Journalist Brendan Grehan reckons Leinster’s Under-21 setup drastically needs a re-vamp
PUT AN apple up against a truck and the truck wins every time. The apple may be a gleaming Granny Smith, its green skin is hard to touch while inside its flesh is ripe and juicy but it is no match for tonnes of steel.
The same match up is happening every weekend at Under 21 level in Leinster. Four teams packed full of semi-pro athletes on provincial academy contracts are cutting a trail of destruction through the U21 JP Fanagan Premier competition.
As a keen follower of the game, I doff my hat to the clubs involved. It is great to see their success and the excellent conditioning of their players. Leinster rugby is in safe hands with a steady stream of talent coming through ready to be the next "Club Leinster" pin-up for the swooning ranks of excited hausfraus, a Leinster flag in one hand, a quarter bottle of a cheeky white wine in the other. It does not take away from the fact that the JP Fanagan Premier is not a competition anymore. One of the four teams are guaranteed to win it. Such is their superiority that they regularly beat the other teams by 50 plus points.
The reason for this is so simple, they are not regular under-21 teams. They are effectively provincial academy teams operating as club sides packed with players on provincial contracts, the future of Irish rugby.
So if you are a clubman/clubfrau or alickadoo (are there any left?) associated with one of the 4 clubs you might be filled with pride every Sunday evening when you hear of the latest demolition. You may feel cosier in your down gilet and the sunglasses may still be at the top of your head, despite the absence of any sunshine but what you are forgetting is that rugby like life is a long game.
When William Webb Ellis while playing football on Rugby School's 'Bigside' caught the ball and ran (he had been reared in Munster on the banks of the Blackwater) he set off a chain of events that has transformed the sporting world.
Chief among these is the concept of fair play which you might ascribe to Victorian England but I think it goes back a bit farther than that (but that's an argument for another evening over a few large bottles of ale) and trouncing teams by cricket scores is not doing any good for the development of the future stars of the clubs concerned.
They are not being challenged and ultimately they will feel bored, spent. Are their academic needs being attended to. If they are in third-level institutions are they enrolled in sufficiently challenging courses that will stand to them in the future. Because the working world has changed and a club tie and firm handshake will only get you so far.
On the other side of the paddock, the clubs that are on the receiving end of the trouncings are gathering their forces. I hear the pikes and pitchforks have been taken down from the thatch and a proposal could be in the offing heading towards the Leinster branch.
I hear that that the missive is coming from one of the most distinguished and committed servants of the game. A man who has spent most of his young and adult life involved in the game. I think it is time that the Leinster branch avert their gaze, however fleetingly, from the cash cow that is the RDS/Lansdowne Road and attend to this matter.
Copyright: Brendan Grehan
Brendan is a journalist Twitter: @brendanxavier Facebook: Brendan Grehan
