Munster academy chief Prendergast excited by 'smashing young lad' Gordon Wood 

GOOD STOCK: Munster's Gordon Wood. Pic: Laszlo Geczo/Inpho

Munster head of academy Gar Prendergast has welcomed the addition of Garryowen centre Gordon Wood into the fold as the latest exciting addition to his development squad.

Wood’s entry, announced on Wednesday, brings this season’s Year One intake to seven players and the overall number of academy players to 19 and Prendergast said: “He’s a very exciting talent, a smashing young lad. He came from the schools game into the club game and has done particularly well at Garryowen in the last year and a bit and solidified his place in that team.

“He’s played a couple of development games for Munster with us and he’s now come into the academy and rightly so. He’s a talented centre, a strong running game, a strong defensive game, a good footballer and a very good reader of the game.

“So we’re very excited about him. He’s still a young player but going well in AIL 1A and we’ve a few A games upcoming now so we’ll hopefully give him a chance as well, so he’s an exciting talent.” 

The son of former Munster, Ireland and British and Irish Lions hooker Keith Wood, Gordon Wood made his first senior appearance for his province against Gloucester in pre-season at Virgin Media Park in Cork having previously represented Munster at Under-18 Schools and U19 level.

A product of Ballina-Killaloe RFC and Limerick’s St Munchin’s College, Wood made his AIL debut last season against Highfield and a try in Garryowen’s play-off final helped the club’s promotion to Division 1A, the centre starting all six games in the current campaign.

Prendergast also praised the IRFU and performance director David Humphreys and his staff for introducing an interprovincial A Championship for this season as a further opportunity to provide valuable game time for developing players.

“I think it can run in tandem with AIL, it just requires good planning. Wearing my old club hat, these A games sometimes clashed before and I sued to find that very frustrating. Now it’s much better planned and that’s credit to the IRFU and Peter Smith and so on, having good planning in place, and credit to David Humphreys as well for getting fully behind it.

“Having an actual full-blown A interprovincial competition is fantastic. These guys need these opportunities, whether it’s Emerging Ireland tours or A games, they’re very important for players’ development, we all know that. 

"It gives guys a platform to show what they’re about outside of AIL.”