“The Senior Cup teams are getting as professional as any set-up you are going to see in Europe.” – Darragh Fanning – Leinster.
No supplements. No doping (Well, no testing). Just the highest standards of professionalism we have ever seen. Understandable really as the school environment is not dissimilar to a modern rugby club in that the same Peter Pan complex exists.
The collisions are comparable to the early stages of the professional game. The body sizes are hulkish, the players replicating what they see at the highest level.
“Actually 10 years ago we had stronger, heavier guys,” said Andy Skehan, St Michael’s director of rugby. “In 2005, we had a frontrow with 120kg plus props and a hooker who was 117kg. Bigger than the Irish frontrow, they could bench and squat more weights than the guys now, who are leaner and more effective for a full game. The pace of the game has increased as a result.”
That’s what makes it so compelling. Schools rugby remains the source.
“Blackrock is nearly as professional as we are in Leinster,” remarked Fanning recently.
He’s speaking from experience. Peter Smyth – the defending champions’ head coach – is also director of rugby at St Mary’s RFC, where Fanning ploughed away for several years until elevated, late in life, by his home province.
But the supplements issue remains a concern – not so much from within the schools but from the IRFU and The Irish Sports Council.
“Our handle on this is very, very simple,” said Smyth. “They are told their dietary requirements, told the good foods to eat and there is a no supplementation policy.
“If it did come to the attention of one of us it would be a very serious issue.
“Now, I’m sure there are kids in ’Rock going down to wherever and buying tubs of protein. That is probably happening. Is anyone on steroids or any of that? I’d be amazed if that was the case.
“We have a no supplementation policy as imagine standing over a kid in a match who collapses after taking too much of it.
“Is there some schoolboy (doping) somewhere? Probably. But that’s society. You are going to have kids going to the gym, taking steroids to get bigger.”
This is echoed by Skehan.
“We are completely no supplements. The IRFU came out with a policy and we enacted that – totally.
“We’ve focused in on nutrition. Supplements aren’t allowed. If we found out anyone was using them we would have to investigate it. It is not part of the culture here at all.”
That makes strength and conditioning a fundamental part of the modern culture.
“The rugby side of it is fairly similar but otherwise it’s a completely different approach,” said Smyth, who won the cup in 1995 and 1996 before he became a professional. “Rest and recovery would be huge now.
It used to be a flogging exercise and whoever made it could play cup rugby.
“There has been a revolution at S&C. Every school would have a conditioning coach.
“Blackrock 20 years ago were massively ahead of the curve because we had Jim Burns. Jim was an athletics coach. There wasn’t another Jim Burns in the system. Whereas now everyone has well kitted gyms.”
What we see in Leinster is three schools – Blackrock, St Michael’s and Clongowes Wood – essentially acting as rugby academies before the provincial academy officially kicks in after the Leaving Cert.
This is unlike most other rugby nations, like England and Wales, who pull their best players into academies affiliated to clubs at 15 or 16.
Only three years this century have the big three not contested the Leinster Senior Cup final. Belvedere and Terenure will occasionally have their say while other middle-tier schools like Cistercians Roscrea, Kilkenny, Newbridge, St Mary’s (who produced Jonathan Sexton, Shane Jennings and Denis Hickie), Gonzaga, Castleknock, St Gerard’s and most recently St Andrew’s will occasionally dilute the water.
St Michael’s
Blackrock have always been there, Clongowes rose under the guidance of the late Vinnie Murray, winning cups at St Michael’s expense in 1988 and 1991. They have produced some brilliant internationals since the late 1990s, such as Gordon D’Arcy, the Kearney brothers and Fergus McFadden, with more to follow such as the Byrne brothers, Edward and Bryan.
But the progress and consistency of St Michael’s has been nothing short of astonishing. Formerly a feeder school to Blackrock, they are now chief rivals to the Alpha.
This year, not unlike 2013, it is incumbent on everyone else to stop the side Brian O’Meara (the former Ireland scrumhalf) has built around towering lock James Ryan and number eight Max Deegan.
After losing the 2006 final to a star studded Blackrock side – Luke Fitzgerald, Ian Madigan and several more future professionals – and only because Noel Reid’s late, long-distance penalty fell short, they returned a year later to capture their first ever title under the guidance of Greg McWilliams.
“We didn’t win a senior match between 1999 and 2005,” said Skehan when asked to explain the vast improvement in standards. “We lost for seven years in the first round – we beat St Paul’s but we don’t really count that.
“The feeling in ’91 was we would kick on from there. We had also reached the final in ’88. We only entered the cup in 1974, made the semi-final very quickly, didn’t get to a final until ’88 but after ’91 it just didn’t happen.
“In 1999 we had a great team, with Simon Keogh and Aidan Kearney becoming professionals, and a few other good players but lost in the first round to Roscrea in Portlaoise. Blackrock beat them in the final.
“We weren’t good enough, really bottled it. From that point on we kept losing in the first round until we beat Clongowes in 2005 before losing to ’Rock in the quarter-final.”
Really the rise of St Michael’s can be charted alongside the rise of Irish rugby as a sustainable force.
Skehan is adamant that no magic formula exists.
“People probably think we are spending huge money in here but we are not. We get the odd donation of a €600 camera but the only thing that costs real money is the transport of kids down the country.
“The teachers would earn more working in Centra than coaching after school.
“2006 was when we started to attract more kids. The pitches have been full since then.
“Our numbers never increased. We’ve been between 570-600 for 16 years. We always have four teams in first year, at least three teams after.”
Clongowes have made four of the last five finals but it is envisaged that Blackrock and St Michael’s will continue the trend since 2012 and divide up the next few titles.
It is already providing a huge benefit to Leinster but there is another pathway outside of the full to the brim academy structures (no one was accepted straight from school in 2014).
Take Nick Timoney. He was Blackrock captain when they lifted the cup last March and along with lock David O’Connor and flanker Conor Oliver is now playing AIL for St Mary’s RFC. Timoney and Oliver are also involved with Leinster ‘A’ and should see further exposure with Ireland under-20s. Jeremy Loughman, a prop with huge potential, is another from that special side looking primed for the top level.
“That was a one in every 15 years team. That’s just the way it goes – some years are special,” said Smyth, who also contests the long-standing presumption that after schools rugby a dramatic fall-off is inevitable for those who get passed over by the Academy structures – be that in Leinster, Connacht or a university scholarship.
“I’d say the numbers are actually going up on that. The boys leaving school now are better conditioned. They are all like mini pros – all on two-, three-year programmes. I think the participation levels are going to rise if anything.”
That should mean more late bloomers like Fanning.
