‘You don't make these decisions lightly' – Andy Farrell on the reasoning behind Dan Sheehan's promotion to captaincy
Head coach is backing Irish hooker to deliver big displays for the Lions
Andy Farrell's face lit up as Dan Sheehan was speaking in Perth yesterday, grinning as he interrupted his new captain to say to the assembled media: 'See, you can see it now, can't you?'
Sheehan looked mildly embarrassed by his coach, who was only short of ruffling his hair as he answered a routine question about what it meant to him to captain the Lions with an articulate answer that mixed the personal with the party line.
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RTÉ News
an hour ago
- RTÉ News
Provincial struggles just a 'blip' - David Humphreys hasn't seen signs of regression in Irish rugby
It's been a year since David Nucifora handed the keys of Irish rugby over to David Humphreys, twelve months where the new IRFU performance director has had more than a few big decisions land at his desk. The national team has been in a bit of a flux with Andy Farrell spending time on his British and Irish Lions sabbatical, with a third-place finish in the Six Nations following an underwhelming Autumn Nations Series.. He's had to make unpopular decisions, most notably by axing the men's Sevens programme, which he says has been done to provide extra funds for Munster, Connacht, Ulster and the women's game. That one could be legacy-defining. He's had a more hands-on approach than his predecessor when it comes to women's rugby, but even a year of steady growth has hit a snag recently with Hugh Hogan departing the setup just a few months out from a World Cup. The popular defence coach is believed to have had a falling out with head coach Scott Bemand, with James Scaysbrook coming in at short notice to replace him. On the face of it, the performances of the four provinces is the greatest cause for concern. Ulster and Connacht missed out on Champions Cup rugby, with the latter's season falling apart and leading to the departure of head coach Pete Wilkins. Munster barely scraped into the URC play-offs, and parted ways with Graham Rowntree back in October. And while Leinster broke their four-year wait for a trophy with the URC title, their shock Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints was a sobering one for the whole of Irish rugby. "I don't think I've seen signs of regression," Humphreys says, when Irish rugby's difficult 12 months is put to him. "I think the nature of sport is that there are ups and downs and it's almost this year there's been - not quite the perfect storm - but there's a lot of things that have happened which would give off the view that it hasn't been as successful as it has been in the past. "But for all those areas that you mentioned, when you look at some of the changes we've made, whether its coaching team, from a contracting point of view, the quality of the squads, I have no doubt that next year will be much stronger and much better, certainly across the provinces." Since arriving into this role a year ago, Humphreys has acknowledged one of his key jobs is to help bring Munster, Connacht and Ulster closer to Leinster, both in terms of results off the pitch and their financial means off it. All three have had a change of coaching in the last 18 months, with Richie Murphy installed as Dan McFarland's replacement at Ulster just over a year ago, while the appointments of Stuart Lancaster and Clayton McMillan at Connacht and Munster respectively appear to be statements of intent "The expectation in Ireland now is that we have four provinces that are competitive and an Irish team is on top of the world," added the 53-year-old. "When I first came in, there was a lot of talk around: 'Leinster are too strong.' In a high-performance system, a team can never be too strong. Ultimately, the goal is to be the very, very best. They are very close to being in that position. "But the challenge that I believe we in the IRFU have and in my role, is to make the other three more competitive. "I think this year is a blip for a number of reasons that were around changes in coaching teams, player injuries, I think with our recruitment we're going to have stronger squads next year. With the coaches we've brought in we're going to have strong coaching teams next year. That's going to allow us to close the gap [between Leinster and the rest]. "How long will that take? I don't know. But, ultimately, if Leinster keep pushing the boundaries but the other provinces keep working towards closing it, we're going to have a stronger national team and stronger provinces." To help bridge the gap between Leinster and the rest, provinces will now be forced to contribute up to 40% of the wages for their centrally contracted players, which will free up an estimated €700,000 to be rerouted to Munster, Connacht and Ulster. Additionally, those provinces - and the women's game - will share the €1.2m that has been reserved from disbanding the men's Sevens programme. Humphreys has also rowed back on one of his big policies he announced last summer, that non-Irish qualified front rows would not be sanctioned for the foreseeable future. The policy was in response to the lack of front row talent being developed for the senior national side, although he has since allowed Leinster re-sign France veteran Rabah Slimani, and sanctioned Ulster's signing of Australia star Angus Bell (above). "It was a very deliberate strategy. We were all aware about where our front-row depth was coming from and at the time I firmly believed, that as things stood at that time 12 months ago, we needed to do something different. "What that statement did was encourage conversations with us, with the provinces: 'How are we going to make sure that we can get more players into the system?' So, you'll have seen some players move between provinces. That's what we wanted. "You'll have seen a number of players get game time, in discussions with the provinces, and you've seen the acceleration of Boyle and Clarkson. They've come through very quickly because they've been playing. "So, it's this conversation; if we can get those young players playing, they will get better. But I also think part of working in high performance there has to be flexibility. "You can take a position, but as things change, as they do on a week to week basis and on a month to month basis, you have to be flexible and go: 'Do you know what, 12 months ago that's what I genuinely believed.' Now, because of what we've seen happen within the provinces; player movement, player game time and the development of some of these young players, I am much less concerned about us not having any depth." One thing Humphreys (above) is showing no flexibility around, however, is the IRFU's policy of not considering players based outside Ireland for selection to the men's national team. The union have taken a hard stance against selecting players based in Britain or France ever since Johnny Sexton's time at Racing 92, and Humphreys said it's not going to be changed any time soon. "It's a question that we've talked about internally, we've discussed it internally but actually when you look at the Irish system, one of the great strengths is our player welfare, our player management. "What we want is, we want all our players playing into their early to mid-30s. We want to give them every chance and we believe what we have in each of our provinces, how we manage them throughout the course of the season, that gives them the best opportunity to have a much longer career than perhaps if you let them go and play in some of the other leagues. "So for me at the minute, that is not something that's up for discussion. "We've considered it. We believe that it's a fundamental strength of the Irish rugby system and believe it will continue to be so."
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- Irish Independent
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2 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Pack of Ireland Lions masks problems, but Humphreys eyes better balance
A British & Irish Lions touring party with the largest Irish contingent of players and coaches in its 137-year history and Leinster crowned URC champions suggests rugby in Ireland is rude health. Yet IRFU Performance Director David Humphreys is uncomfortable with that overview. There will be 11 Irishmen wearing the Lions' red jersey in their opening tour match in Australia on Saturday morning, when they face the Western Force in Perth, part of a record group within Andy Farrell's 38-man squad of 16 players more regularly seen in green. Leinster's URC title victory, secured earlier this month at Croke Park is another cause for optimism. Humphreys, though, is concerned about the gulf between the champions and the other three provinces. His decision to close down the men's sevens programme and redivert funds towards the men's player pathways in Connacht, Munster and Ulster, as well as accelerating the development of the women's game, is part of his strategy to close the gap. While the recent announcement to increase provincial contributions to centrally contracted IRFU contracts, most of which are held by Leinster players, will also see a net gain for the other three provinces. While recognising the decision to axe men's sevens was a difficult and unpopular one, Humphreys, who succeeded David Nucifora as Performance Director last summer, is adamant there must be a better balance across the four professional men's teams. "The biggest challenge we've got is that we have one province that is incredibly good at nearly everything,' Humphreys said this week. 'That's a huge credit to Shane (Nolan, CEO), Leo (Cullen, head coach), and Guy (Easterby, head of operations) for the work they've done with what you see on the pitch but also how they interact with the IRFU, certainly over the time I've been here, they have been great to deal with. So they've got a brilliant set-up. "When I first came in, there was a lot of talk around 'Leinster are too strong.' In a high-performance system, a team can never be too strong. Ultimately, the goal is to be the very, very best. They are very close to being in that position. "But the challenge I believe we in the IRFU have and in my role, is to make the other three more competitive. This year has definitely been a transition year. It's been a transition year because there's been a turnover in coaches, because two of our provinces in particular have had massive injury crises across the course of the season, so it's felt like a lot of things that could go wrong have gone wrong. "The challenge then becomes how we close that gap in the provinces. We can do it a little bit by recruitment, by being a little bit more flexible in terms of who they can recruit, when they can recruit, but that's a short-term solution. "To me, we've got to go, 'What is the longer-term solution?' I fundamentally believe, based on my experience, what we've seen working through the Irish system is that if we can support players below what is traditionally considered the pathway, going into the schools system and putting directors of rugby in there or supporting schools in a way they feel is necessary to improve their rugby programme, we can get a longer-term fix which will ultimately improve the provinces and ultimately support Ireland. "How are we going to do that? Well that was part of the decision to finish the men's sevens programme. It wasn't simply a financial decision. It was a performance decision based on, we have to be able to reallocate the resources in our system. The budgets are not being cut. (IRFU CEO) Kevin Potts has said we can't continue to keep doing what we've always done. 'So what that has meant is we've made a performance decision based on the financial reality of the world that rugby is in, not just the IRFU but the wider world, to say we're going to take a longer-term solution which is the money we're going to save from finishing the men's sevens programme is going entirely into investing in the three provincial pathways and the women's game.' Humphreys does not necessarily expect Leinster to be caught by their interprovincial rivals but he does believe the gap to them can be closed with the coaching teams now in place for next season, with Stuart Lancaster taking the reins at Connacht, Clayton McMillan set to move to Munster this summer, and Ulster's Richie Murphy having bolstered his backroom staff after a disappointing 2024-25 'I wouldn't look at it as a vision...' Humphreys said, 'what we've got in our strategic plan for the next four years is we want to create winning teams. 'Winning teams, it's about making them better. It's not about winning every league, it's not about winning every cup. That doesn't happen when you have four teams in the same competition. For me, what we have to do, we have to take small steps. You look back over the last three or four years, our provinces have been very competitive. 'I think this year is a blip for a number of reasons that were around changes in coaching teams, player injuries. I think with our recruitment we're going to have stronger squads next year. With the coaches we've brought in we're going to have strong coaching teams next year. That's going to allow us to close the gap. 'How long will that take? I don't know. But, ultimately, if Leinster keep pushing the boundaries but the other provinces keep working towards closing it, we're going to have a stronger national team and stronger provinces. 'The timeline is almost irrelevant, the challenge is to make sure we are closing the gap, and from an IRFU perspective that we're making the decisions which are right, to ensure that yes, the challenge is on the provinces to do what they need to do, but the challenge is on us as the governing body to make sure that we're supporting them to close that gap.'
