Except for the width of Jordie Barrett’s hand, which he desperately wedged under the ball, a split second before Rónan Kelleher drove down attempting to score the match-winning try in their pulsating Rugby World Cup quarter-final, Ireland would have triumphed in their greatest ever result in the competition.
Such are the fine margins at the elite end of world sport.
Despite the hugely disappointing loss to New Zealand, in what was an exceptionally brilliant match, the Rugby World Cup was not a disaster for Ireland.
When we consider that the national team won a Grand Slam, with Munster winning the URC, combined with Leinster reaching consecutive Champions Cup finals, added to the Ireland under U20s winning their Grand Slam and, reaching the final of the U20 World Cup, compared to all other rugby nations Ireland are sitting very close to the peak of the men’s game.
Much of the credit for this must be given to the outgoing performance director David Nucifora. The men’s 15-a-side section of his remit has been spectacularly successful. I hope Rugby Australia is ringing David’s number because his skill set is desperately needed back in our homeland.
Decades ago when the role of director of rugby (DOR) was created by the IRFU, there were no Olympic Sevens programs, no provincial academies and the women’s game was in its infancy. The role was solely to guide men’s 15s rugby. Since those days the areas of the game underneath the role of the DOR have grown exponentially.
Currently, the remit is so vast that to have simultaneous success across both the men’s and the women’s game at international 15s, Sevens, the four provincial senior teams, AIL clubs and age-group internationals all while producing powerful academies is as close to impossible as it gets.
As a very wise Marist brother once told me, “Money may be the root of all evil, but it is also the base of all progress”.
All aspects of both the men’s and women’s games are funded by the profits generated by the international men’s 15s matches.
That troublesome fact means that if the men’s 15-a-side international’s performances are not successful, then all other areas of the game suffer dramatically. So the men’s 15s game in all major rugby countries gets the majority of the administration’s focus.
That said, there is no doubt that under Nucifora’s excellent and productive shift for the men’s game, the women’s 15 game in Ireland has suffered. When talking with former women’s Grand Slam winners from 2013 and 2015 they expressed their disbelief and bitter disappointment that since that time the IRFU have neglected the women’s 15-a-side game and shifted the focus to the women’s Olympic Sevens qualification. A lack of long-term planning around the women’s 15s game has caused so much disarray that it now requires fresh long-term strategies to grow towards success in the future.
Ireland are very fortunate to have the high qualities of David Humphreys coming in to take over as the new director of rugby. Having worked closely with David at Ulster, I know Irish rugby is getting a person of the highest integrity, who will bring an excellent rugby IQ, a vast library of knowledge and a deep love of the game into the role.
One of his first challenges will be to evaluate the role itself and the concept of having one person controlling the entirety of the Irish rugby programme. History has shown us that even with the best intentions and having talented people in charge, under the current structure it is not humanly possible to devote the time and bandwidth of thinking required to give competent direction to all aspects of the game.
There is a very strong argument for the creation of two new roles within the IRFU.
Firstly, the role of DOR needs to be split to give the women’s game the rugby support it requires. A long overdue director of women’s rugby position should be created.
The director would have the time to address the unique problems and create solutions for the growth and development of both grassroots and the high performance end of the women’s game, with a special focus on 15-a-side rugby.
The other required role centres on how we are educating the current and future generations with the technical knowledge of how to play. From footwork prior to contact to tackle technique and everything in between, technical knowledge is required to be taught in our game more than ever before.
The rise in the use of technology by our youth, aligned with the decline in “street rugby” played on greens and gardens, has led to the loss of micro-skills, so coaches are being forced to teach skills that they were never before required to coach. This is a global sporting phenomenon. It is an epidemic in Australia and Ireland is not immune to this intergenerational loss of skill.
A technical director would provide the leadership on how Irish players should technically perform their on-field roles. This would power the “how” in Ireland’s philosophy of play across Sevens, 15s and coach education in both men’s and women’s rugby.
Irish rugby is not perfect and it never will be. That is the challenge that the game provides for us all. But it can be excellent because rugby in Ireland is in a position of substantial strength with the potential to grow participation, audiences and trophy cabinets across the coming World Cup cycle.
In the words of John Addison, “We can’t guarantee success, we can do something better. We can deserve it.”
