St. Mary's College RFC & The O'Connell Cup

In 1962 it was Bill Gray who captained the only club team to win a trophy that season and, if it wasn't of major national importance, it was notable insofar as it was the first time St. Mary's had won the O'Connell Cup. Wanderers were beaten 25–0 in the final. Bill Gray returned to the competition as manager of the 1980 winners.

(Captain, opponent and score from the club records in the Centenary Book.)

Still needed for 1962: match report and line-up.

St. Mary's won the O'Connell Cup for the second time in 1964. Matt Jones, who had captained the side to the Minor League title the season before, led them again as they beat Lansdowne 11–3.

(Captain, opponent and score from the club records in the Centenary Book.)

Still needed for 1964: match report and line-up.

St. Mary's third O'Connell Cup came in 1973. In a quieter year for the club after the successes of the early 1970s, the Centenary Book records that "the J2s did the club proud" under Niall Woodcock.

(Captain, opponent and score from the club records in the Centenary Book.)

Still needed for 1973: match report and line-up.

St. Mary's won the O'Connell Cup in 1980 as part of the club's first J2 League and Cup double. The Centenary Book suggests the J2s were the star team in the club that season.

Junior Two 1979/80, as captioned in the Centenary Book. Back: Bill Gray (Manager), D. Fitzsimons, E. Wigglesworth, S. Sheehan, M. Glynn, D. Gardner, P. Elliott, D. Jennings, B. Wynne (Coach). Front: G. Browne, P. Fogarty, D. Early, R. Sloan (Capt.), J.P. Fanagan (President), L. Healion, L. Grissing, P. Flood.

(Captain, opponent and score from the club records in the Centenary Book.)

Still needed for 1980: match report and the line-up for the final.

1985 was a fine year for the club: the Metropolitan Cup for the seventh time, and the Albert O'Connell Memorial Cup (J2) for the fifth time.

(Captain, opponent and score from the club records in the Centenary Book.)

Still needed for 1985: match report and line-up.

St. Mary's won the O'Connell Cup again in 1990, the first of three in a row. The final against Lansdowne was scoreless after normal time and won 14–0 in extra time.

(Captain, opponent and score from the club records in the Centenary Book.)

Still needed for 1990: match report, team photo and line-up.

The second of three consecutive O'Connell Cups, and part of a J2 League and Cup double. St. Mary's took part in 15 competitions in 1991 and won four of them, and the Centenary Book gives "pride of place" to the J2s.

(Captain, opponent and score from the club records in the Centenary Book.)

Still needed for 1991: match report and line-up.

A third O'Connell Cup in a row for St. Mary's, and a second League and Cup double in successive seasons: a feat never before achieved in Leinster, according to the Centenary Book.

(Captain, opponent and score from the club records in the Centenary Book.)

Still needed for 1992: match report, team photo and line-up.

After three consecutive wins, St. Mary's reached the final again in 1993 but lost to Lansdowne.

Still needed for 1993: final score, captain, match report and team photo.

St. Mary's regained the O'Connell Cup in 1995, the first of four consecutive wins, and part of a J2 League and Cup double. The J2s went through all competitions unbeaten. Enda O'Riordan and Mick Fearon had led the J3s to their own double the season before.

(Captain, opponent and score from the club records in the Centenary Book.)

Still needed for 1995: match report, team photo and line-up.

The second of four consecutive O'Connell Cup wins.

(Captain, opponent and score from the club records in the Centenary Book.)

Still needed for 1996: match report, team photo and line-up.

A third in a row, and part of a J2 League and Cup double.

(Captain, opponent and score from the club records in the Centenary Book.)

Still needed for 1997: match report and line-up.

A fourth consecutive O'Connell Cup for St. Mary's, completing another J2 League and Cup double under a captain winning the cup for the second time. The J1s also won their League and the Metropolitan Cup that season: a rare "double-double" for the club's top two junior sides.

(Captain, opponent and score from the club records in the Centenary Book.)

Still needed for 1998: match report, team photo and line-up.

St. Mary's reached the final in 2001 but finished as losing finalists to Blackrock. The J2s were also runners-up in the League that season, to Terenure.

Still needed for 2001: final score, captain, match report and team photo.

A second consecutive losing final, this time to Old Wesley, in a season when the J2s won the League.

Still needed for 2002: final score, captain, match report and team photo.

The club's season records list the J2s, captained by Gavin Kelly, as runners-up in both League and Cup in 2002/03. Old Belvedere won the final, the J2s' third losing final in a row.

Still needed for 2003: final score, match report and team photo.

Path to the final

We are the Champions! The J2s secured the historic league and cup double, beating our great rivals Terenure and achieving an unbeaten season in the process. This was a huge occasion for the team and management — not only was it a cup final, but it was against the team we had been battling for the last two seasons in both competitions, and who knocked us out of the cup the year before. All this resulted in a very intense and physical game.

Before kick off the point was made by the coaches that we needed to start well and get ourselves into the game early. That is exactly what happened: the pack went through the phases very well and, with the wise head of Eoin McCormack guiding us at the base, we controlled the first ten minutes. After a sustained passage of play and some excellent hard yards gained by Graham Foran, Joey Connolly got the ball in midfield just outside the Terenure 22. There was a wall of defenders in front of him, but somehow he evaded three tackles and, with great acceleration, sprinted in under the posts for an excellent try which he converted. Alan Conboy at full back had a great day with his boot and certainly made the forwards happy with some Ronan O'Gara-like touch finders. Under that pressure Terenure gave away a penalty in front of the posts, which Joey converted. Had we been more accurate with other penalties the gap could have been wider.

At 10–0 ahead we looked to be in control, but Terenure came back at us and in the final ten minutes of the first half we were camped on our line. Only some heroic defence — especially from Robbie Hudson at first centre — kept the line intact. They did manage a penalty to bring it to 10–3 at half time.

The second half began like the first had ended, with Terenure enjoying a lot of early possession, and again our defence was strong, especially around the fringes with Paul Collins and Kevin Gallivan putting in some huge hits. Our next score came from Jack Buggy: Joey put a lovely chip into the Terenure 22 and the ball bounced right into Buggy's hands. He got hit just as he caught it, but managed to pull himself up and crash over the line. This was a huge score and put daylight between us. Terenure came back strongly and put us under a lot of pressure in our 22, then one of their moves in midfield broke down, Barry Cahill latched onto the ball, and it went through a couple of hands to reach Buggy again, who showed great pace to run in from halfway for the most dramatic score of our season.

We knew we had it won then, but fair play to Terenure — they never gave up and scored a late consolation try. There was great celebration when the final whistle went, from players and supporters alike. To go a season unbeaten and win two trophies is really a great achievement and all involved deserve great credit.

Team

Subs used: Kenny McInerney for Collins, Ollie McCormack for Moran, Gareth Austin for Ryan, Garry Roche for Buggy, Ritchie McDonald for Lannen.

(Match report and line-up from the 2017 J2 Treble Double Reunion booklet.)

The J2s with the cup at Donnybrook after the final, 24 April 2010.

Path to the final

Inspired by the heroics of our J3s on Friday night, the J2s defended their Albert O'Connell Cup in style in Donnybrook on the Saturday. An excellent performance of skill, power and commitment gave us a deserved win over a strong Rock side. We followed up our double the previous year with a second cup win in a row — a great way to end a season disfigured by opposition teams pulling out of our league and several cancellations due to bad weather.

The only change to the semi-final team was the reunification of the old firm in midfield: Jason Verdon (winning his fourth O'Connell Cup) and player-coach Alan Shirley. These two had battled together for the club since 1997 and, as usual, were hard in the tackle and classy going forward. Both were involved in our opening try, which was a quality score. The ball was moved down the blindside by winger Baz Cahill, who fed full back Neil Cowhey. Cowhey showed his undoubted class by tip-toeing down the touchline before giving it back to Cahill to touch down in the corner. Playing against the wind in the first half we struggled for sustained field position, but our forwards were still physically dominating. Two penalties by Rock left us 5–6 down at the break, but confident.

Louis Burke was exceptional — fielding kicks from the wing and full back with effortless class, running the ball back with power and skill, and making big tackles at vital times. McInerney and Keane were lording the lineout and maul, and Tommy Meredith was excellent out of touch and in the loose. Gallivan and Brophy made the hard yards and never stopped tackling, and Paul Collins was doing his Peter Clohessy impression and literally terrorising the opposition. The pack were driven on as ever by the peerless Eoin McCormack, also winning his fourth O'Connell Cup — an interesting fact being that Tommy Meredith was six years old when Mucker won his first! Joey Connolly was thriving off the regular supply of quality ball, and Jimmy Dunne made some outstanding 60-yard clearances.

In a difficult swirling wind for kickers we missed some that would have put daylight between us, but we were playing too well to lose. Another brilliant mauling and rucking passage of play ended with Joey changing the direction of the move to Shirley on the blindside, who fed man of the match Louis to score in the corner. That made it 19–6 with time running out. In the last play of the game Rock got a consolation score that flattered the scoreline, but the celebrations soon erupted.

It was a deserved ending for players and management who had worked hard all season. Derek Gately did a great job as manager — his organisation, planning and late-night video analysis were key to our success — ably assisted by Mick O'Connor. Colm Barry did Trojan work all year running great drills at training, and Alan Shirley coached the backs expertly and played through thick and thin despite his dodgy ribs. Most credit though must go to captain Mikey Houlihan, who was an inspiration on and off the field all year. In his first year of captaincy, Mikey led with great skill and authority — the club are lucky to have him.

Team (from the semi-final v Lansdowne, one change for the final)

Subs: N. Murphy, A. Conboy, K. Lannen, G. Crawford, R. Ryan.

(Match report and line-up from the 2017 J2 Treble Double Reunion booklet.)

Still needed for 2010: the exact final XV (the line-up shown is the semi-final team).

Path to the final

St. Mary's reached the final by an unusual route. The semi-final was lost 10–17 to Old Belvedere on the field, but Old Belvedere were removed from the competition for playing an illegal player and St. Mary's went through in their place. In the final at Donnybrook, Lansdowne, who had also pipped the J2s to the League, won by four points.

(Results from the Leinster Rugby results archive.)

Still needed for 2012: match report, line-up and team photo from the final.

Path to the final

The J2s completed the League and Cup double after beating Stillorgan in Kilternan. The cup win rounded off an excellent year for captain Graeme McInerney and his team, who were beaten only once in a total of 17 competitive games. We needed an extended squad to achieve this and many players contributed hugely over the course of the season, not just the 20 who played in the final. To be able to cope with the loss of Alan Shirley, Jason Verdon and Jack Buggy and still field the backline below indicates the great strength in depth we are lucky to possess.

We needed all of those qualities to beat a very powerful and motivated Stillorgan team. This was their highest ever final, and they beat Lansdowne, Clontarf and Malahide en route. Stillorgan have become a force at J2 level and a real welcome addition to the ranks.

We expected an early onslaught from the massive Stillorgan forwards and we got it. Using their big maul, strong ball carriers and expert choke tackle, they dominated the first half. Only in the last few minutes did we get going, scoring two vital tries before the break. Both came after great phase play and rucking, with Harry Norton going over in the right corner — unfortunately breaking his nose in the process and being replaced by Hugh McGovern — and the second finished brilliantly in the left corner by Barry Cahill. Despite these scores Stillorgan still led 11–10 after ten minutes of the second half.

Under real pressure we then produced our best 30 minutes of the season. Our forwards decided they were tired of being pushed around and began to dominate. Lower body angles in contact and at ruck time generated faster ball, which the backs used in the wider channels, resulting in tries for Ronan O'Doherty and Hugh McGovern, who intercepted brilliantly to score. The pack spotted weakness at the tail of the opposition lineout and created two excellent mauls at 6, resulting in scores for Rob Timmons and Brian Moran — some achievement given the opposition. Overall, an excellent performance the lads can be proud of.

Team

Subs (all used): 16. Louis Burke, 17. Mikey Houlihan, 18. Ger Somers, 19. Simon Gibney, 20. Hugh McGovern.

(Match report and line-up from the 2017 J2 Treble Double Reunion booklet.)

Path to the final

The J2s repeated the previous season's league and cup double with a great win over Bective Rangers' second team in Templeville Road on the Friday night. The strength of our squad was tested in full due to injuries to several key men in the semi-final. Under-20 hooker Lucas Moran came in and played very well, regularly taking on and beating larger and more experienced opponents. Alan Shirley and Kieran Lewis returned from their coaching roles to shore up the midfield, and Hugh McGovern came in for Ronan Doherty — not bad men to be able to bring in.

The first score came off a great scrum by the pack, with a pre-planned move seeing Dave O'Halloran come in off his blind wing to take an inside pass from Joey and scorch in under the posts. O'Halloran was electric all night, scoring a second try in the last play of the game. He just edged out his mate Gilsenan for man of the match, who as usual played with sublime skill and creativity — best displayed when he nonchalantly stepped up to take a straightforward penalty kick, then tapped the ball and ran with it before passing to McGovern, who did very well to score in the corner with three men on top of him. Gilso also got one himself later on, going under the posts.

The whole squad including the subs contributed very strongly in a great team performance. Led by captain Graeme McInerney the pack were everywhere, carrying and rucking and getting fast ball to the backs. The backs are a potent mix of ageless Mary's legends — Mucker, Joey, Shirley and Lewis — with the new pace and skill of the aforementioned young guns.

A great end to a great season.

Team

Subs: Cormac Treacy, Simon O'Donnell, Robert Timmons, Brian Flaherty, Mikey Houlihan.

(Match report and line-up from the 2017 J2 Treble Double Reunion booklet.)

Path to the final

On the 7th of April at 7.30pm the St. Mary's J2 team took to the field in Donnybrook Stadium to take on the Clontarf J2s in the Albert O'Connell Cup final. A year of ups and downs and a lot of hard work had culminated in this very talented and youthful side being in contention to win the O'Connell Cup. The development of both the players and the coaches from the start of the season to the final game of the year was an immensely enjoyable experience, as all involved improved bit by bit every week.

Gavin Thornberry, Rob Ryan and Ronan "Ronda" Doherty had instilled strong attacking instincts in the team early on in the season and gave the lads a free rein to play what was in front of them. This led to some brilliant tries being scored throughout the year. This was the first year these three young coaches had worked together and they have shown great potential in instilling a game plan in a team and executing it.

While a lot of the league games did not go Mary's way, it has to be remembered that this is a J2 team playing in a J1s league, where more often than not the team was up against senior players on any given game day. Nevertheless this Mary's team went into the cup with a sense of optimism on the back of strong performances against Greystones and Seapoint in the league. They backed this form up with a gritty win over Terenure and a hard-fought and very entertaining win over Coolmine. The team was ably led by captain Fionan Magee who, in his second season in Mary's, was chosen by his peers to captain the team.

Going into the final Mary's were hit with a number of setbacks, as inspirational second row Sean Tevlin and the hardy outside back Jason Verdon were forced to miss the game. Both had played significant parts during the year and had greatly helped in getting the team to the final. Despite this setback Mary's started the stronger in the first half. A barging run from Fionan Magee and massive tackles from Jack Buggy, Robert Beverland and Graham Crawford set the tone quickly. A fast pace and tempo was set by half-backs Al McPhilips and Ben McAuliffe, which 'Tarf found difficult to deal with.

Mary's went 3–0 up after five minutes thanks to a well-struck kick from full back Ciaran Murphy. Clontarf were clearly rattled by the adventurism and offloading from all fifteen players and were again knocked back on the ten-minute mark. Some brilliant play between backs and forwards resulted in Mark "Donners" Donnelan crossing over for the first try of the game. To compound matters for Clontarf, their blindside flanker was given a straight red card for a reckless and late sliding knee to Donners' head in the act of him scoring.

However, Clontarf showed they were no mugs and immediately from the restart put pressure on Mary's with their powerful tight five. Eventually Clontarf were able to force their way over for a try, which also resulted in a yellow card for tighthead prop Martin Murphy. Undaunted by this, Mary's swiftly responded with another flurry of interplay, sparked by an intelligent chip over the top into space by Ben and a gather by Jack Buggy, leading to a try for big winger Conor Sexton. The big Clontarf pack continued to take control of the ball and continued to grind out penalties. The half-time score was 18–13, with both kickers enjoying a good strike rate from the tee. The highlight of the half (apart from the tries) was undoubtedly Brendan Shortt's try-saving tackle. For a second row to track back and make the try-saving tackle on the 'Tarf winger showed great determination and guts.

Inspired by Graeme McInerney, St. Mary's started the second half the stronger and quickly added another penalty to make the score 21–13. The physical pressure began to tell as 'Tarf brought on some big replacements to take on a tiring Mary's pack. With 20 minutes to go the score was level and 'Tarf simply would not give the ball back easily. The introduction of subs Richard Kilcoyne, Ciaran Deegan, Marc McKay and Mark Hayden boosted the pack, but by then 'Tarf were winding down the clock. The game eventually finished 36–21 to 'Tarf, who were worthy winners having played 70 minutes of the game with 14 players. Mary's never gave up and it was encouraging to see young players like Darragh Foley, Dan Lyons, Eanna Clynes, Martin Murphy and Ronan Kernan all still playing strong right up to the 80th minute.

Overall it was a tough season, but one with a lot of satisfaction that the players, coaches and managers can take out of it. A lot of new players were integrated and the seeds of a future trophy-winning Mary's team were planted, all with a new captain, new players and a new coaching set-up. I would like to thank all three coaches for their hard work and dedication throughout the year, Aaron Hudson for his immense effort in getting and organising a team for every match and training session each week, and Alan Shirley for his support during the year.

Colm Gavin, J2s Assistant Manager

Squad for the final

Replacements: 16. Mark Hayden, 17. Marc McKay, 18. Graeme McInerney, 19. Richard Kilcoyne, 20. Ciaran Deegan.

(Match report first published on the club website, 11 April 2017. Names in the squad list follow the spellings in the report.)

Still needed for 2017: a team photo, and the scores from the earlier rounds.