IRFU provincial and national age grade coaches - Under-18s, Under-19s and Under-20s - and IRFU elite player development staff from the four provinces gathered recently to review their experiences, discuss challenges and align closer to ensure the development of more effective elite players across the IRFU Elite Player Pathway.

Connacht Receive Fitness Boost

The Connacht squad resumed training this week following a well-deserved break and it was all smiles as team-mates congratulated prop Nathan White on the recent birth of his baby boy George.

There was another cause for celebration as a number of players returned from injury. John Muldoon, who suffered a knee injury in the Ireland XV's win over Fiji in November, has been declared fit again and has rejoined the Connacht squad for full training.

Accompanying him on the training pitch is the province's captain Gavin Duffy. Duffy has been out of action with a hamstring injury for almost nine weeks now but the Mayo man returned to training today in Galway.

Another welcome returnee is back rower Willie Faloon who has recovered fully from the eye injury he sustained in the 22-14 victory over French side Biarritz in December.

Centre Kyle Tonetti and winger Matt Healy are both back playing for their club Lansdowne in the Ulster Bank League this weekend and are expected to be available for selection in the RaboDirect PRO12 over the coming weeks.

December's Player of the Month Eoin McKeon has also been given the all-clear and will join his team-mates for training at the Sportsground tomorrow.

Head coach Eric Elwood is very pleased with the fitness boost to his squad, stating: "I'm delighted to see some of the lads coming back. It's early days yet but they're making good progress in training and it adds some much-needed depth to our squad as we look to compete in the remaining nine fixtures of the season."

Both Mike McCarthy and David McSharry are on international duty ahead of the 2013 RBS 6 Nations campaign. McCarthy has been named in the Ireland team to take on Wales in the opening game this Saturday in Cardiff.

Meanwhile, Darragh Leader, Frank Murphy, George Naoupu and David Nolan still feature on Connacht's injury list. The westerners travel to Wales next Friday to take on the Scarlets.

Connacht elite player development officer Jimmy Duffy chats about the province's latest programme, 'Grassroots to Green Shirts', which they hope will increase the number of indigenous players coming through the provincial player pathway. In the westerners' current senior squad, there are 19 players who have come through the Connacht system.

Speaking about Connacht's 'Grassroots to Green Shirts' initiative, the province's CEO Tom Sears said: "We like to think we're innovative in our approach, that we're looking at things slightly differently. We've shown that the production line is working with the young players coming through. The system is working, we just need a bit more investment to make sure we can get more players through."

Connacht's head of commercial and marketing Alex Saul talks about some exciting developments off the pitch for the province, including their 'Grassroots to Green Shirts' crowd-funding initiative which gives fans the chance to play their part in growing and developing the future stars of Connacht and Irish rugby.

Speaking after the 30-11 home win over the Dragons, Connacht head coach Eric Elwood said: "We're a little bit disappointed we didn't get the bonus point, but the good thing is we got a good victory at home and we had a great crowd. We're back on the horse and it sets us up for Harlequins (next week)."

Speaking about recovering from the disappointing defeat to the Scarlets, young Leinster centre Noel Reid said: "We went over looking for a result and we didn't perform the way we wanted to. So we need a big week now of training and focusing on the things that didn't go our way - the breakdown in particular."

Speaking after Leinster's 31-30 RaboDirect PRO12 final defeat to the Ospreys, head coach Joe Schmidt said: "They scored a try in each of those instances (when we had a player yellow carded). It obviously has an impact, particularly in the last ten minutes when we felt that we would have a bit of fatigue."