www.rli.ie/article/all-ireland-f ... d-off.html

www.rli.ie/article/all-ireland-f ... d-off.html

Sadly this annual final between Carlow & Limerick has been dogged by contraversy for many years and am not surprised that its come to this. The structure of the RU off season RLI Summer league means that the team who can call on the best semi pro RU players is the team that wins.

What I would say is that in spite of the problems the RLI cause the number of RL players is actually growing. Four years or so ago you couldnt get insurance in Ireland to play or train outside the RU Summer closed season. Fortunately a few of us went to the RFL direct & after some ups & downs the RFL included the ROI in its insurance policy. This meant RL clubs could form properly & play matches whenever they liked. The first of these was in December 2008 Tallaght v Dublin Blues. 14 players turned up & its was estimated that in Ireland as a whole there were around 20 RL players country wide at that time.

Fast forward to July 2011, Ballyfermot alone have 20 RL players training regularly on an RL only pitch. This model is replicated throughout Ireland. So the future of domestic RL has never looked better. Hopefully we are seeing the demise of the RU Summer Keep fit approach much advocated by the RLI.