AIL still has part to play in nurturing professional game

AIL rugby was in the spotlight last week for a number of reasons, on a weekend where Clontarf were deservedly crowned AIL champions.

If you look through the Clontarf side, there were notable absentees. Alex Soroka passionately accepted his player of the match award in South Africa as Leinster picked up their all-important bonus point win away from home, but things could have been very different had the fixture calendar gone another way. Soroka would have joined his brother, Ivan, in celebrating Clontarf's win at the Aviva Stadium.

It wasn’t just the Ukrainian born flanker that missed out on the victory party back at Castle Avenue. David Hawkshaw and Brian Deeny, although not involved in the Stormers game, were heavily involved with Clontarf throughout the season as well.

The Leinster team was like an 'A’ side with a lot of AIL representation. I don’t mean to insult the deserving professional players, but instead to cast a light on what the AIL has done for the development of them.

I’ve been coaching in the AIL for the last five seasons, and if you go through the Leinster side that took on the Stormers, I’ve come across the vast majority of them at some stage in the league.

Prop Thomas Clarkson, Max O’ Reilly and Rob Russell have all featured for Trinity College this year and Trinity are all the better for it with the stylish brand of rugby that they play. Jack Dunne, who is on the move to Exeter at the beginning of next season, also featured in in both rounds against Cork Constitution this year.

Josh Murphy and Scott Penny have both appeared in the league this season and it wasn’t too long ago that we came up against Ciaran Frawley in the light blue of UCD alongside them.

Cormac Foley has played a lot of games with Lansdowne