Ireland rugby: Leinster ‘can never be too strong’ says performance director David Humphreys

There are currently 12 Leinster players in Farrell’s British and Irish Lions squad touring Australia while another, Munster’s Tadhg Beirne, came through the Leinster school system.

It is at such an underage level where Humphreys believes the IRFU must start their attempts to redress the imbalance.

While the likes of Jamison Gibson-Park and James Lowe are examples of clever recruitment under World Rugby’s previous three-year residency rule, Dublin schools have provided the most reliable production line of talent for Leinster and subsequently Ireland.

Humphreys, capped 72 times by Ireland, is keen to mirror that standard in Ulster, Munster and Connacht schools.

“The challenge becomes how we close that gap in the provinces? We can do it a little bit by recruitment, by being a little bit more flexible in terms of who they can recruit and when they can recruit, but that’s a short-term solution,” he said.

“I fundamentally believe, based on my experience, what we’ve seen working through the Irish system is that if we can support players below what is traditionally considered the pathway, going into the schools and putting directors of rugby in there or supporting schools in a way they feel is necessary to improve their rugby programme, we can get a longer-term fix which will ultimately improve the provinces and ultimately support Ireland.”

The union’s decision to axe their men’s sevens programme was made last month with Humphreys saying the financial savings will be invested into provincial “pathways” and the women’s game.

“That was part of the decision to finish the men’s sevens programme. It wasn’t simply a financial decision, it was a performance decision based on [being] able to reallocate the resources in our system,” he added.

“The budgets are not being cut. We’ve made a performance decision based on the financial reality of the world that rugby is in, not just the IRFU but the wider world, and to say we’re going to take a longer-term solution which is [that] the money we’re going to save from finishing the men’s sevens programme is going entirely into investing in the three provincial pathways and the women’s game.”