Removing the issue of money regarding the motivation as to who we play our rugby for goes to the heart of many issues. An era where the focus was shifting a little more every year to who could pay the most for a player was certainly perceived from a fans point of view to be moving in the direction of a soul less type of scenario just based on the results of the 1st XV.
Recently Clogher Valley RFC was described as the same type of club mentality that you will see at Crossmaglen GAC, it was muted in the next sentence that if Crossmaglen GAC 1sts were fielded as the Tyrone team then Tyrone would win the Sam Maguire without question!
(But the club sustainability report goes much further than this, a link to the full report is at the bottom of this article.)
Removing money from the equation helps to shift the focus to development. Furthermore the financial pressure on clubs is reduced. The growing need for extra money to fuel the Wages Race, surely a false economy.
Since the recession a lot of the clubs who have done well have very often been those who have developed good youth systems and good links to schools. There just was’nt the same money to buy in try scorers, initially on a promise, then the club would be waiting in bated breath to see is he or she the real thing or not! What did we discover? We found out that rugby is far better!
Furthermore it feels a lot better to win a game, have a good season or win a league or a cup when that team is predominantly built on the local playing population.
The development of a club based around getting to watch and know and build a friendship with players over the course of years by the club attending the school games, the club I XV coach communicating with the youth coaches and keeping their finger on the pulse of the Club!
When a club has developed a local youth, school and fan base – then they are on a development path. The extra money in the pot can then be spent on club pitches, youth, publicity campaigns, in short development of the clubs and playing populations! & what happens then? Then more people come to watch the games, more people start playing!
This lesson is extremely important at a provincial level. An enormous gap can open between the provincial team and the local clubs when that province has gone down the same road of buying talent rather than developing it.
Obviously wages are big at provincial rugby level. But equally the funds exist at provincial level to invest in local talent through the provinces talent identification systems and bringing that talent into academies to train and learn and be coached and to play at increasingly higher levels of club rugby and then through to the province and country teams. Expansion of academies is the key to developing rugby at provincial level.
Of course its not as simple as just removing money from the equation, take a look at the entire report on the link below which is extensive and given that it is the blueprint for sustainable club rugby it makes for good reading to get a feel for the ethos or culture of our rugby which the IRFU wish to develop.
Click HERE for the IRFU club sustainability report.
