Into the Emerald Isle

Back when Murdoch and Co took over Super League in 1995, talk was of Rugby League teams being dotted all around the continent.



Amongst the proposed cities that would host Super League sides was Dublin. It's good transport links to the North virtue of low-cost airlines and ferry links and it's rugby loving public made the Irish capital the ideal venue, or so they thought. Alas, the collapse of the proposed mergers meant Dublin, or any of the other cities, were out of the picture.

Twelve years on, Leeds Rhinos have pushed the Irish case again. The Rhinos are currently training at the Dublin City University and by all accounts, have been impressed with what they've seen. Assistant coach and former Ireland international Francis Cummins has come out and sung the praises of Dublin and touted the merits of an Irish Super League franchise.

For the fans, support is likely to be high. Perpignan has proved a huge success with supporters and a hop across the Irish Sea is sure to be a winner amongst the various bands of travelling fans.
The city is renowned as an enjoyable 'city-break' destination and the area is easily accessible. Low-cost flights are available to Dublin from Leeds Bradford, Humberside, Doncaster Sheffield, Blackpool, Manchester and Liverpool whilst ferry links operate from the north-west.

But on the playing side it's where the pro-Dublin arguments start to falter.
Les Catalans worked for a very simple reason - it was a Rugby League area. The clubs were already in place, a competitive league structure was already in place and most importantly, there is an amateur and youth system which can support a Super League club. Perpignan had everything there, ready to go. It just needed Super League to raise the profile of French rugby.

In Dublin on the other hand, that's not the case. The amateur set-up, although improving, is not capable of sustaining a Super League club. Given the strength of the GAA and the IRU, the talent pool is fairly shallow to begin with and the lack of exposure of the 13-man code to the natives makes it difficult to make the game an attractive proposition to the nation's youngsters.

That makes a Super League franchise an non-starter. In such an environment any side would be reliant on overseas imports and quota loopholes, very much reminiscent of Paris Saint-Germain in the mid-late 90's.

The other option would be to start from the bottom and work upwards. Instead of throwing Dublin in at the deep-end, let them work through the ranks, starting off in National League Two or even the Conference National (the new name for the defunct NL3). That brings it's own downbside though.
In both competitions, players still hold down full-time jobs. We've already seen the disapperance of teams from Coventry, Birmingham, Essex, Teeside and Carlisle due to the demands that travelling to and from Yorkshire placed on their players and an Irish side would quickly follow the same path. Once you've factored in flights and the associated problems and expense, you see that an amateur/semi-pro team from the emerald isle isn't a viable option either.

Leeds' intentions are good and in an ideal world, we'd see an Irish franchise in the not-too-distant future. Unfortunately, the practicalities just don't add up. This isn't like Perpignan. The Catalans had the foundations to build on. The IRL are starting from scratch.