David Humphreys

It doesn't quite work.

So we've got to look at a way that we are allowing people to, as you've said, combine their gymnastics, combine football, combine soccer, combine camogie, everything.

But we want more people playing because we know that if we have more people playing, we'll have better athletes.

If we have better athletes, we have better competition.

Well, sorry.

that's probably a very flippant way of saying that.

Yeah, and the big problem, I think the figure is something over 90% of professional players in the men's game in Ireland have come through the school system.

Yes, we've got to expand the club system to reduce that, but at the moment in time, that is the...

Those are the facts behind the player development.

The challenge that we've got in the women's game is very few schools at this minute in time are playing, giving the girls the opportunity to play.

So there's a number of different options that have been looked at, explored, tested as to how do we get them playing in their school, but then how do we build a club programme

And to your point earlier, I think I'm not sure that both of you have made it, that we cannot treat the women's games development the same way as we did the men's.

They had clubs established for years and schools established for years.

That's why from the very bottom, there is a very big project going on as to how do we accelerate that to make sure that we're giving girls the opportunity to play rugby.

It is, and probably in the course of the last eight, if you'd asked me this when I'd first come into the role or before I came into the role, my answer would have been different in that having experienced Gloucester and professional rugby there, one of the questions was, what makes the Irish provinces different to lots of the club teams around the world, particularly in England?

And my answer was always, it's the very strong sense of identity.

It's the connection.

We all grew up, I grew up wanting to wear an Ulster jersey, Danica grew up wanting to wear a Munster jersey, Tommy an Ulster jersey.

That connection and that identity was a huge part of what the provinces were through that very successful period in the early 2000s.

Now, being in this role for 18 months, I still absolutely believe that identity is an important part and we want our young people coming through, our young boys and girls coming through the system, aspiring to play for their problems.