It’s that time of year again, when the young men of Clongowes begin to don the purple and white to represent the school on the rugby field and there is nothing to quicken the pulse quite so much as the sight of 15 young men striding out on to the pitch ready to give their all for the school in friendly and competitive match alike. Our first fixtures of the season will begin slightly earlier this year on Saturday 15th September and you may get an overview of the season here.
The summer months saw several of our boys involved in the Leinster Schools’ U18 team, managed by our own Mr Stephen O’Hara. They had a great victory against Ulster last Sunday (26th August) to win the Interprovincial Championships in the University of Limerick. David Wilkinson, Calum Dowling and Barry Dooley (Poetry) along with Tom Gilheany and Tim O’Brien (Rhetoric) were all in the Leinster squad while Christopher Grimes (Poetry) was also involved in the earlier part of the summer.
Diarmuid McCormack (Poetry) started all games for Connacht Under 18s in the Clubs Interpros and his team also won the competition, winning all of their games convincingly. In addition, Rory Morrin (Syntax) and Luke McMahon (Poetry) trained on the Leinster U17 programme throughout the summer.
The Under 19 interpros will take place throughout September and we have Tom Coghlan, Ryan McMahon, John Maher (Rhetoric) along with Daniel Beggs, Bobby Sheehan and Anthony Ryan (OCs) involved in that panel as it stands.
New Staff
This season we are lucky to have some new coaches working with various panels across the school. Joe Carbery will work as a backs’ coach with SP1, while Gavin McDowell will work as Senior Strength and Conditioning coach in school. Conor McCrossan will work with Junior Panel 2 and Daragh Moran will work with the under 15s.
Pictured above are David Wilkinson, Tim O’Brien, Barry Dooley, Tom Gilheany, Calum Dowling representing Leinster Schools’ U18s.
Daryl Maxwell, Director of Rugby
