Irish Schools, as well as Garryowen’s Alex Wooton, Jack O’Donoghue of UL Bohemians and UCD’s Adam Byrne.

Terenure’s Harrison Brewer, the son of the 32-time capped All Black Mike, has also been named in a squad which begins its Six Nations campaign with the visit of Scotland to Dubarry Park on January 31.