Talent isn’t there now... so fund the next generation
POWERFUL, established sporting organisations do not admit their mistakes easily. And expressions of regret are usually only drawn from them in extreme circumstances. So news that Kevin Potts, the new CEO of the IRFU, had ‘formally apologised’ to player representatives was a headline announcement.
Especially as it accompanied coverage of the IRFU’s acceptance of 30 recommendations from the independent report into the women’s team failure to qualify for the World Cup.
The recommendations at times attest to the failure to develop a sufficiently functioning high-performance system around the women’s squad – and the commitment on the part of the Union to increase investment in women’s rugby by €1 million to €4 million is significant.
There should be an instant dividend for this group of players, but the wisest deployment of those resources would target the coming generations.
That is not a perspective likely to trend on Twitter, but it is vital.
It’s important, too, to recognise that Ireland have an enormous amount of ground to make up in order to compete with the best in the world.
The teams of 2013 and 2015 were exceptional in the truest sense of the word.
They were stratospheric achievers and if they created expectations for the generations coming after them, then those hopes were not tethered to reality.
That doesn’t excuse other failings, but it’s a point that will soon become central in discussions of the women’s national team.
It is sometimes said that England have fully professional players and the French squad are semi-professional, as if this is a standard that Ireland must meet.
But that supposes there is a depth of talent to resource and justify the cost involved in supporting even a semi-professional squad, and all the evidence suggests there isn’t.
In that case, spending money on full-time or even part-time contracts that could be better spent on longer-term initiatives that actually get girls playing the game at a young enough age to enable them to reach better levels of technical accomplishment and physical power, would not be a sensible use of resources.
The downturn in results over recent seasons has been soundtracked by criticism of the IRFU, and its failings are clear.
But equally clear was the wretched under-performance of the team in World Cup qualifiers last September, especially in losing to Spain.
THAT aspect of the failure was lost in the fall-out from the sensational letter written by 62 current and former internationals, and their scathing criticism of the Union. Once the IRFU got over its initial, ill-considered reaction to the letter – with its ‘How dare you?’ tone – it managed a more conciliatory approach, as the noises from Government made clear that its support lay with the players.
But if the defeats by Spain and Scotland last autumn occurred within a broader, more troubling culture, they were still terrible results, and came after a level of preparation that few if any Irish women’s side had ever enjoyed.
If the governing ambition of all involved is to make Ireland better at Test level, the recommendations published on Friday are a start, but to presume they are more than that is fanciful.
Developing a new highperformance culture is important. But just as important is attracting new players.
The ill-starred Women in Rugby action plan, published by the union in 2018, and supposed to plot a course for the game’s development up to 2023, included some details on playing numbers.
In 2018, the number of adult players was given as 1,341, with a target of increasing that to 5,000 by 2023. Given how well that plan has performed, it seems wise to assume this target won’t be met.
But note the first figure: Ireland is trying to compete at Test level with a pool of players that may still not extend to 2,000.
The plan also had the ambition to grow youth player numbers to 6,500, from a 2018 level of 2,500.
This is the more important measure: getting young girls playing the game, in a market where women’s Gaelic football has surged in popularity, and where Vera Pauw and Katie McCabe are the headline stars of an impressive national soccer side, will not be easy.
But increase the numbers of kids and adolescents playing, then provide enough qualified coaches to improve them, and the benefits will be felt at senior level and, eventually, at Test level.
And when they get there, the women of tomorrow should have a transformed culture awaiting them, one that recognises their right to elite standards, and that inspires them to compete and achieve with the best in the world.