Dear members and friends,

The new rugby season is upon us and there is plenty of action over the next few weeks leading into the AIL which commences on October 7th.

Our 1sts kick off the season next Thursday, Aug 17th when we host UK touring team, the Rams who play in the National one league in England.
The following week on Friday August 25th our J1 are first up in competitive action away to Tullow (last season’s towns cup champions) in the semi-final of the Colm O’Shea cup (we are the current holders of this trophy having defeated Terenure in the final last season). The trophy commemorates one of our great club men Colm who was a hugely active member of the club and represented us on various Leinster committees for many years. There is a bus heading down to Tullow and we want to bring as many supporters as we can to cheer the team on. Please contact Conor Nugent (086 0734635) if you are interested in travelling on the bus.

The final will be played the following weekend and is provisionally fixed for Saturday 2nd September.

Our 1sts take on St Mary’s in the Leinster senior cup in their first competitive game of the season on Saturday August 26th. The fixture was originally scheduled for Lansdowne however with American Football in town and Lansdowne Sports Park (Claremont) not yet available, we have conceded home advantage and the game will now take place in Templeville Road.

In an effort to revive the Senior Cup the Leinster branch is going to split the start of the season for Senior teams into two separate competitions. The top eight teams as per AIL finishing positions will be in the Senior Cup with the remaining ten teams playing in the Senior League. The format is similar to the way in which the Senior League has been organised in recent seasons but it now prioritises the Senior Cup, which will hopefully garner some of its lost prestige.

In the Senior Cup the four teams in each of the two sections will play each other once, and both section winners will then contest the Senior Cup Final. The winner of the Senior Cup will be the Leinster qualifiers for the 2024-2025 Bateman Cup.

The sections are as follows:

There has been great work going on behind the scenes with our senior squad. We have seen the following players join us :

• Rory Parata (Cornish Pirates)
• Jack Cooke (London Irish)
• Oscar Egan (Queens University)
• George Kenny (Trinity)
• Lucas Culliton (Wanderers)
• Hardus Van Eaden (Navan)
• Grant Palmer (Enniscorthy)

Steven Walshe, Tom Gavigan and Henry Godson return from trips overseas to further bolster our squad whilst Barry Fitzpatrick also returns from some time out of the game and Tom Roche returns from time spent with the national sevens squad. Our Head of Player Registration Noel Boyle has been very busy indeed and our sincere thanks goes out to him.

We also have a number of our U20’s graduating to the senior club such as Tom Barry, Luke Callinan, Cathal Eddy to name but a few.

Declan Fassbender continues as our 1st XV head coach ably assisted by Phil Horan (forwards coach), Mark Flanagan (lineout coach), Damien McCabe (Backs coach) and Charlie Doel (assistant coach). Our strength and conditioning coach Dan Moore will also be assisted by Bryan Mollen, whilst we welcome Aisling Frawley as our senior physiotherapist. Our aim is to support our players in the best possible manner and ensure that player welfare is at the heart of everything we do.

Mark McMahon and his U20 coaches headed by Rhys Ruddock are doing a great job preparing for the season ahead and there will be more details of their squad of players as we get closer to the start of their season.

Our U’20’s coaching team is as follows:

Head Coach: Rhys Ruddock
Assistant Coach: Ross McKeever
Assistant Coach: Richie Allen
Assistant Coach: Adam Curry
Strength & Conditioning: Luke Thompson & Bryan Mollen

We have some very talented teams and players representing the club this season. Let’s do our best to get out and support them whenever and wherever we can.

Thank you

Stephen Rooney
President
2023/24