Former Ireland star Gordon D\u2019Arcy is concerned by the IRFU\u2019s player pathway, suggesting that they haven\u2019t produced good enough players \u201cin the last 10 years\u201d.<\/p>\n
While the national team remains one of the best teams in the world, they are still reliant on their experienced players who have been around for the past decade.<\/p>\n
The likes of Caelan Doris, Dan Sheehan and Joe McCarthy are younger players that have come through since then, but D\u2019Arcy is concerned by quantity.<\/p>\n
Much of the current squad are over 30, and it will be a big challenge for head coach Andy Farrell to refresh the group following the 2027 Rugby World Cup.<\/p>\n
Leinster dominance<\/p>\n
Leinster still provides the core of the Ireland<\/a> team, with the other provinces very much behind in terms of player development.<\/p>\n And asked about the Dublin-based outfit\u2019s dominance in the country on GBRXtra\u00a0podcast, D\u2019Arcy responded: \u201cIt\u2019s a little bit of everything. Leinster is still the main contributor to the national team. The majority of the players come through, I think at one point it was 20 to 24 players in a squad of 40.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Irish rugby system is predominantly built on the Leinster schools system, so to spread the wealth is a relative term \u2013 you have to produce the players to spread the wealth \u2013 and I\u2019ve been very vocal on this.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a good thing until it\u2019s not. I would question the quality of players that have come through the system in the last 10 years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have created a player pool of very similar players and we\u2019ve all played in teams where there are different personalities and different ways of thinking of stuff, and they add so much richness to the team.\u201d<\/p>\n Latest World Rugby rankings: Springboks lead the way ahead of Nations Championship<\/a><\/p>\n Lack of game-changers<\/p>\n While Ireland have had some success at U20 level, winning the age-grade Six Nations in 2022 and 2023, D\u2019Arcy doesn\u2019t believe that they produce the real special talents such as Henry Pollock<\/a>, who can be game-changers.<\/p>\n \u201cYou look at Henry Pollock, it\u2019s just a great example of somebody if you judge him on the pure rugby ability \u2013 forget about what he says and celebrations \u2013 his ability to break games is just fantastic and we don\u2019t create players like that in the Irish system,\u201d he added.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWhen you have the school system producing the majority of these players, we need to create those other pathways, and we haven\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n