New posts follow World Cup review

The Irish Rugby Union will respond to an independent review of Ireland’s World Cup disappointment by creating three new positions within the national coaching set-up.

Management consultants Genesis undertook the review following Ireland’s worst ever World Cup performance and presented their findings to the IRFU yesterday.

Ireland failed to reach the quarter-finals after unconvincing wins over lowly Georgia and Namibia were followed by defeats to France and Argentina.

As a result of the wide-reaching review, the IRFU will appoint a team manager and a dedicated backs coach, while retaining the services of a psychologist.

The IRFU also plan to undertake a structural review of the elite game in Ireland to “build a far greater critical mass of international standard players”.

IRFU chief executive Philip Browne said: “The findings confirm that management, players and the IRFU alike accept that individually and collectively we underperformed at the World Cup and fell well short of our expectations and the expectations of our supporters.

“The onus is on us to learn from the experience and take corrective action to ensure we are competitive and successful at the highest international levels.”

An IRFU statement explained the new manager must be “a person with international experience” to support head coach Eddie O’Sullivan.

Coaching the backs had previously fallen under O’Sullivan’s remit but the IRFU believe a dedicated coach would “further strengthen the management team”.

The other two “operational” goals include retaining a psychologist to support the team and the management, plus developing “more effective lines of communication between all those involved in the squad”.

The IRFU added they would not be able to make all these appointments in time for the 2008 RBS 6 Nations.

The long-term conclusions from the report could ultimately be more significant for Irish rugby, with the IRFU set to undertake a major review of the elite game.

The IRFU want to develop “a performance model and specific action plan to build a far greater critical mass of international standard players competing for places in every position on the Irish team”.

The review will also clarify priorities within Irish rugby to achieve “improved alignment” between the provincial and national teams.

The IRFU also aim to “identify opportunities for emerging players to perform competitively in an elite environment on a continuous basis”.

The Genesis World Cup review, conducted via player and management surveys and one-on-one interviews, found a “complex mix of factors involved in Ireland’s under-performance”.

Chief among those was a lack of match practice in the build-up to the tournament.

Browne explained: “In an effort to protect front line players from injury in advance of the World Cup, the findings are that they did not participate in a sufficient number of high intensity matches and thus they lacked the level of match practise required for them to perform to their optimal at the actual tournament.”

Browne added that, despite rumours of rifts within the squad, the review found personality clashes had played no role in Ireland’s poor performances in France.