Improving the AIL

[Feicarsinn]

As we all know, the All Ireland League is a shadow of its former glory. This was, of course, inevitable with the onset of pro rugby. One need only look at the efforts Welsh rugby made to keep their Premiership pro in the 90's and early 00's to see that that's a fruitless path. However, the AIL has been allowed to decline far further than it should have. This is bad for the provinces, bad for the national team, bad for the players, and bad for the fans.

At the moment, the format of the AIL does little to aid the provincial system and player development. Too many teams are competing and talent is too dilute. A semi-pro league of about 8-10 teams operating just below the provincial system and containing all of the provinces' squad and academy players would be far better. One of the major problems in Irish rugby is the fact that we struggle to develop tight forwards as these players often don't mature until their mid 20's and, with the lack of teams playing top flight rugby in this country, they often lose out on critical game time. One need only look at the progress of Ian Nagle in the second row and compare the amount of game time he's seen as opposed to Richie Grey or Courtney Lawes, both of similar ages.

Here's a thought of what you could do:

• Introduce a new 8 team competition with at least 1 club from Connacht and 2 teams from all of the other provinces guaranteed to be competing each season, while still leaving some promotion spots open.
• Make it mandatory that all academy and squad players are contracted to teams in this competition. This would guarantee a relatively high standard of competition for these players when not in the provincial match day squads.
• Fund these competitions so that non provincial players can maintain a semi-pro status, comparable in terms of conditioning with the ITM cup. This would also make the transition from AIL to pro rugby (such as made by Aaron Dundon and Leo Auva'a) would be much easier.

To give an idea of how feasible this competition would be in terms of playing numbers one would only need to look at the number of front 5 options currently contracted:

Tight Head Props: Mike Ross, Jamie Hagan, Michael Bent, Martin Moore, Tadgh Furlong
Hookers: Richardt Strauss, Sean Cronin, Aardon Dundon, Tom Sexton, Brian Byrne
Loose Head Props: Cian Healy, Heinke Van Der Merwe, Jack McGrath, Ed Byrne (I think), Jack O'Connell
Second Rows: Leo Cullen, Devin Toner, Damien Browne, Quinn Roux, Tom Denton, Mark Flanagan, Gavin Thornbury, Tadgh Beirne,


Now only 9 can them can be playing each week. While some would always be injured, and some wouldn't need to participate, the ones bolded in particular see arse all game time. If you could spread them over 2 or 3 teams, and Munster, Ulster and Connacht could do similar, all of a sudden you have an excellent competition that sees the best young players in the country get buckets of game time while ensuring that they'll be in pretty good shape when required by the provinces during international periods. Do this, and all of a sudden you'll see our tight heads and second rows be in much better shape when they're about 25.

Thoughts on this, and other AIL issues.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

I agree with much of what you say. I can see a counter argument to this though:

Now only 9 can them can be playing each week. While some would always be injured, and some wouldn't need to participate, the ones bolded in particular see arse all game time. If you could spread them over 2 or 3 teams, and Munster, Ulster and Connacht could do similar, all of a sudden you have an excellent competition that sees the best young players in the country get buckets of game time while ensuring that they'll be in pretty good shape when required by the provinces during international periods. Do this, and all of a sudden you'll see our tight heads and second rows be in much better shape when they're about 25.

Young props need to play against grizzled veterans to improve. Playing against players of similar age and experience won't necessarily prepare them for higher levels of rugby. To my mind it would be preferable to seek out loan arrangements for young props to join Pro D2, Top 14 , Championship or Premiership teams much like Munster have done in loaning Alan Cotter and John Ryan to London Irish. Bernard Jackman spoke of Grenoble's willingness to take Irish props as medical jokers when they suffered a prop shortage earlier this season.

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In my opinion the way forward for the AIL is to radically restructure it. I agree wholeheartedly that there should be an "elite" AIL league. My proposal:

1) Disband the current AIL and return to four provincial competitions to cut down on costs from September until January.
2) The provincial championships act as qualifiers for the elite phase of the AIL.
3) Three teams from Ulster, Munster and Leinster along with two teams from Connacht qualify.
4) Games are played on a home or away basis (5 home and away games each) with end of season playoffs to determine the national champion.

I'd try implement a system whereby the provinces control players from September until the end of January during which time the B&I Cup and interpro series are run ensuring 10-15 A games. The elite AIL is run for the months of March, April and May. Academy and fringe players are "drafted" into the elite club teams on an annual basis ensuring a further 10ish games for each of them.

The benefit for the provinces are that they get to play a huge part on a player's development in the early part of the season. The clubs benefit more of them having a chance to win a national championship at the start of each season. Give the elite clubs more access to training methods, tactics, nutrition, video analysis of the provinces with the view to helping develop coaches. End of season playoffs would make the product more attractive for the selling of sponsorship and TV rights.

I believe the AIL can play a role in developing players for the pro game if it takes a step back and re-evaluates it's purpose.