It's one of the most loathed aspects of coaching across all sports, but when success is the primary objective, a coach must choose the players best equipped to a do a job for them.
The difficulties surrounding selection came up in discussion during the Saturday panel on Off The Ball with Ger Gilroy who was joined by former Leinster player Kevin McLaughlin, Johne Murphy and former Welsh coach Mike Ruddock.
Speaking about the importance of selection, Ruddock began by saying that ''Clive Rowlands (former Welsh coach) gave me some advice once an he said that selection at international level is the most important thing. If you get selection right, the rest will follow. I took that advice on board and I tried to get me selections right.''
He continued by detailing the process of negotiating with a player who has been given the unfortunate news that he has been dropped, which is tough for both the player and the coach.
"Every player will tell you they need an explanation and need an explanation (when dropped), the coach is busy doing the session, they have to speak to the media and announce the team live on TV.
"A player might come to you and you might have already spoken to him but they might need a second meeting to tell them they've missed out and go through the tapes and details. When you're dealing with players, you don't have time to go through 20 videos which is why you need the help of expert coaches".
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