IRFU Review - To Be Presented On Monday
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LePaul
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IRFU Review - To Be Presented On Monday
Rugby thick and full of Ulster passion
Whats wrong with that then FRU ???
Whats wrong with that then FRU ???
in words...
IRFU to receive World Cup review
Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan
Eddie O'Sullivan's Ireland failed to make the quarter-finals
The Irish RFU's review into Ireland's dismal World Cup campaign will be presented to the union's executive committee on Monday.
Brian Porteous of the Genesis consultants group was commissioned to conduct the review.
His work included interviewing the Irish management and players.
Ireland went into the World Cup with high hopes but after struggling to beat Namibia and Georgia, defeats by France and Argentina ended their hopes.
Irrespective of what the review says, coach Eddie O'Sullivan is likely to remain in his job but a poor Six Nations will lead to further calls for his departure.
It will probably turn out to be a pointless waste of time and money.Nothing will change because of it.They had the same thing for the Republic of Ireland soccer team a few years ago and to the best of my knowledge nothing came out of it although I could be wrong because I wouldn't know a lot about soccer.
Union to get RWC review on Monday
Gerry Thornley Rugby Correspondent
Rugby: The IRFU's long-awaited review of Ireland's World Cup campaign will be presented to the union's 22-man executive committee at a specially meeting on Monday.
Although the details of the review will not be made public, it is expected the committee will deliberate its findings on Monday and it is possible the IRFU will issue a statement on foot of that the following day.
While there will be no warm-weather training in Lanzarote this Christmas, the union are conscious the Ireland squad are due to get together on December 20th and would like to put this matter to rest before then.
The union's World Cup Review Committee comprises Neilly Jackson (one of the three, with Pat Whelan and Noel Murphy, on the committee which prematurely gave Eddie O'Sullivan a four-year contract extension before the World Cup), IRFU chief executive Philip Browne, president Der Healy and the recently appointed honorary treasurer, Tom Grace.
Brian Porteous of Genesis was commissioned to conduct the review and interviewed the management staff and other key figures in the preparation of the team, and, in tandem with the Irish Rugby Union Players' Association, the Irish playing squad. It is expected he will present the findings, though this will be an oral, as distinct from a written, presentation, perhaps in a further attempt to prevent leaks.
While the review examined many aspects of the World Cup campaign, such as preparation, fitness, diet and logistics, it is believed not to have included a review of the coaching per se.
O'Sullivan and his staff will have been at pains to highlight the insufficient number of preparatory matches in the build-up to the World Cup, though any querying of the fitness training, which incorporated two trips to the ice chambers in Spala, Poland, hardly tallies with persistent claims before and during the World Cup that this was the best-prepared Irish squad ever.
Nevertheless, it is understood that while several players will accept the blame for the team's poor showing, others offered fairly sharp criticism of the coaching before and during the finals, man management, preparation, training lacking in variety during the World Cup and, over the last two years, poor planning and a selection strategy that led to little or no competition for places and ultimately resulted in Ireland using fewer players than any of the other 19 countries in the World Cup finals.
While many still believe O'Sullivan is a good coach, after 70-plus matches and five years in charge some are not enamoured of a projected 11-year reign.
Ireland finished six and nine points adrift of France and Argentina, and just four ahead of Georgia, with a points difference of -18 compared to Argentina's +110 and France's +151.
Any criticisms the back-up coaching staff may have harboured over the manifold flaws that led to such an under-par performance may have been tempered by how their four-year extensions are inextricably linked with O'Sullivan's.
In response to the anger of the 40,000 supporters who travelled to France and the hundreds of thousands who watched events unfold from home, the IRFU's silence, foot-dragging and lack of transparency in the two-and-a-half months since the tournament have been in stark contrast to the response of several other unions, who since the finals have either changed coaches, made incumbent coaches reapply or conducted more transparent reviews.
There is some speculation that a new team manager might be put in place, or a new role created to help fill the void between the Irish head coach and the provinces. The name of Ulster's Joey Miles, a former Ireland team manager, has been mentioned in dispatches.
Another hypothesis some insiders believe may come to pass is that the union's statement will vow to further review the coaching structure after the Six Nations.
© 2007 The Irish Times
“That made me feel very special and underlined to me that Ulster is more than a team, it is a community and a rugby family"
Rory Best
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Jackie Brown
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The IRFU have released a statement on the findings of the review into Ireland's performance in the 2007 Rugby World Cup
© IRFU
Commenting on the process, Philip Browne, Chief Executive of the Irish Rugby Football Union said:
"These findings have been produced following extensive consultation by Genesis with the players, coaches, management and support staff who were involved with the Irish Squad’s preparations for, and participation in, RWC 2007 and through detailed reviews of key technical areas including fitness and conditioning and mental and psychological preparation. The objective of the process is to consider all relevant aspects of the Rugby World Cup campaign, to identify areas of weakness as well of strength so that steps can be taken to build for the future."
"The findings confirm that Management, Players and the IRFU alike accept that individually and collectively we underperformed at the World Cup and fell well short of our expectations and the expectations of our supporters. The onus is on us to learn from the experience and take corrective action to ensure we are competitive and successful at the highest international levels."
"This presentation identified that there was a complex mix of factors involved in Ireland’s under performance at Rugby World Cup 2007."
"In an effort to protect front line players from injury in advance of the World Cup, the findings are that they did not participate in a sufficient number of high intensity matches and thus they lacked the level of match practise required for them to perform to their optimal at the actual tournament."
"In relation to the players’ reactions, which were sought through a confidential questionnaire in conjunction with IRUPA, together with one on one interviews, the report clearly found that personal issues or rifts did not exist or play any role in the underperformance of the team. While there were some individuals who had specific complaints, the squad members, as a unit, were constructive in their comments and identified areas in which the team management could be strengthened."
In response to the presentation the IRFU has agreed a number of key actions which include actions in the operational sphere to address those issues identified through the team management and player survey. It also identifies a number of actions in the strategic sphere that Irish Rugby must address to avoid underperformance in the future. These include:
Operational
· The appointment of a person, with international rugby experience, as part of the Management Team, to play a support role for the National coach.
· The appointment of a dedicated backs coach to further strengthen the management team.
· The retention of a professional to provide ongoing psychological support for the team and management.
· The development of more effective lines of communication between all those involved in the squad – players, coaches, management and support staff.
Strategic
· Review Ireland’s overall policy in relation to the Professional Game, clarifying the priorities and strategic goals as between the Provincial teams and the National team with a view to achieve improved alignment.
· The development of a performance model and specific action plan to build a far greater critical mass of international standard players competing for places in every position on the Irish Team.
· Identify routes to increase the opportunities for emerging players to perform competitively in an elite environment on a continuous basis.
In conclusion Philip Browne said: "The IRFU views this report as a vital piece of research which it will use to introduce reforms in the specific areas highlighted and to guide its short, medium and long term planning for Ireland’s elite teams. In saying this we acknowledge that it will not be practicable to implement a number of these recommendations pre the upcoming Six Nations Championship."
That's it folks.
© IRFU
Commenting on the process, Philip Browne, Chief Executive of the Irish Rugby Football Union said:
"These findings have been produced following extensive consultation by Genesis with the players, coaches, management and support staff who were involved with the Irish Squad’s preparations for, and participation in, RWC 2007 and through detailed reviews of key technical areas including fitness and conditioning and mental and psychological preparation. The objective of the process is to consider all relevant aspects of the Rugby World Cup campaign, to identify areas of weakness as well of strength so that steps can be taken to build for the future."
"The findings confirm that Management, Players and the IRFU alike accept that individually and collectively we underperformed at the World Cup and fell well short of our expectations and the expectations of our supporters. The onus is on us to learn from the experience and take corrective action to ensure we are competitive and successful at the highest international levels."
"This presentation identified that there was a complex mix of factors involved in Ireland’s under performance at Rugby World Cup 2007."
"In an effort to protect front line players from injury in advance of the World Cup, the findings are that they did not participate in a sufficient number of high intensity matches and thus they lacked the level of match practise required for them to perform to their optimal at the actual tournament."
"In relation to the players’ reactions, which were sought through a confidential questionnaire in conjunction with IRUPA, together with one on one interviews, the report clearly found that personal issues or rifts did not exist or play any role in the underperformance of the team. While there were some individuals who had specific complaints, the squad members, as a unit, were constructive in their comments and identified areas in which the team management could be strengthened."
In response to the presentation the IRFU has agreed a number of key actions which include actions in the operational sphere to address those issues identified through the team management and player survey. It also identifies a number of actions in the strategic sphere that Irish Rugby must address to avoid underperformance in the future. These include:
Operational
· The appointment of a person, with international rugby experience, as part of the Management Team, to play a support role for the National coach.
· The appointment of a dedicated backs coach to further strengthen the management team.
· The retention of a professional to provide ongoing psychological support for the team and management.
· The development of more effective lines of communication between all those involved in the squad – players, coaches, management and support staff.
Strategic
· Review Ireland’s overall policy in relation to the Professional Game, clarifying the priorities and strategic goals as between the Provincial teams and the National team with a view to achieve improved alignment.
· The development of a performance model and specific action plan to build a far greater critical mass of international standard players competing for places in every position on the Irish Team.
· Identify routes to increase the opportunities for emerging players to perform competitively in an elite environment on a continuous basis.
In conclusion Philip Browne said: "The IRFU views this report as a vital piece of research which it will use to introduce reforms in the specific areas highlighted and to guide its short, medium and long term planning for Ireland’s elite teams. In saying this we acknowledge that it will not be practicable to implement a number of these recommendations pre the upcoming Six Nations Championship."
That's it folks.
Illegitimi Non Carborundum
As I suspected.A waste of time and money.The operational and strategic actions highlighted are things any of us could have come up with in ten minutes and it took them months and who knows how many interviews.That was the easy bit.The hard bit for the IRFU is going to be actually implementing these actions.They have already stated they won't do anything before the Six Nations and after that there will be another excuse.I suppose the IRFU are hoping people will forget all about this and in good old Irish style think to themselves "Ah sure it will all work itself out grand in the end".
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darkside lightside
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i must say that given my (extremely) low expectations i thought on first reading this that it was quite promising - obviously the strategic stuff is standard issue statement-filler, and any one of us could have scribbled more or less the same stuff on the back of a fag packet in 10 mins.
when i was trying to think of how the irfu could wriggle out of the corner they had painted themselves into (with the contract etc) i reckoned that their best chance was to hem EOS around as tightly as possible with counter-balancing voices in the set-up, and then, control freak that he is, see if he really does fancy another 4 years.
Of course it requires some balls, they need to spell out that EOS doesn't automatically have the last word any more, and be specific about the role of the "support" person (pretty beefy I'd suggest), and be clear that EOS's power is being diluted.
Maybe I'm being naive but is this not a possibility? Obviously not if they let him appoint a lackey who he can walk over. Also the backs coach is that not a very clear message that EOS is having his hands taken off some of the machinery?
when i was trying to think of how the irfu could wriggle out of the corner they had painted themselves into (with the contract etc) i reckoned that their best chance was to hem EOS around as tightly as possible with counter-balancing voices in the set-up, and then, control freak that he is, see if he really does fancy another 4 years.
Of course it requires some balls, they need to spell out that EOS doesn't automatically have the last word any more, and be specific about the role of the "support" person (pretty beefy I'd suggest), and be clear that EOS's power is being diluted.
Maybe I'm being naive but is this not a possibility? Obviously not if they let him appoint a lackey who he can walk over. Also the backs coach is that not a very clear message that EOS is having his hands taken off some of the machinery?
[The Artist Formerly Known as Caolan]
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero - Tyler Durden
On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero - Tyler Durden
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for dog and ulcer
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