Last weekend Leinster won the reconstituted “A” Interprovincial Championship by beating Ulster 35-21 at Gibson Park, a result that went unheralded in the media – not even worth a brief with the scoreline, never mind a report.
The teams contained a liberal sprinkling of outstanding young talent alongside several names that will be familiar from the senior provincial match day squads. The IRFU relaunched the competition with a view to not only celebrating its 150th anniversary but also as a playing outlet going forward to provide game time.
The IRFU’s performance director David Humphreys said at the time: “With the success of the Emerging Ireland tours, coupled with the return of an ‘A’ international against England next year, it is vital that we continue to provide players at provincial and club levels with opportunities to impress outside of the traditional URC and EPCR fixture windows.
“Discussions have been ongoing for some time to provide players with meaningful games and all four provinces are unanimously supportive of this competition. It is also great to see provinces taking matches around their local clubs.”
Despite the lukewarm reaction from mainstream media and supporters, the tournament has proved to be a godsend for academy players in the four provinces, for whom the majority would otherwise have been largely limited to playing AIL club matches. Nothing wrong with that if a player is lining out in Division 1A but there’s a significant drop-off in standard for every rung of the ladder beneath.
There is no substitute for matches, where practice examines theory. All the training and gym work in the world can help to nurture, but won’t refine, a player’s rugby IQ. But matches, specifically URC and either Champions Cup or Challenge Cup, were in relatively short supply for many players in the four provincial academies.
At the start of the 2024-2025 season there were 74 players listed in provincial academies across a three-year cycle. They were ascribed as follows: Leinster 22 (Year 1 – 10, Year 2 – 7, Year 3 – 5); Ulster 20 (7, 11, 2), Munster 19 (7, 6, 6) and Connacht 13 (4, 5, 4).
In macro terms Connacht played the fewest academy players in URC and Challenge Cup games, three of 13 (23 per cent). Ulster, in URC and Champions Cup, gave competitive game time to five of 20 (25 per cent); Munster, likewise, to seven of 19 (37 per cent); while Leinster provided the most opportunities to academy players with 14 of 22 (64 per cent), seeing game time in URC and Champions Cup.
Taken in an overall context, roughly 60 per cent of academy players in the four provinces – 45 out of 74 – did not see a single minute in either the URC or Champions and Challenge Cups in Europe. A magnificent seven first-year academy players played senior provincial tournament rugby, with the standout performer Ulster outhalf Jack Murphy, who notched 894 minutes across 13 matches with 11 starts.
Four Leinster players, hooker Stephen Smyth (five games – 65 minutes), scrumhalf Oliver Coffey (two games – 14 minutes), wing Reuben Moloney (one – three minutes) and secondrow Alan Spicer (one – two minutes); one Munster player, hooker Danny Sheahan (one – 15 minutes); and two Ulster players – Murphy and centre Wilhelm de Klerk (two – 104 minutes) also managed the landmark achievement.
US-born tight head prop Niall Smyth has gone from year-one academy to a senior contract for next season despite missing most of the season following shoulder surgery.
There were other eye-catching numbers, not least Murphy’s former Pres Bray team-mate Finn Treacy (eight matches – 489 minutes) who had a brilliant season with Connacht, while in Leinster hooker Gus McCarthy (14 – 583 minutes), who was also capped by Ireland, secondrow Diarmuid Mangan (12 – 667 minutes), wing Andrew Osborne (10 – 669 minutes) and centre Charlie Tector (10 – 589 minutes) all enhanced their status.
It is germane to point out that Munster prop Darragh McSweeney, backrow Luke Murphy, centre Fionn Gibbons and prop Ronan Foxe had seasons curtailed by injury; so too prop Alex Usanov (Leinster) and secondrow Spicer (Leinster).
The pointy end of the decision-making process comes in year three where, if a player hasn’t already received a senior contract, it is the end of the line with the buffers in view. Only scrumhalf Jack Oliver of that cohort hasn’t progressed at Munster, released early to take up a contract with the Glasgow Warriors.
In Leinster, centre Ben Brownlee, Aitzol Arenzana-King and Rory McGuire leave the province, with the latter two heading for contracts with Richie Murphy’s Ulster. The other year-three players, Mangan and Tector, have upgraded to senior contracts as have a plethora of year-twos in Munster and Leinster.
The new intake to the academies will be announced shortly (Ulster have released five players) but, as this season has proved, trying to find space to expose them to elite-level rugby is a difficult challenge and for many a composite itinerary of A interpros and club matches will have to suffice.
