Where once it operated on a loaves-and-fishes basis at the time of its inception in 1992, the IRFU Academy yesterday came under new-found wealth when a three-year sponsorship deal with Coca Cola was announced in Lansdowne Road.
Already sponsors of the Leinster Schools Junior and Senior Cups, Coca Cola's extension of their under-age imput, to the tune of £240,000 over three years, will effectively defray much of the estimated running costs of the Academy.
In any given three-year cycle (beginning at under-16, with the final level at under-18) there are up to 45 players in the academy, also including some older players who meet the Academy's criteria.
Stephen Aboud, elite player development manager, is in charge of the day-to-day management of the programme and says that the new sponsorship will broaden the academy's scope further. "I can now go and look for more professional people for specific expertise, whether within rugby or outside of rugby, and in terms of equipment, analysis and testing. In other words we can look beyond where we are now."
To date, over 60 interprovincials have come through its ranks, as well as internationals Malcolm O'Kelly, Anthony Foley, Jeremy Davidson, Eric Miller, Ciaran Scally, Conor McGuinness, Jonathan Bell, Dennis Hickie, James Topping and Dominic Crotty.
Brian O'Driscoll (like Ciaran Scally a current Academy member) is on the Irish replacements' bench tomorrow and could thus join the list, while another notable pupil is 19-year-old Garryowen out-half Jeremy Staunton, who will make his debut for Ireland A this evening.
