If Ireland are to compete successfully at under-19, stronger foundations will have to be laid in the schools, argues Gavin Cummiskey

There would certainly be a feeling that a huge step-up is required between schoolboys to under-20s in terms of their conditioning. Most of the guys would have found it surprising in how they were treated and looked after in terms of their fitness and coaching. But you have to be so politically correct in what you say about the schools because they are so bloody sensitive . . .

We probably need to identify the key talent earlier . . . we need to put them on specific programmes even when they are in schools, but the problem is the schools are so protective of their players that they don't allow that to happen.

- An anonymous official involved with underage rugby

Key figures within the IRFU, responsible for the development of young talent, are adamant this issue is being addressed and within four years a bridge will be erected to carry the elite schoolboy comfortably into the professional game.

But this process remains in the slipstream of Ireland's chief rivals in world rugby.

Earlier this season Leinster A went to Bristol with 10 of the 2007 under-20 Grand Slam-winning team in tow. They lost 40-7.

The Munster Academy went up against the Garryowen pack recently. Suffice to say, it was a wake-up call.

Those who attended the Under-19 World Cup matches against Australia and South Africa at Ravenhill last April know that Ireland have slipped behind. Sure, Irish players have generally been smaller than Southern Hemisphere opponents but the conditioning gap has widened.

Kieran Crowley, the coach of the tournament winners, New Zealand, said at the time: "We used to rely primarily on our natural size. But you can see that is not enough - South Africa went back this year to sending out a huge team.

"We know now we cannot compete at this level unless we get the guys a few years before and start getting them into physical development because otherwise you get knocked around at a tournament like this.

"Look at Ireland. They were outstanding in the first game against Australia but they were so small they just got beaten up in all three games . . . The physicality of it is too demanding.

"For the system to work everyone has got to be moving in the same direction - national, province and school must all buy into the same blueprint. New Zealand are starting to get that into place now."

Individual skills development has also let Irish rugby down. This was most evident to the thousands of supporters who shelled out for trips to Bordeaux and Paris last September.

Nice wine, sunny climes - shame about the basics.

Communication between the Leinster academy and most elite schools has improved recently. Two years ago Blackrock College refused assistance from the IRFU strength-and-conditioning coach Dave Fagan but he now supplies an annual plan for them (and other schools, including CBC Monkstown, Gonzaga and Belvedere) and has taken half a dozen sessions.

The next step is to develop aspiring players right out of junior level.

Granted, the IRFU are not standing still, as provincial development squads already exist at under-16.

"The Southern Hemisphere nations are getting further away," said Fagan. "We've got to get our hands on players at 16 years of age for several reasons. In other countries they are conditioned much earlier because physical education starts in schools at a younger age for all sports.

"We will get them to catch up but if we only get a player at 19 then we're three years behind the conditioning of every other country. Between 16 to 21 is the real development period, as after that they turn pro and there is only a very small development."

The positives must also be accentuated. The Leinster schools went to South Africa last summer and won all five games under the captaincy of CBC Monkstown's Mick Noone. Before departure, Fagan had them for eight weeks' conditioning.

"The good thing from our point of view is we've kept in contact with those players since so we've been working with them. When you see those coming through in this year's cup and next year, we'll see an improvement in conditioning.

"We know the under-20s this year will still be behind New Zealand and South Africa. We accept some of it is genetic and some of them we don't get early enough but the players coming through in three, four years' time there is no excuse. Everything is available for them."

The issue of supplements must be addressed at this juncture. Although creatine is not advocated by schools or coaches, it is prevalent throughout schools rugby.

The IRFU nutritionist Ruth Wood Martin is currently putting together a document for schools to use as a starting point in how they educate their students.

"One former schools player who now plays for Leinster was on three or four different supplements when he came into us and he was weighing 10 kilos lighter than he should have been," said Fagan.

"We took him off all supplements, because he was using them as meal replacements, and he went up the 10 kilos.

"You must look at the diet first and then, if we can't get increases, we will look at it, but I would expect a player to get to 18, 19 before we get to look at that."

What about creatine?

"I don't think there has been enough documented on creatine to say yay or nay to it. I know a lot of players wouldn't touch it with a barge pole just because they are afraid of the unknown, of what's coming down the road in 10 years' time.

"If you are a young player I don't think that is the route you should take - maybe because young players are prone to upping the dosage and therefore the body has to work overtime.

"Your body needs only a certain amount of creatine. You are only trying to replace what's being used."

To sum up: those who monitor the progress of Irish rugby talent are actively trying to raise standards to match those of our rivals, but there is still room for improved communication on both sides of the schools/professional divide.