Leinster school system a major advantage – Ferris

Ex-British & Irish Lion Stephen Ferris says it will be a huge challenge for other Irish provinces and clubs across Europe to match the level Leinster have set due to the advantage of the school system in the region.

Between them, Leinster’s “Big Six” private schools have produce 77 Irish internationals in history, and that excludes another dozen schools who play in the Leinster Schools Rugby Senior League.

And former Ulster and Ireland flanker Ferris feels that the infrastructure and money in the game in the Champions Cup favourites’ province makes it nigh on impossible for other countries or even fellow Irish regions to compete.

“Everybody says: ‘Let’s just copy the Irish blueprint, let’s just copy the Leinster school system’,” he said on The Rugby Paper Podcast. “But the thing is, you can’t.

“Or at least, many teams or many systems can’t, because they don’t have the money. You have parents who come along in these school systems who are wealthy and throw a certain amount at the school every year just to have a strength and conditioning coach, and they’ve all got directors of rugby.

“When I was at school it was the technology teacher who was running out after the last class to put on a pair of boots and set up a drill for us to get going. But these guys have their S&C in the morning before they take class, they train afterwards and they have nutritionists. It’s a fully professional set-up.”

With the easy transition such standards enable from junior to senior rugby, Ferris believes other teams will be hard pushed to close the gap.

And as an Ulster icon who ended up on the losing side Champions Cup final against Leinster in 2012, the same year he was nominated for European Player of the Year, Ferris also admits it is somewhat painful to see the rival region thriving to such an extent.

“Everybody wonders how these young guys can step out of school and represent Leinster,” he added. “Well it’s because they’re already in a professional set-up.

“So unless you have an unlimited amount of money, an unlimited of good coaches that are going to get paid a half-decent amount of money, it’s going to be hard to play catch up.

“Part of me feels that this Leinster team are only going to get better which as an Ulsterman, and seeing your team get to quarter-finals and semi-finals and the odd final here and there but always come up short, is hard to take.

“There’s money, time and effort put into the school’s system up here but it’s going to take decades before we get to the level there is down in double. So there’s part of me that likes to see these Irish players playing consistently well which feeds massively into the national side. But I hate to see Leinster win every week.”

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