National U20s S9/10 (Chat thread)

jprender

Just a couple of corrections before you go to print Jeff !

Firstly thanks very much for taking the time to take part in this interview,
now, to the serious stuff, the U20s finished strongly last season and are set up nicely for this season, this and victories against the likes of New Zealand must leave you feeling quite confident of your teams ability?

We had a decent season last time around and punched well above the weight of our squad. As you know, we were one of the few nations that pursued a strategy of blooding our younger players and as a result, our squad has seen little change as we head into season 10. We have a fine collection of players, and a host of other young lads on the fringes that can be called upon if needs be.

Without going into too much detail (keeping in mind this will be available to the world) what preparations are you making at this stage for the world cup?

The WC is certainly the target that we have set our sights on. Constant, high level training of our young players is the only way that we can achieve that goal. We started this process at the tail end of season 6, and our plan to get there has not changed much since that point. We know what our own squad can do. Much more important for season 10 is concentrating on what other nations' squads can do, or more importantly, can't do.


Dewi Carew seems to of lost his CSR advantage on some of the other nations stars, how much depth do you think our team has? If the likes of Carew get a major injury, how do you plan on handling it?


First of all, Dewi never had a CSR advantage on the other nation's star players, I'm not sure where you picked up that bit of information? Secondly, you guys in the Irish media seem to have latched onto Dewi and built him up into some sort of messiah figure. Dewi is our highest CSR player, that is not in question. However, if you look through our squad of 30 players, there are 29 others besides Dewi that can more than hold their own at this level of competition. During season 9, Dewi played in only half of our games. Of the 7 games he did not play in, we won 6. Do you still feel that Dewi is the only player in this team that matters ?

The senior team have been accused of ''cheating'' and ''match fixing'' in the world cup campaign, more specifically against South africa. What are your thoughts on this and do you think it would be acceptable in the U20s campaign?

The U20 circuit is a completely different beast to the Senior National competition. All teams are effectively re-set every two seasons at U20 level. This gives every team an equal opportunity of success, and if they have their stuff together, they might just take home the silverware. Any team can beat another team on any given day. There is no requirement to look for any "extra" edge. Compare that to the seniors; no team can compete with NZ on an equal footing. In my opinion, that intensity agreement during the WC was struck due to frustration at having to settle for second best, and an overwhelming desire to break the stranglehold that NZ had on the competition.


What are your aims for the world cup? Which countries are our major competitors? Do you feel canada could cause any sort of an upset?


We have a decent shout of being in the mix at the business end of the World Cup. Other teams feel the same way, I am quite certain of that. NZ are, as usual, the team to beat. The gap has closed though. We ran them very close in the S8 final, and we have a much better squad of players this time around. This should be the most competitive WC to date with a lot of teams with high expectations.
I'm not sure why you have singled out Canada in particular, but to answer the question, no, I do not feel Canada can cause any sort of an upset. Achieving 3rd place in the table after Season 9 is about as good as it will get for them. When you look at their squad for S9 compared to the other teams, 4th was the very least they should have achieved. If anything, they under-performed.


Finally, what are your plans for after the world cup? Any intensions if taking on another bunch of 16/17 year olds? Or maybe the big step up to the senior squad?

I'd love to. On both counts.

Thanks very much for your time

No problem.