Anyone know the Jake Heenan connection with the Jes?

menacethedenis wrote: I see a famous name will be lining out for The Bish this year:

www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/connacht-...-by-school-1.1662848

Not to mention the offspring of a Who fan playing for Rice.

I see a famous name will be lining out for The Bish this year:

www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/connacht-...-by-school-1.1662848

Agree with Rossie.

Btw, Heffernan was prop in Roscrea last year, he spent his full secondary there, has a younger brother on JCT. He almost certain to get a full Leinster Academy place next year despite being a Galway lad.

My point is that branch should support clubs as in GAA as the schools structure is not strong enough. still have school competitions, but coaching etc should be part of the club.

Bayern - try reading all of my post before replying.

I have no problem at all if a family chose to move their child to another school anywhere and for any reason including rugby. Neither do I have a problem with any school offering a student/family an opportunity at any level to attend their school on scholarship, bursary etc.
Examples are plenty throughout the academy and senior squad.
Off the top of my head Buckley and heffernan attended black rock college. Afaik these were family decisions.
Daniel qualter attended Sligo grammer for his leaving cert year having done the other 4/5 yes in Aloysius in athlone. I know he received a scholarship for that final year and only for it would have remained in athlone.

What was suggested here was that Connacht rugby pay for elite underage players to attend rugby schools outside the province with roscrea specifically mentioned. I'm sure its a fine school but its not in Connacht and Connacht branch have a mandate to grow the game at all levels , school and club, within the province.

Bayern wrote:

phatguerilla wrote:

rossie wrote:
Finally its not only in Connacht that this happens, I'm fairly certain Earls was enticed to move school for Rugby and there was some sort of decision/ruling/agreement made recently enough to stop schools head hunting players in final year wasn't there? That applied to the whole country not just connacht.

Earls moved to St. Munchins in 4th year.

Rule was for Munster only.

Correct but rule has since been changed at insistence of smaller schools. Student must now be enrolled for 12mths in the school before qualifying to play cup rugby.

phatguerilla wrote:

rossie wrote:
Finally its not only in Connacht that this happens, I'm fairly certain Earls was enticed to move school for Rugby and there was some sort of decision/ruling/agreement made recently enough to stop schools head hunting players in final year wasn't there? That applied to the whole country not just connacht.

Earls moved to St. Munchins in 4th year.

Rule was for Munster only.

[quote="sea_point" post=24197They don't have to Roscrea sort that finances out and why the better Connacht schools talent mainly only go there for the final two years....

www.ccr.ie/index.php/sport/sports-scholarships [/quote]

I have two lads in that school and I know of only two rugby bursaries (that is a discount, not full fees, school cannot afford full scholarships) at the moment, both in Junior House. As far as I'm aware there is none in Senior House at the moment- though I may be wrong.
They also have Music Bursaries, and Hurling ones, and while they have a few inter county minors, mainly Offaly, Laois and Tipp, I don't think there are any hurling bursaries at the moment.

rossie wrote: I never said that they should just focus on players from Connacht clubs and schools . The Connacht branch do however have a mandate to promote and grow the game within the province of Connacht. Investing in the education of players outside the province is not the best way to do that and would be extremely unpopular and counterproductive from a public relations and bridge building point of view at a time when they are already under critisism from the school game here.

Where is Yeats college?

Ah yes its a private tutorial college on college road gal way that doesn't compete in the Connacht senior cup! Lol. I wonder why connscht branch aren't encouraging students to do their leaving cert in Jes, Bish, garb ally, Marist , Sligo grammer or one of the other schools competing in the Connacht senior cup? The pinnacle of schools rugby in the province! I can see why the schools have a grievance with the branch.

I may be wrong but I think many students/staff/parents related to Sligo Grammar are much more attracted to Munster and the Munster academy than Connacht. I don't know why its just something I've been told in the past.

You're right in an ideal world young players should just stay where they are and develop but the reality is that doesn't happen for multiple reasons. I know a (gaa) teammate of my cousins was told/encouraged/sent from Mayo to roscrea to play rugby and increase his chances of making the academy. It would be nice if talented players were able to find contracts no matter what but often having one good player in a mediocre school is counterproductive and prevents the good player from reaching their potential. Connacht would obviously prefer to keep as many good players under one school roof for the sake of improving their coaching and rugby experience. In the future when/if enough children start playing rugby it will reach a watershed and players can stay within their home schools and still have careers.

Finally its not only in Connacht that this happens, I'm fairly certain Earls was enticed to move school for Rugby and there was some sort of decision/ruling/agreement made recently enough to stop schools head hunting players in final year wasn't there? That applied to the whole country not just connacht.

rossie wrote:

Bayern wrote:

rossie wrote: In theory that's a grand idea Bayern but who is going to pay for it?

5 Scholarships a year, Connacht could easily afford to sponsor that.

So Connacht branch, who are currently 400k in debt , should fund the education of 5 students so that they can play rugby for a school that is affiliated to a different branch in spite of the fact that Connacht rugby runs its own schools competition known locally as the Connacht schools junior and senior cups? Interesting.

Why settle for roscrea? Why not go for the best? Black rock, clongowes or one of the SA boarding schools!

They don't have to Roscrea sort that finances out and why the better Connacht schools talent mainly only go there for the final two years....

www.ccr.ie/index.php/sport/sports-scholarships

rossie wrote:
Ah yes its a private tutorial college on college road gal way that doesn't compete in the Connacht senior cup! Lol. I wonder why connscht branch aren't encouraging students to do their leaving cert in Jes, Bish, garb ally, Marist , Sligo grammer or one of the other schools competing in the Connacht senior cup? The pinnacle of schools rugby in the province! I can see why the schools have a grievance with the branch.

Many parents (maybe most?) would have other criteria for selecting schools - academic excellence, location, cost, siblings, sports, music and other extra curricular stuff. Thus for Branch to recommend schools may not be in best interests of the pupils long term.

While I have gone through leinster schools system from a rugby perspective the biggest problem is that many clubs, especially in Dublin where there are "rugby" schools have no teams between ages of 13 and 19. Many are thus lost to rugby when school ends, especially the non-elite players. . For example, I have two lads who went through Belvo minis. They have never darkened the door of Belvo since they went to secondary school. Who knows if they will ever go back? I know that the NZ player and coach Mike Brewer thinks that the schools system is killing the game development

I would prefer that clubs maintained the "ownership" of the players through the school years. By all means represent the school, but the centre of training and skills should be in the clubs. This is similar to the GAA where the club ethos outshines the schools. Most school matches are midweek or Saturday mornings anyway.

This is harder to do in Leinster as the current status quo is entrenched together with all the alma mater stuff (I'm guilty of this too). However the Connacht branch (and maybe in Munster also) have an opportunity to revitalise the clubs (as opposed to the schools)with under age teams and competition. By all means still have a schools cup, but if they invest in clubs more then the likelihood is that they will get more local Academy players than now and more importantly keep the game alive at local level by retaining those players in the game.

rossie wrote: I never said that they should just focus on players from Connacht clubs and schools . The Connacht branch do however have a mandate to promote and grow the game within the province of Connacht. Investing in the education of players outside the province is not the best way to do that and would be extremely unpopular and counterproductive from a public relations and bridge building point of view at a time when they are already under critisism from the school game here.

Where is Yeats college?

Ah yes its a private tutorial college on college road gal way that doesn't compete in the Connacht senior cup! Lol. I wonder why connscht branch aren't encouraging students to do their leaving cert in Jes, Bish, garb ally, Marist , Sligo grammer or one of the other schools competing in the Connacht senior cup? The pinnacle of schools rugby in the province! I can see why the schools have a grievance with the branch.

Grand sure, stop recruiting kids from Roscrea so, they are a Leinster school after all.
Only take lads from Connacht Schools...
Connacht can develop rugby in the province while also ensuring the best players get more exposure to a higher level of competition. Connacht need to do everything possible to develop the young players their schools and clubs do produce.

I never said that they should just focus on players from Connacht clubs and schools . The Connacht branch do however have a mandate to promote and grow the game within the province of Connacht. Investing in the education of players outside the province is not the best way to do that and would be extremely unpopular and counterproductive from a public relations and bridge building point of view at a time when they are already under critisism from the school game here.

Where is Yeats college?

Ah yes its a private tutorial college on college road gal way that doesn't compete in the Connacht senior cup! Lol. I wonder why connscht branch aren't encouraging students to do their leaving cert in Jes, Bish, garb ally, Marist , Sligo grammer or one of the other schools competing in the Connacht senior cup? The pinnacle of schools rugby in the province! I can see why the schools have a grievance with the branch.

rossie wrote:

Bayern wrote:

rossie wrote: In theory that's a grand idea Bayern but who is going to pay for it?

5 Scholarships a year, Connacht could easily afford to sponsor that.

So Connacht branch, who are currently 400k in debt , should fund the education of 5 students so that they can play rugby for a school that is affiliated to a different branch in spite of the fact that Connacht rugby runs its own schools competition known locally as the Connacht schools junior and senior cups? Interesting.

Why settle for roscrea? Why not go for the best? Black rock, clongowes or one of the SA boarding schools!

Yeah they don't have anything like that already in place, oh wait.. domestic.connachtrugby.ie/201306272507/e...e-with-yeats-college

If playing for Roscrea wasn't such a benefit why is Connacht rugby encouraging it's players to go there? Why are Connacht coaches helping with Roscrea's SCT team?
Why do so many roscrea players end up playing underage rugby for Connacht?
yeah maybe your right, Connacht should just focus on players who come from connacht schools and clubs.

Bayern wrote:

rossie wrote: In theory that's a grand idea Bayern but who is going to pay for it?

5 Scholarships a year, Connacht could easily afford to sponsor that.

So Connacht branch, who are currently 400k in debt , should fund the education of 5 students so that they can play rugby for a school that is affiliated to a different branch in spite of the fact that Connacht rugby runs its own schools competition known locally as the Connacht schools junior and senior cups? Interesting.

Why settle for roscrea? Why not go for the best? Black rock, clongowes or one of the SA boarding schools!

columoc wrote: Minor correction on your list Bayern. Darragh did not go to Roscrea, but his older brother Tadgh did. I would expect 1-2 more in next year's academy crop.
btw: They also had a prop who made the Spanish U20s last year and currently have another Spanish prop on the SCT this year.

I'm not sure reliance on Roscrea is the answer. Part of the issue is that Roscrea is fee paying, not everyone can afford it, They do have some rugby bursaries, introduced in 2012, but tend to offer them at Junior level rather than Seniors. Secondly the school is cleary focused on Academics first before Sport, particularly in the last few years so they are not interested in just Rugby ability.

I think the link for Connacht is that a lot of the their students come from The West(particularly Mayo) - I went there myself and there were 3-4 of us from Galway at the time.

Right you are, my mistake he went to St. Joseph's College.

Last year's Connacht schools player of the Ciaran Gaffney went to Roscrea.