Incoming prop: Michael Bent
Ireland's selection of Taranaki prop Michael Bent has raised plenty of eyebrows over the IRFU's failure to produce quality props locally.
The 26-year-old qualifies for Ireland through his grandmother, and is expected to make his Ireland debut during the upcoming November internationals having not played a single game for his club side, Leinster.
Having Bent 'parachuted' into immediately being selected for his country has once again brought under the spotlight the IRB laws regarding qualification to play Test rugby.
The inclusion of Richardt Strauss in the Ireland squad for this month's internationals was also met with some opposition, despite Strauss having played his club rugby in Ireland for three years with Leinster and in that time winning two Heineken Cups.
Speaking to Newstalk's "Off the Ball" programme last week, former Ireland skipper Keith Wood was explicit in his views regarding Bent's selection.
"It can't be, it can't be that easy to play for Ireland as to get onto a flight and fly into the country. It can't be. I find it wrong," said Wood.
"There is something unpalatable about a guy who hasn't played a game in this country to go and play (for Ireland).
"We know he has played 10 or 11 games (for Taranaki) down in New Zealand and apparently he's good, and all that, but this is playing for your country. It isn't playing for Leinster.
"How in the name of Jesus are we getting to the point where a guy flies into the country and he will play for Ireland?"
Wood's view is not uncommon and the fact is the IRFU's production of quality prop forwards over the last decade has been sub-standard.
For years Ireland mercilessly flogged Marcus Horan and John Hayes due to a lack of quality alternatives, the two Munstermen amassing 172 caps between them.
Now the baton has been passed on to Cian Healy and Mike Ross, although age is not on Ross' side at 32. Healy has been an integral part of Leinster and Ireland's success in recent years and aged 25 has potentially a decade of playing time ahead of him, but without regular competition for his place he will simply burn out.
A series of outstanding foreign props have been brought in by the Irish provinces in recent years - John Afoa, BJ Botha, Nathan White, Wian du Preez and Heinke van der Merwe to name a few - with many operating as starters.
Whilst doing so may have increased the chances of success at club level - four of the last five Heineken Cups have been won by Irish sides - the end result is young Irish talents at both loosehead and tighthead have been denied opportunities.
This was highlighted when Ireland took on England at Twickenham during last year's Six Nations championship. With Mike Ross off injured, Tom Court was found wanting on the tighthead side of the scrum - not his specialist position.
If Ross picked up a long-term injury tomorrow, without Bent the talent is arguably not there to replace him.
That is not to say that Ireland are without prospects. Jamie Hagan, Declan Fitzpatrick and David Kilcoyne all have potential but are far from ready for Test rugby.
With Bent available to play immediately, Ireland cannot turn him down. Wood may not be happy with the circumstances, but the outlay on foreign props and failure to nurture strong depth on both sides of the scrum has forced Ireland's hand.
It all means that according to The Irish Times, Bent could become the first man to play for Ireland without playing a provincial game since Brian O'Driscoll.
By Ben Coles
Comments
jamesliveinhope says...
I'm a fairly staunch supporter of the rules and the rights of a player to represent whichever country he so chooses. Unfortunately, there will always be the odd mercenary who is able to exploit the rules but, if they are tightened any more we will have a string of Shingler type situations where players are prevented from representing by Unions with no real interest in the player.
What worries me about this situation is less that a qualified player is playing for an international side but more how other players who have been overlooked apparently because of their refusal to join the provincial set up might feel (Geordan Murphy perhaps).
One assumes that Kidney has brought him in with the intention of selecting him rather than injury cover, a player from a different rugby culture, never been in the provincial set up and never played with his team-mates before.
I think that this says more about deep problems in the Irish set up than it does about the IRB qualification rules.
Posted 12:35 06th November 2012
GCP_jones says...
@ melkdave....
I normally like reading you posts altough I do wonder where you get the time to write on every issue, but I have to take you to task over your comments you have posted on the Mick O'Bent issue.
Irish posters have every right to comment on oversea's players etc. the rugby team represents the island of Ireland both communities.People in the North regardless of Heritage can have dual citizenship, the only time the Irish natioanl anthem is played before rugby matches in in Dublin.
Mind You no one should have to endure listening to that muck Ireland's Call, but such is life.by the way Ulster players are not technicaly oversea's look at a map Mo Chairde :-)
Posted 12:11 06th November 2012
99call says...
melkdave do me a favour and take your comment on Ulster players being overseas players and kindly put it where the sun doesnt shine, and thats me being nice about it as this is a public forum, how dare you make that comment, I, as a proud Ulstermen am very proud of my Irish heritage and am able to hold both passports and would have only dreamed of the honour to play for Ireland, you may have you own view of what has happened over the water but keep it to yourself
Posted 11:09 06th November 2012
melkdave says...
Really all this fuss over a player whos entitled to play ,though a blood tie,his young ,has talant /potential,and i suspect if he had played for his irish cub ,for only a single season .We wouldnt be seeing this fuss over his selection at all.Also i see the usual swipes at England ,,which are groundless.Every english player has a blood tie or has been resident ,or grew up in England ,M.Botha ihas the least residancy ,and his beein living in England since 2004 ,thats 8 years more than twice the residancy rules ,and didnt play for England till 2011, 7 years after he moved here .Also as ive pointed out elsewhere ,technically all the Ulster born players in Irish teams since independance have been overseas players ,and they dont even need the residancy rules to play for Ireland .Irish posters just shouldnt comment on the overseas player issue ,as it lines them up for being shown what hypocrits they can be .And i actually like the irish people and respect their clubs and traditions ,and usually want Ireland to do well espically against non UK opposistion .
Posted 10:11 06th November 2012
philip274 says...
Firstly he is not breaking any law and neither are the IRFU, so case closed. Secondly, Mags, Henderson and Boss to name a few(that spring to mind), were/are in a similar position. Nobody complained about them, so lets stop complaining about this predicament.
Really the only question to be asked is "Is Bent good enough?", who can answer that? Kidney believes, or has been led down the garden path to believe it.
That is my greatest concern. I am sorry Michael, but I don't know you from Adam, and as stated below, you never made it to Super rugby, you leap frogged "top level" European rugby, and voila you have made it into an international squad. Fair play though, and I hold no grudge against you my fellow countryman. However, I have no confidence in Declan Kidneys selection abilities, and thus it worries me that you are hovering around the bench in Lansdowne road. There are other players, such as Wilson, Keatley and Madigan who should be included within the squad. All three are Irish, in form and frankly deserve to be involved. Why have they not been picked?
If Kidney and Co, can stick their necks out to bring in an unknown prop, why cant they "rest" (put the old nags to pasture) and blood young players now. I see another whitewash on the cards this November. Best of luck MB I hope you prove me wrong.
Posted 10:08 06th November 2012
99call says...
What is everyone moaning about, everyone has been doing this for years. There are to many to name for England, dont hear anyone crying about Tim Visser playing for Scotland, for crying out loud Tony Marsh was even an all black before he played for France, Wales were terrible under Henry as they didnt even get the checks right.
At least this guys has Irish grandparents so leave it out, if he plays in the next couple of weeks and performs well you'll all be singing his praises
Posted 09:25 06th November 2012
expat2 says...
I love reding these comments as a Bok supporter. No one can blame us for stealing players, why would anyone want to move to SA!!
Posted 09:15 06th November 2012
ApanuiWarrior75 says...
I haven't seen Michael Bent play much this year but have read and heard good things about him. It's all very well picking foreign-born players, but you have to ask yourself how much does playing for their adopted country mean to them? They need to have a stronger connection to the place than just blood. How or in what form I'm not sure; most New Zealanders these days have mixed blood. If Ireland's propping stocks are low at the moment I say it's better to have a strong front row, with the inclusion of a foreign born prop, rather than a weak one but only as a short-term solution. The IRFU need to get specialist scrummaging coaches in to work with school kids and get them up to speed so they can start producing a new generation of better props. Coaching clinics also need to be run for senior players from club level up. So in short, get a prop or two in from overseas now if they have to but do the work at the ground level to ensure that Ireland can start producing world class props again. Cian Healy is an awesome player but can't do it all on his own.
Posted 09:01 06th November 2012
bk47 says...
Yeah even for me who is a big fan of Bent this doesn't seem right. He should at least have to play for his club first.
And for everyone wondering what hes like as a player. Great scrummager at ITM cup and when used off the bench for the canes this year settled the normally backwards scrum. Hes getting better around the field and ball in hand but I really dont know about putting him into international level. We'll soon see
Posted 07:07 06th November 2012
bothhands says...
Well if we throw a kid in there, we lose. Play the Kiwi, see what happens .....
But as Wood said, he hasn't played a game in Ireland and now he is playing FOR Ireland. It just doesn't sit right, does it? Hope he has been getting the Anthem right in the mirror!!
Posted 03:42 06th November 2012
kiwilad says...
Gents, the Australian national side has resembled the League of Nations for some time now, so this is not new, and you are no worse than others.
BUT it does make a mockery of "International" Rugby.
Perhaps the rules need a major revisit, but in the mean time, they are still the rules.
Posted 03:36 06th November 2012
boksmashoffice says...
I have to say all this blaming the kiwis for poaching PI players is nonsense. You look at the current AB team. All of the lads with PI roots were schooled in NZ because went to NZ for work. So the credit must go to the system for producing the players. If you look at the PI teams the lads playing for them are playing or coached in NZ. So they should be thankful IMO.
In a few years I am sure there will be young South Africans turning out for the home nations because parents went abroad to work and had their kids there. Those lads may feel more affinity to play for the home nations and I will have no qualms about that because they were produced by the system and not robbed from another system and dropped in.
I know the line will be look at the Beast and Brian Mujati for SA. Personally they should have played for Zim. Thats my take.
Posted 22:58 05th November 2012
jaswai says...
@madraglas: Name all the foreigners in the All Blacks.
Go on.
Nope?
Thought so.
Posted 22:45 05th November 2012
papachinzo says...
I agree with Wood, If they can throw this guy in at the deep end, why can't they throw one of their "project" players in.
I also agree with Coles, Munster and Ulster should be forced to play these "project" players ahead of, or along side experienced 'imported talent'. (ie. Paul Marshall should be getting more game time than Ruan Pienaar).
Saying that, Leinster are the only European side that regularly sends out a squad almost entirely full of home grown players...
Best article I've read on PR to date.
Posted 21:35 05th November 2012
J_HDK says...
What is all this squawking about? Surely we want to see how well he plays before he can be selected for Leinster games against Clermont. I'd imagine playing for Ireland is decent enough practice. ;P
Posted 20:39 05th November 2012
madraglas says...
@ GCP_jones good rugby knowledge and sorry to repeat your comments.
@ Rockman - the 1.5m push is an IRB law and there for the right reasons i.e. to manage an extremely complex and potentially dangerous environment. Props do not learn their trade by pushing other props 5m down the pitch!!
Posted 18:21 05th November 2012
jmanngod says...
Sad to see there are still some idiots out there who believe that NZ's unique population, heavy with Polynesian NZ'ers, somehow equates to it being alright for other countries to mercilessly just poach our players. Weird and intellectually low-brow.
Posted 18:11 05th November 2012
madraglas says...
It is all very well to blame the IRFU, however other than SA, NZ, Aus and Arg all other nations have foreigners amongst their ranks. We could be here having the very same argument about the lack of home grown coaches or the number of foreign coaches in the HC.
Ireland had opportunities to secure the services of good props in Andrew Sheridan, Paul Doran-Jones and most lately Kieran Brookes who are all Irish qualified, played for the Irish Exiles (the 5th Irish province) and got capped by England.
To be fair to the IRFU they have seen the error of their ways in letting too many foreign players hold propping berths in their provincial teams and introduced the foreign player quotas into their squads and in the fact that a foreign player can only be signed for 3 years and the next foreign player cannot be signed in the same position as the previous one. However, when that was announced there were the same old faces on here giving out about "lessening the quality of Irish provincial rugby, etc."
Fair play to the lad...he has an opportunity and I hope he makes the most of it!
Posted 18:10 05th November 2012
Willy says...
@ rockman:
This is an IRB U19's Law so it is not unique to Ireland all other countries play under the scrummaging variations you described for U19's and lower.
Our problem is we don't invest in our props the same way we do as other players. Props generally don't start coming into their own till mid 20's (granted there are exceptions) yet the provincial acedemy's discard players at 20/21 if they aren't beginning to break into the senoir squad. That is fine for most positons but props need longer to develop and we are casting them away too young.
Posted 17:24 05th November 2012
BiggyFint says...
@GCP_jones I'd rather see Michael Bents granny scruming down for Ireland than have to watch Tony Buckley floundering again.
Posted 16:22 05th November 2012