Staunton demands overhaul of club game

Young Munster club coach John Staunton has called for a revamp of Irish club rugby to stop the amateur game slipping into an abyss.

A frustrated Staunton called on the Munster Branch to reinstate the provincial senior cup as a showcase tournament and the IRFU to organise competitions to allow all clubs and supporters retain an interest throughout the season. He bemoaned the fact the Munster Senior Cup had lost its appeal because it was played off so early in the season and suggested there had to be an immediate rethink about how the domestic game is run.

“We all know the situation with the exodus of players out of Limerick. It’s very hard to manage an amateur game in a professional era. It’s next to impossible,” he said.

“There is professional rugby on one side and amateur on the other. They’re not meeting in the middle and I think it’s time for one to go one way and the other to go the other way or somebody is going to have to marry the system better because right now it’s not working.”

Staunton supports a return to a top four play-off system in the Ulster Bank League and pointed out how frustrating it was for clubs not to be in a position to challenge for the title even at the halfway stage of the season.

“There should be play-offs. If, for instance, we lose to Dolphin next week we are definitely gone.

“That means we play rugby from February 1 to the end of the season knowing we can’t win a trophy. It’s the same for others.”

He also stressed the decision to play provincial cup competitions so early in the season was an insult to the competitions.

“The Munster Senior Cup was the lifeblood of Munster rugby. It’s what the professional Munster team was born out of, born out of the Munster Senior Cup which led into the All-Ireland League. Playing that competition at that time of the year is not right.

“I think we should go back to a provincial league before Christmas and you could play your All-Ireland League after Christmas with a straight run of 10 or 11 matches. That way you would have competitions before Christmas and another couple after Christmas to keep all clubs interested.

“I’d bring the Munster Senior Cup back into the spring time when you will get the weather, the late evenings, the crowds and the interest.

“There are teams now in the AIL, possibly ourselves included, that cannot win silverware at all and yet we have other good competitions that are over, done with, rubber stamped and with people saying that’s another box ticked.”