Schoolboy Rugby
(C.A. 23-5-85)
The senior members of County Carlow Football Club had been conscious of the need for a nursery for young players for many years. Local schools, because of the infamous ‘ban’, now happily consigned to the ash can, cast a rather dubious eye on ‘rubby’ for many years with the result that we had no natural source of recruits at local level. We were always on the lookout for blow-ins, like myself, or others who were away at school and had learned the game elsewhere.
Tony Craughan and Harold Ardill — to name but two — tried to remedy this state of affairs by organising training sessions for youngsters after school and at weekends, but with only moderate success. I tried my hand too but the only recruits to the code were four of my sons who, incidentally, went on to make a name for themselves at home and overseas. However, it took a group of parents, fathers and (yes) mothers, spearheaded by Tom (bloody) O’Brien to get schoolboy rugby really off the ground.
A more or less casual announcement that a trial game would take place on a certain Saturday in 1965 for the purpose of selecting a team to play High School (Dublin) produced a turnout of about fifty (50) young aspirants varying in age from five to fifteen years. The jerseys used for the game were ‘borrowed’ from the local Technical School and were suitable ‘consecrated’ before being handed out. Blood was almost spilled in deciding which team would wear the Irish (green) colours and which the ‘merely’ Leinster (blue) shirts.
The selection of the team to meet our visitors was unique in that it took place in the presence of the players and their parents, some of whom almost had their finger nails chewed down to their wrists with anxiety. In order that justice be truly seen to be done it was decided to select the fifteen stalwarts by picking the names from a hat. Fifty name-bearing slips were duly placed into Tom’s batter old trilby and fifteen slips were solemnly picked out. Now that any fear of assassination is past I can reveal a closely guarded secret. Fifteen slips bearing the names of the most useful players had previously and surreptitiously been inserted into the inner band of the hat and these, and only these, were drawn from it. There are no prizes for guessing who thought up that stunt. Incidentally, the match against High School ended, appropriately, in a three points all draw.
Since that inauspicious start, twenty years ago, there has been a steady increase in interest in the game amongst schoolboys, and indeed, their parents in all codes of sport. This enthusiasm occasionally results in creating a big problem for some boys in deciding which to follow. There have been cases of a youngster playing soccer in the morning, rugby in the afternoon and Gaelic after tea.
Neighbouring towns follows Carlow’s lead so that today almost every town within a forty mile radius can boast of at least one schoolboy team, often three or four. Dublin schools however, still provide the major opposition and we have maintained links with High School, Wesley College, Blackrock College, Terenure, Newbridge, Kilkenny, Clongowes and De La Salle Colleges. We also took on Skerries and Balbriggan and on at least two occasions have crossed the River Shannon to play Galway sides.
Extensive use was made of other football codes like soccer and Gaelic during the closed season for rugby in order to keep the lads together who returned after a month or two layoff to playing rugby with increase enthusiasm. We rarely lost players to the other codes and frequently gained recruits.
Schoolboy rugby reached its peak during the season 1970/71. Over sixty matches were played, involving almost 100 players culminating in our under-12s bringing home the McGabhainn Cup — the first trophy of its kind to come to Carlow — by beating Balbriggan in a thrill-packed final. This could be regarded as a personal triumph for coach Tom O’Brien who masterminded some brilliant and, as it happened, match winning moves.
Our lads repeated the performance the following year — just to show that the first was no mistake by beating Skerries in a dour, hard-fought encounter against an over-confident opposition. Incidentally, the lads — and remember we are talking about twelve-year olds — celebrated their victory by storming a local convent and teaching the none too reluctant birds to fly, until routed by a formidable Reverend Mother.
Leinster Schoolboys activities were put on a more formal footing during the season 1972/73 when representatives of the four areas in Leinster, outside Dublin and excluding colleges, met in the Leinster Branch H.Q. and laid the foundations for Provincial competitions as well as standardising age groupings.
Tom Kettle of Balbriggan was one of the prime movers in this effort. Which reminds me of a match which was played between Carlow and Balbriggan ten-year olds with the usual careless abandon and rapturous disregard for life and limb. It was not until after the match that it transpired that the scorer of the match winning try was none other than MISS Leslie Kettle, Tom’s young daughter. The consternation amongst the Carlow lads can be better imagined than described.
Co. Carlow R.F.C. Schoolboys U15s (1971) - N. Curry, G. Byrne, H. Doyle, J. Curry, D. Shannon, P. Curran, S. Keating. P. Waldron, J. Walsh, K. Hackett, N. O’Mahony (Capt.), P. O’Mahony, K. Murphy, M. Shannon. D. Moore and O. O’Brien.
Co. Carlow R.F.C. 1st XV (1970/71) Finalists in Leinster Counties Cup at Lansdowne Road, Dublin: M. Jackman, F. O’Mahony, P. Jordan, V. Cope, P. Dalton, R. Shannon, J. Brown, P. Lyons. J. Sheridan, C. Toye, G. Hughes, A. Lalor (Capt.), D. Finn, M. Nolan, D. Hanlon
Co. Carlow R.F.C. 1st XV (1950/51) - P. O’Mahony (Referee), J. Marshall, B. Collier, A. Burgess, M. Lawler, D. Foote, J. Nelson, J. Stanley and F. Lanigan (President). S. Smith, D. Hanley, W. Ruddock (Capt.), K. Tucker and A. Collier. K. Miller, C. O’Neill and H. Atkinson.
Winners of Provincial towns Plate (1967/68) - P. O’Mahony (President), P. Dalton, H. Ardill, V. Cope, R. Shannon, M. Jackman, P. Meenan and J. Oliver Senior. A. Balding, R. Fennell, A. Lalor, J. Oliver Jnr. (Capt.), D. Carbery (V. Capt.), S. Mahon and G. Gordon. J. J. Sheridan and P. Murray
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- © 2001 County Carlow Genealogy IGP