It's been a year since David Nucifora handed the keys of Irish rugby over to David Humphreys, 12 months where the new IRFU performance director has had more than a few big decisions land at his desk.
The national team has been in a bit of a flux with Andy Farrell spending time on his British and Irish Lions sabbatical, with a third-place finish in the Six Nations following an underwhelming Autumn Nations Series..
He's had to make unpopular decisions, most notably by axing the men's Sevens programme, which he says has been done to provide extra funds for Munster, Connacht, Ulster and the women's game. That one could be legacy-defining.
He's had a more hands-on approach than his predecessor when it comes to women's rugby, but even a year of steady growth has hit a snag recently with Hugh Hogan departing the setup just a few months out from a World Cup. The popular defence coach is believed to have had a falling out with head coach Scott Bemand, with James Scaysbrook coming in at short notice to replace him.
On the face of it, the performances of the four provinces is the greatest cause for concern.
Ulster and Connacht missed out on Champions Cup rugby, with the latter's season falling apart and leading to the departure of head coach Pete Wilkins. Munster barely scraped into the URC play-offs, and parted ways with Graham Rowntree back in October. And while Leinster broke their four-year wait for a trophy with the URC title, their shock Champions Cup semi-final defeat to Northampton Saints was a sobering one for the whole of Irish rugby.
"I don't think I’ve seen signs of regression," Humphreys says, when Irish rugby's difficult 12 months is put to him.
"I think the nature of sport is that there are ups and downs and it's almost this year there’s been - not quite the perfect storm - but there’s a lot of things that have happened which would give off the view that it hasn’t been as successful as it has been in the past.
"But for all those areas that you mentioned, when you look at some of the changes we’ve made, whether it's coaching team, from a contracting point of view, the quality of the squads, I have no doubt that next year will be much stronger and much better, certainly across the provinces."
Since arriving into this role a year ago, Humphreys has acknowledged one of his key jobs is to help bring Munster, Connacht and Ulster closer to Leinster, both in terms of results off the pitch and their financial means off it.
All three have had a change of coaching in the last 18 months, with Richie Murphy installed as Dan McFarland's replacement at Ulster just over a year ago, while the appointments of Stuart Lancaster and Clayton McMillan at Connacht and Munster respectively appear to be statements of intent
"The expectation in Ireland now is that we have four provinces that are competitive and an Irish team is on top of the world," added the 53-year-old (below).
"When I first came in, there was a lot of talk around: 'Leinster are too strong.' In a high-performance system, a team can never be too strong. Ultimately, the goal is to be the very, very best. They are very close to being in that position.
"But the challenge that I believe we in the IRFU have and in my role, is to make the other three more competitive.
"I think this year is a blip for a number of reasons that were around changes in coaching teams, player injuries, I think with our recruitment we're going to have stronger squads next year. With the coaches we've brought in we're going to have strong coaching teams next year. That's going to allow us to close the gap [between Leinster and the rest].
"How long will that take? I don't know. But, ultimately, if Leinster keep pushing the boundaries but the other provinces keep working towards closing it, we're going to have a stronger national team and stronger provinces."
To help bridge the gap between Leinster and the rest, provinces will now be forced to contribute up to 40% of the wages for their centrally contracted players, which will free up an estimated €700,000 to be rerouted to Munster, Connacht and Ulster. Additionally, those provinces - and the women's game - will share the €1.2m that has been reserved from disbanding the men's Sevens programme.
Humphreys has also rowed back on one of his big policies he announced last summer, that non-Irish qualified front rows would not be sanctioned for the foreseeable future.
The policy was in response to the lack of front row talent being developed for the senior national side, although he has since allowed Leinster re-sign France veteran Rabah Slimani, and sanctioned Ulster's signing of Australia star Angus Bell (above).
"It was a very deliberate strategy. We were all aware about where our front-row depth was coming from and at the time I firmly believed, that as things stood at that time 12 months ago, we needed to do something different.
"What that statement did was encourage conversations with us, with the provinces: 'How are we going to make sure that we can get more players into the system?' So, you’ll have seen some players move between provinces. That’s what we wanted.
"You’ll have seen a number of players get game time, in discussions with the provinces, and you’ve seen the acceleration of [Jack] Boyle and [Thomas] Clarkson. They’ve come through very quickly because they’ve been playing.
"So, it’s this conversation; if we can get those young players playing, they will get better. But I also think part of working in high performance there has to be flexibility.
"You can take a position, but as things change, as they do on a week to week basis and on a month-to-month basis, you have to be flexible and go: ‘Do you know what, 12 months ago that’s what I genuinely believed.’ Now, because of what we’ve seen happen within the provinces; player movement, player game time and the development of some of these young players, I am much less concerned about us not having any depth."
One thing Humphreys (above) is showing no flexibility around, however, is the IRFU's policy of not considering players based outside Ireland for selection to the men's national team.
The union have taken a hard stance against selecting players based in Britain or France ever since Johnny Sexton's time at Racing 92, and Humphreys said it's not going to be changed any time soon.
"It's a question that we've talked about internally, we've discussed it internally but actually when you look at the Irish system, one of the great strengths is our player welfare, our player management.
"What we want is, we want all our players playing into their early to mid-30s. We want to give them every chance and we believe what we have in each of our provinces, how we manage them throughout the course of the season, that gives them the best opportunity to have a much longer career than perhaps if you let them go and play in some of the other leagues.
"So for me at the minute, that is not something that's up for discussion.
"We've considered it. We believe that it's a fundamental strength of the Irish rugby system and believe it will continue to be so."
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