O’Callaghan Reflects On Interpro Campaign

Munster Domestic Rugby Manager, Ultan O’Callaghan, reflects on the province’s recent Age Grade success and performances, discussing the structures that are primarily designed to develop Munster players of the future and their wide spectrum of involvement, from volunteers right through to the professional game.

"The last three weekends have been great in that we have had great performances and the results have gone our way also. In the last few seasons we would still have been performing very well but were unlucky in coming out on the wrong side of the results.

"It’s the third summer of our Talent Camp programme and with the exact same work and dedication put in each season the bounce of a ball would have been the difference when it came to the end results.

"It’s vital to understand that when you are working with transitional players from 16 to 20 years of age, their capacities are just being developed, they begin to identify what position they will play and earn their jersey by going up against the best from all six counties in Munster. You have to allow players to develop and give them the opportunity to try things. There’s going to be mistakes and good performances mixed with under performances, but through these ups and downs we build a relationship with players, understanding who they are as a person, how they react under pressure and how we can get the best out of them.

"Whether we like it or not the professional game is judged on its results and we understand and appreciate the pressure that comes with that, but if we are looking to impose it on a young transitional 16-20 year old group, then we are setting ourselves up to fail because every player that comes through the system must be given the opportunity to try things and discover what the fracture points are within their game.

"At this stage in players’ development we need to adopt the role of facilitative coaching as opposed to a getting the result all the time’ outlook.

"We don’t win Interpros every year. Do we always strive to win them? Of course we do, we all strive to be the best we can be but we have had a huge amount of current Munster, Irish and British & Irish Lions players that have come through the exact same pathway and haven’t had the success of winning Schools, Clubs, 19s or 20s Interpros – Conor Murray, James Cronin and John Madigan to name a few.

"What you saw last weekend was the culmination of 14 weeks of work that also included warm-up and trial games and further strong performances in wins over the U18 and U20 Exiles sides.

"On top of that, we had the winter programme where we screened and viewed Schools, Clubs U18s, U19s and U20s games, Regional Development Squads and more, so there is a huge amount of work that goes on underneath the iceberg. Our four rep sides account for up to 120 players but in total there are another 600 players that are also going through the process each year.

"Our coaches – in the academy, pro game and community – work with players on position specific aspects of the game, identifying strengths and weaknesses throughout the season. We also do a lot of educational work to complement our on-field work – in the areas of mental fitness and motivation, nutrition, concussion protocol awareness, anti-doping and more.

"We do not have the playing base and volume of Schools and Clubs that other provinces have and we need to be mindful of that. What we do have is a very strong culture of working well with our Schools and Clubs to get the best players through the system and we are also very mindful and appreciative of the voluntary work that goes in there. Nor can it be emphasised enough, the sacrifices of the players, parents and families in getting those lads from places like Bantry and Waterford to training sessions, where, if training is in Rockwell, it’s a four hour return journey – great credit is due to them!

"It’s also interesting to note that the U18 and U19 squads had players from literally across the province – U18s: Bantry to Waterford to Limerick and U19s: Skibbereen to Rockwell and Roscrea.

"What we’ve seen in recent weeks is a really long learning curve come full circle through the success of the U19s and U20s this year who themselves lost very close matches over the last two years. Both players and management teams took the learnings from their defeats and were the better for it in the successes of this season.

"Now that the Interpros are finished, we’re looking to push on. We need these players returning to their Clubs and Schools and playing in the best competition structures which is why our Youth, Schools and Age-Grade committees have put in place new competitions that will give players a minimum of sixteen games at U16, U18 and U20 levels.

"High quality competitions like these are how we add value to our players and if some of them are good enough to make the step-up to the AIL, better again. A stop-start approach to competitions is where we see regression, however thanks to the hard work of the Munster branch, these players are now constantly challenged in competition across the winter time and hence improved by the time we see them again.

"Again, the main objective for us is to make sure that we have players coming through Munster representative sides, being exposed to a higher level of rugby so that hopefully the academy and professional game can look at them and say there’s potential in those players. We then pass them on to the academy who will prepare them for professional rugby."