Marys v Nure

Close your eyes, think way back, Terenure College (RFC); the jersey hits your reflective vision blackest Black, purest Purple. Then you see the dark corridors of old, redolent of boarders, biscuits, buns, and tea, post matches away. Fr Grace and Fr Walter Kennedy in convivial confab. Wintergreen and steel studs, cramps and steam, wins and deadly draws and lachrymal losses. College Drive and Lakelands and Templeville, ever present, two terrible twins, always locked in a riveted rivalry. It is as though that link is DNA, impregnated. If you think now, RFCs J2s, J5s, U20’s, J1s or Senior, the team you most want to play and beat Nure, for them no doubt the same. No one counts the wins or beaten balances. Each time it’s a match not a game; and it seethes at each level and each time.

This time with both sides having won two and lost one it is a cliffhanger, when home advantage counts for a sliver only.

Our revered and highly popular, President Stephen Shirley will greet his counterpart and already firm friend, Terenure President John Cadell and they will share a highly sociable day and long night together (apart from 2.30 PM to 4.00 PM). A club tradition stretching back to AIL inception.

Would either side like to see the demotion out of reach or demise of either? without that rivalry both clubs and schools would be demonstrably impoverished and demeaned; an irreplaceable and inconsolable loss. No doubt the Nure see our sparkling star as a target to topple.

Over the years, the jeers and cheers and tussles and taunts have persisted and maybe the rivalry has intensified. However, the fierce rivalry, with mature men wrangling on the sidelines of extremely feisty derbies in the 60s and 70s, have mitigated and matured into a more respectful regard for each other: - and so the purity of the rivalry.

Sharing the same parish and environment has drawn us together and moulded us in close familiarity. With intertribal romances and marriages. Would we wish to merge? Oh! the idea causes a state of tachycardia and high distress. To lose the warm, off-field friendships, and on field emotional battles, would be disastrous; never let the idea spark!

This is not a record of wins and trophies and leagues and representative success, it is an observation on the wonderful human loyalty that draws thousands of blue and white and black and purple folks, in feverish fervour to AIL games, with the ensuing emotions of hope, pain and joy, elation and despair. To see the white drawn looks and tensions or flushed joyous faces, and the repartee and banter across the terraces, that makes this unique. All of this is later lost in happy chats and re-runs in minds, and pints, amuse-geules and sausages and hugs and babble late into the night.

That is why, when Terenure College RFC come to visit us on Saturday, we will be in a high state of anticipation and excitement; why both sets of coaches will have worked out the odds and how to ambush the other. There will be, amongst the punters and supporters’ arguments about the half backs and the front rows. How good the backrow is and how well the kicker is doing, should we play down first or second half and so on.

Recently the matches have been very close, and we expect the same again. Needless to say, we are a little confident. One thing for sure there will be a big crowd and hopefully a fair sporting game with total respect for the referee and his/her decisions, plenty of cheering and cross chanting; no injuries, no foul play, no terrace taunts nor unpleasantness, and plenty riotous rugby and a smashing crammed, post-match night of shared friendships, such that makes club rugby enviable and uplifting. We should both clubs be immensely proud of our intense rivalry and our warm friendships.

As they say: - Can’t wait for it. Welcome Nure.

D. O’Brien