I think the reality is that the Irish school system is at a different level at the moment. I think that is largely self funded (from old boys) but not sure on IRFU's involvement. The pathways in Scotland can definitely be improved though - there seems to be this huge drop off where players go from playing every week at school to struggling to get a game and then being expecting to play u20s sides that are basically fully pro.Donny osmond wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2023 10:43 am I'd also be interested to hear from anyone who knows what pathways there are? It's **very** annoying hearing about the Irish production line, knowing full well that Edinburgh is chock full of rugby playing private schools and leading amateur clubs that could be feeding talent into the professional set up if the pathways were there (not to mention the rugby playing schools in the Borders...).
I know there's a 'futures XV' in the amateur leagues that regularly gets humped , which doesn't feel like a working pathway?
The futures XV has been added to the Super Series, the semi pro level. Not working at the moment, but I can understand the counter-argument made when they are accused of throwing youngsters to the wolves unprepared: "they are about to face England u20s, France u20, and Ireland u20". Ideally, I think the youngsters would be getting games for the other teams in the tournament, but that wasn't happening. The idea of quotas has been mentioned, which seems logical to me otherwise the tournament risks becoming an expensive way of developing coaches and keeping people on the fringes of pro rugby from dropping off too far.