David Humphreys

And he's chosen to move on.

So we all wish him well and hope that he finishes his career and his time in Ireland with a win this weekend.

We've got a bit of heat over this last weekend in particular.

I'm probably going to repeat what you just said, Tommy.

It's...

For the last almost two years of being in this post, when I first came in, there was a narrative that was there in the conversations when you were going round that Leinster were too strong.

immediately we kick back my view is how can you we're in a high performance high performing system we want everybody performing at their very best we want Leicester producing more players better players competing at the very top level the challenge that I believe we have is to close the gap so rather than weaken Leinster we have got to make our other provinces better

What does that look like?

You're right, Tommy.

In a world of the last, certainly the last 18 months, where there have been some financial pressures, that is difficult.

It's the balance between taking a short-term view of getting them competitive now versus getting a longer-term decision.

I mean, there's some, when you look at the depth,

in some of the provinces, there are some issues that have been there that have been coming down the track for 10 years that we haven't addressed for a number of reasons.

We have to start addressing those now with the conversations around where's our front row depth coming from, apart from Leinster, whereas we have to get into the detail and ensure that our provinces are delivering against their succession plan, against the needs of the province, and ultimately against the needs of the Irish national team.

And Tommy, honestly, 20 years ago, it was very much the same conversation.

As the game has gone professional and the challenge that it's faced over the last 30 years, one of the issues that we've never quite managed to address

So one of the problems we've never quite managed to solve is with the investment at the top end of the game, making sure the investment at the bottom end and grassroots ensures that the game is thriving, because to have a successful national team, to have a long term successful game, you have to have it at grassroots.

And if you go around any club.

on a Saturday or a Sunday morning and look at the number of minis playing.

The game is in good shape.