Not for the first time in the last few months, we came across someone asking when things would get back to something approaching normal.
n this case, it was the mother of a lad who missed out entirely on his first year of rugby post Leaving Cert. Like the rest of kids his age, he was limping along through college via the laptop. She was hoping for clarity around organised sport.
It’s the key word nowadays: clarity. It allows us to target something and make a plan. It provides focus and hope. It is the polar opposite of drifting along on the high seas not knowing if that’s a passing ship in the distance or a figment of your imagination.
The good news, we understand, is that the rugby season he lost in its entirety will be presented to him again in a bite-sized chunk. So, in Leinster anyway, September is likely to see a run-off of the cup competitions for the season 2020/21. It will be a chance for those lads to squeeze as much as they can from whatever format is agreed, and then see where they stand.
If they are still young enough for under-20 rugby for the season 2021/22, then they will crack on with that in October. If not, they will hopefully transition into the adult section of the club.
Locking those lads down now – excuse the choice of words - should be a priority for every club. Whether they are destined for senior rugby straight away and the All Ireland League, or junior rugby, is not the issue. Rather, it’s getting them back on board, and keeping them there.
Some will immediately be gobbled up by the demands of the AIL. It’s a relief the IRFU are planning on getting a full version of the league up and running again in late September/early October. An 18-game programme after such a lay off will be a challenge. If the public health picture takes another swerve, then we might get a nine-game AIL supported by a community series, but for now the aspiration is to return to where we left off pre covid.
Full service for clubs without access to Academy players, and perhaps those just below that, will be harder still. By the time Ireland is finished contributing to the Lions cause there will be an impact down the food chain, with players arriving back late.
Factor in the return of a Celtic Cup competition for the provincial A sides with their Welsh counterparts, and there will be another raiding party on the clubs.
You never have to wait long for the lopsided nature of the relationship between the professional game and the AIL Division 1A teams to manifest itself. When the former comes under pressure for human resources, they dip into the latter. Yet when they should be nurturing the clubs, instead they’re caught up on more important stuff.
You’d know the clubs were being taken seriously by the IRFU if every AIL Division 1A coach was aligned with their province through a formal system – the kind of framework that would be handed down from the office of the union’s performance director, David Nucifora, as part of the battle plan.
He could introduce this at the interview stage. Would the coaching candidate for Connacht, Leinster, Munster or Ulster run out the door? We think not. Then Nucifora could hand it over to his IRFU colleague Colin McEntee, the director of rugby development, for implementation. Men on the same page, surely they’d see the value in having the top clubs as part of a network run by the professional provincial operation. After all, that’s where the provinces like to fish, so why not help with stocking the water?
The positive effect of this in developing coaches through the AIL would be obvious. Firstly, it would value their contribution to player development. Secondly, it would enhance their progress as coaches, and by extension the players'. Before you know it, the competition itself would become a better product where its top players might be better equipped to cope with the pro game when the provinces come calling. And its sponsors might get more bang for their buck.
We live in hope. As does the mother of the lad in limbo. He is back training, at rugby and GAA, and immediately is better for the physical and social outlet. The point of it all, however, is to play. As things stand, that map is taking shape. It remains to be seen if new signposts appear, but for now it’s tangible.
As for the lad himself, we don’t know where he sees his own journey taking him. If it’s onwards and upwards to the AIL you’d hope he finds a competition more valued by the IRFU than the pre-lockdown version. And if it’s a right turn into the club’s junior sides, then fingers crossed it sustains him for many years to come.