With only 5 days to go to enter December's Giant Draw, where first prize this month is a car, we caught up with Academy Manager Ian Sherwin to pose a few questions to him:

What is the structure of the Academy Season, does it last as long as the Senior season? How has the season-to-date been?
For the last 2 seasons we have started at the same time as the Senior squad at the end of June/start of July. We also followed the Senior schedule for the season right up to the end of May and then gave the players a 5 week break. However we will probably change that at the end of this season as most clubs will finish in the last week in April. The players will have been on the go for 44 weeks at that stage so we’ll give them a complete break before bringing them back in the middle of June. There will hopefully be a few exceptions if lads get selected for JWC in Argentina or higher than that!

The season has been pretty good so far. A lot of the players got runs in the senior warm-up games in August and have followed that up with good performances in the ‘A’ squad. Stephen Archer made his debut in the Magners League and Scott Deasy was in the match 22 for the first 3 ML games. The players have been training really well and are getting games every week, if not with the ‘A’ squad then in the AIL with their clubs.

You recently added two players to the academy in Brian O'Hara and Dave O'Callaghan. What were the key decisions taken in promoting them from the sub-academy, and could you explain what the current scouting system is in place to identfy new young talent in the province?
Both Brian and Dave were in Japan for the JWC in June and their start back to the season was delayed to make sure they got adequate rest. In Brian’s case he suffered a serious hamstring tear and is still not back playing games more than 5 months later so we had to monitor his rehab very closely. Dave fills a slot at blindside where we don’t have a lot of cover in the underage system so promoting both players makes a lot of sense in terms of succession planning within the senior squad. Both are excellent prospects and at 19, are still eligible for the JWC next June.

We try to gather as much information on players as we can to build a profile of them. Players are usually ‘tracked’ for 3-5 years before being offered an Academy contract. The tracking system begins when players are 14 or 15 who names have been put forward by clubs and schools. The players are invited to skills sessions during the season and we get to see as many games as we can during the year. After a series of screening sessions and trials towards the end of each season the best players are selected on the National Talent Programme. From there the pathway is a progression through the underage representative squads and into the sub-academy and finally the Academy.


With Munster A, playing Bristol this Friday night in Nenagh, in the new British & Irish Cup. How important do you feel this competition is to the Academy?
Currently the players are spread out in 6 different clubs within Munster and don’t get to play together as often as we’d like so getting the opportunity in the ‘A’ squad is a vital part of their development as a ‘team’.

The Academy only has 15 players on contract but this year we decided to accept a number of invitations to play games against a Presidents XV in Dingle, a warm-up game for our U20 squad before their Interprovincial campaign and against the Ireland U20 squad as part of their preparation for the 6 Nations in the new year. We had to supplement the team with players from the sub-academy and club players but it did give us an opportunity to see some players from outside the system too so it was well worthwhile.

Do you think that Munster have the right blend in the squad of Irish talent versus Non-Irish Qualified players? How much time do the Non-Irish Qualified players spend with the Academy?
That’s not really my domain, more a question for the senior management! I think Munster has been very lucky with the quality of overseas internationals that have joined the squad in recent years and it can only add to the players knowledge seeing how other players prepare and train for games.

Some feel that the Munster system is behind those of Ulster and Leinster, would you agree with this view?
There isn’t a foolproof way of developing players to succeed in the professional game so each system must deal with the needs of each provincial squad. The key to development is to get the players on supervised training programmes as early as possible and teach them how to train.

The role of the Academy is to provide players for the Munster squad and the best of them will go further to represent Ireland. There are currently 12 players out of 38 in the Munster squad who have come through the Academy system, more than any other province.

How important is the MRSC annual funding to the Academy, and indeed what use does the additional funding from the GIANT DRAW go to?
Munster has a great rapport with the supporters and few, if any of the other provinces enjoy such a significant contribution from their supporters club. It is not just the financial input that is important but the support at matches and the interest the people take in the next generation of Munster players. The relationship starts early and grows through the players’ career and is an inspiration to many of them.

We have invested in a number of extra staff, 2 part-time physios and video analyst as well as analysis software. We also increased the number of players in our summer programme from 51 to 146 training 3 times a week in 4 different centres (Clonmel, Cork, Limerick and Tralee) over an 8 week period as part of the National Talent Programme which would not have been possible without the contribution from the supporters club.


We would like to thank Ian for taking the time out to answer our questions and we hope to check back in again with Ian, later in the season.