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

Back Row: D. White (Coach), P. Kearney, C. Murray, D. Scanlon, D. Nevin, F. O'Dea, S. O'Doherty, V. O'Gorman, K. Andreas, M. G. Gilsenan (President)
Front Row: G. Carroll, W. Byrne, R. O'Donohue, F. O'Rourke (Captain), S. Brennan, B. Spring, P. Donnelly

In 1976 the O'Connor Cup was the only trophy won by the club that season. Captain Frank O'Rourke brought home the O'Connor Cup (Junior 5) for the first time.

Back Row: D. White (Coach), R. Gough, S. O'Doherty, J. Fearon, P. Kearney, J. Curran, K. Conboy, D. O'Sullivan, D. Hooper (Manager)
Front Row: H. Bolger, D. Coughlan, B. Spring (Captain), M.G. Gilsenan (President), D. Mooney, P. Barnwell, P. Donnelly

In 1977, the Junior 5 XV retained the O'Connor Cup, won for the first time the previous season. The team played some excellent football, beating old enemies Blackrock RFC and Terenure RFC to win the competition. Captained by Brendan Spring and coached by Diarmuid White, they recorded a singular achievement in retaining the trophy with only four of the previous year's team.

(Photos with thanks to Brian Swift)

St. Mary's reached the final in 1978 under captain Brian Swift but lost out to Terenure.

In 1979, the Junior Five XV beat Bective Rangers RFC in the final to win the James O'Connor Memorial Cup for the third time in four years, having lost the final the previous year. It was a tremendous record at the time by captain Brian Swift and his team.

(Photos & newspaper report with thanks to Brian Swift)

St. Mary's captured the cup again in 1982, captained by Mick O'Leary, with a 15–3 win over Terenure.

(Photos & newspaper report with thanks to Brian Swift)

Back Row: Brendan (Reg) Foley (Manager), Alan Cooke, Paul Chew, John Boyle, Keith Jones, Peter Byrne, Conor Cooke
Front Row: Darren Walker, Andy McGovern, Paul Glynn (Captain), Liam Birkett (President), Ends O'Riordain, CJ McHenry, Jean Pierre Rieves (AKA Bobby O'Connor)

Back Row: Paul O'Reilly, Paul Chew, John Boyle, Alan Cooke, Jimmy Gardiner, Andy McGovern, An Other, Keith Jones, Conor Cooke
Front Row: Dave Gardiner, Bobby O'Connor, Enda O'Riordain, Paul Glynn, (Mascot), Darren Walker and CJ McHenry

In 1992, the J5s — captained by Paul Glynn, coached by Johnny McCullough and C.J. McHenry, and managed by Brendan Foley — reached the final for the fourth successive season and, at last, brought the O'Connor Cup back to St. Mary's College RFC.

In 1993, St. Mary's retained the cup with a 19–6 win over Terenure, captained by Frank Kennedy.

(Teamsheet with thanks to Frank Kennedy)

Back Row: Niall Woodcock (coach), Bobby O'Connor / Jean Pierre Rieves!, John Griffin, Peter O'Sullivan, Dara McCabe, Dave Donoghue, AN Other, John Boyle, Pat O'Brien, Donal Swift
Front Row: Derry O'Connor, Steve Carroll, Adrian Murphy, John Russell (Captain), Kevin Conboy, Killian Flynn, Peter Gilborne, Darragh Woodcock, Shane Tracey

The O'Connor Cup team of the 1993/4 season weren't initially expected to progress on a successful cup run — sandwiched between a team captained by Del Boy above and a handy J6 team captained by Shark below. Let's just say selection meetings on Monday were interesting!

Captained by John Russell, coached by Pat O'Brien and Woody and managed by Donal Swift, the team developed into a useful outfit by the time we reached the semi-finals against a strong Greystones team, played up in Kilternan. A tight, hard-fought win led to a final in Donnybrook against a fancied Bective Rangers team (captained by Junius Horne, an ex-Mary's man).

A three-in-a-row win was at stake for Mary's, and early into the first half Bobby O'Connor (our very own Jean Pierre Rieves) crossed the line for an ultimately decisive try (as he likes to tell you himself!).

Mary's had some great experienced cup players in Derry O'Connor (RIP) at scrum half, Boyler at prop, John Griffin in the second row and a dream back row of Kevin Conboy, Bobby O'Connor and the one and only Dave Donoghue. Younger talent came in the form of Peter Gilbourne at out half, Darragh Woodcock (15), Adrian Murphy (14), Stephen Carroll and Killian Flynn in the centre, and Darragh and Derek McCabe in the front row with Boyler.

Derry O'Connor came off injured in the first half and was replaced by Shane Tracey at scrum half — Shane played a blinder. A player who contributed hugely to the campaign but was unavailable for the semi-final against Greystones, and subsequently missed out on the final, was Barney Kennedy. His replacement was the one and only Sully, Peter O'Sullivan, who also played a blinder that day.

The final score: 16 to 9 for Mary's, and a very rare three-in-a-row was achieved.

John Russell

Back row: Gareth Lloyd (J5 Captain), Joseph Morrin, Ronan Foley, Daniel Hegarty, Tahar Horchani, David Neville, James Hynes and Bobby O'Connor (Coach)
Middle row: Ian Kelly, Adrian Malone, David Browne, Keith McCarthy, Jody Brooks, Vincent Murray, Eamonn Walsh, Chris Boylan, Padraig Fox, Karl Waine, Keith Gavaghan, Stephen Walkin and Lorcan Byrne
Front row: Andrew Doran, James Nolan, Darragh Coffey, Conor O'Beirne, John Gilsenan (President), Maurice Davin (Manager) and Sam Brennan
On the Ground: Shane Levins, David Daly and Owen Clery

Match report from the final

Everyone involved — playing and supporting the (wonderful) J5 team on Tuesday night — witnessed quite an incredible night of Junior Cup rugby: an amazing advertisement for Junior rugby that will stay in the memory for a long, long time. A truly gripping match that had everything — skill, drama, heartbreak, and eventually, after extra time and a highly contested 100 minutes of rugby, elation! As Rynner said just before full time, "Carlsberg don't do J5 O'Connor Cup finals, but if they did…!"

We started nervously against a good Clontarf side (with an especially strong and wise old pack), taking a long time to settle. During that first 30 minutes we still had the resolve to defend manfully and only allowed Clontarf one penalty (0–3). Our repeated attempts to get the ball wide eventually paid off with the simplest of back moves — 9 to 10 to 12 to 15 to 11, as simple as it gets and as beautiful a passing move as you'll see — which saw Caolan Smith break the line at great pace and deliver a perfect pass to Jack Ebbs, who sprinted 40 metres along the sideline to score in the corner. 5–3 to St. Mary's at half time, with Jack Ebbs on the scoresheet. The try was somewhat against the run of play, but St. Mary's were worthy leaders due to the skill shown in its execution alone.

Following Hugh Hogan's inspirational words in the dressing room before kick off, we started the second half in a more relaxed and focused fashion. All pressure was on St. Mary's, yet Clontarf broke away and won another kickable penalty (5–6). Ten minutes later, the inspirational Sam Brennan had to go off injured. (A word on Sam Brennan — who won his first J5 O'Connor Cup medal in 1976, in black and white, a full 36 years earlier and well before most of his team mates were even born. That's the benchmark, lads!) Soon after, our scrum half Ryan Barnes also had to go off injured. As we tried to re-shuffle with replacements, Clontarf caught us napping and scored an opportunist try under the posts, converting to lead 5–13.

Although St. Mary's looked the more accomplished side, the clever Clontarf forward unit played to their strength up front and ate up the clock with rolling mauls from every lineout. With five minutes to go, St. Mary's were on the attack through the pick and drive. On fifth-phase ball, one half of our famous "boys from Brazil" duo, Rodrigo, took a lovely pop pass and — with only six Clontarf guys on his back — barrelled over for a try with three minutes to go. Our missed conversion left it 10–13 with two minutes remaining.

The Tarf pack was tiring, and the incredible spirit and belief that has marked this team all year now appeared to be bursting through the veins of each man in blue. Our pick and drive, one of the best defensive tackles you'll ever see by our centre Sean Gilheaney, and a hugely important block down by captain Gareth Lloyd all ensured Tarf were pressurised for every second of those two minutes. Under this pressure, Tarf went offside at a ruck 30 metres out. Penalty to St. Mary's, with all the time in the second half gone. Sean Gilheaney, socks around his ankles, stepped up — hard to tell if Seanie was striking a penalty or a 45! — and slotted it between the posts. 13–13, and the referee blows for full time. What drama! Ten minutes per half of extra time to come.

If the ideal Junior rugby team has a mix of youth, experience, skill, heart, determination and spirit, then we saw an ideal Junior rugby team play the 20 minutes of extra time. With superior fitness levels and the well-conditioned U21's running around the park like, eh, young fellas(!), St. Mary's owned extra time. Seanie slotted another in the first half of extra time to make it 16–13, and then, halfway through the second half, a great counter-attack from a poor Tarf clearing kick went through four simple passes and sent the impressive Cormac Tracey sprinting through a bewildered defensive line for a touchdown to the left of the posts. Seanie converted again for 21–13. We had two or three more chances as Tarf tired and leg cramp set in everywhere. 100 minutes after kick off — and about eight dog years later — the referee finally blew the final whistle. The St. Mary's College RFC J5 O'Connor Cup team are… champions!

I can't let this report finish without mentioning some of the hidden and incredible stories of the night which, for me, epitomise this team, our own fine club and "real" Junior rugby. Our brave and tough captain Gareth Lloyd never played rugby before this year. Padraig Fox, second row, never played before this year either. Steve Walkin, prop, was only in his fifth year of rugby. The injured scrum half Ryan Barnes begged to retake the field even though he played the rest of the game with torn ankle ligaments. Sam Brennan was there when William Webb Ellis picked up the ball for the very first time… and he togged out again last Tuesday night — what a career. The quiet and retiring Daniel Lyons at hooker and Jack Ebbs (Tommy Bowe?!) were both asked to play out of position — not a bother to either of them. Mossy Davin, the heart and soul of this team, played the full 100 minutes as loosehead prop, only his second match ever in contested scrums. Champions all!

Bobby O'Connor

Team

Subs

Results

Path to the final

Round 2 — Bective (quarter-final)

On Saturday 2nd April our J4 team played Bective on the back pitch in Donnybrook in the quarter-final of the O'Connor Cup. This was our first time playing Bective, as they had been in Metro Division 8 — a league above us. We put the loss of our league final against Malahide behind us and began afresh.

Possession was totally with Bective, but our superb defence held them out time after time. We scored against the run of play to lead 15–8 at half time. Our J4 team is a total mixture of youth and experience, the combination needed to win silverware. We dug deep in the second half to keep them from scoring and broke away again to secure the win, 27–15. We now face DLSP away next Saturday in the semi-final. Please do come up and support this team — they are giving it their all.

Semi Final — DLSP

On Saturday 9th April our J4XV played DLSP in Kirwan Park in the O'Connor Cup semi-final. Our team started with intent and pounded the DLSP line until they gave up a penalty on the 22 for being offside at the ruck. Our out half Dan McManus stood up and slotted the ball between the posts for a 3–0 lead. Dan has been the player-coach for the J3/4 squad for the last couple of years, and has been such an asset with his training sessions, squad selections and team morale. We thank Dan for all his work and wish him well in the future, as he has decided to retire as backs coach at the end of the season.

We were missing our captain Aaron Doherty, who had a pre-booked weekend to Aintree for the Grand National (we hope he won on the horses). He was missed for his accurate lineouts and ball carries — the good news is that he'll be back for the final. The more mature DLSP team kept the ball for the next 15 minutes, stretching our defence touchline to touchline. We held them up over the line: goal-line drop-out. We kicked to their classy out half, who ran it back, and with some forward play they ploughed over our line. Conversion successful — DLSP led 7–3. During this play we lost our player of the match from the last game, Cody Dwyer, to a head injury (he's fine now and ready to return for the final), and then our strong ball-carrying centre Rob Dunleavy to a back injury. Half-time whistle blows after injury time.

Our lineout was not firing without Aaron, so a call was made: if we got a penalty, we'd either tip-and-go or take a scrum. This was decisive. We got a penalty on halfway and called a scrum. From it our No. 8 Richie Fagan picked and drove, then passed to scrum half Conor Quinn, who passed to Matty Coughlan, who sprinted down the line with the DLSP fullback covering. He passed inside to our second row Max Grace, who stepped the fullback and sprinted under the posts. Dan converted — we now led 10–7. We missed the coolness of James Casey, our No. 8 who had a wedding to attend, but had Richie Fagan leading by example, driving into the DLSP pack and clearing out rucks.

We welcomed back Conor Whelan and Locky McDonnell, who had moved to Galway to live and work — delighted to have them fighting for the blue again. Our centre Jack O'Neill came off with a knee injury; we wish him well in his recovery. Our defence was solid, with some try-saving tackles from Chris O'Connor keeping DLSP out. DLSP did not give up and pressured us for the rest of the half — it was clenched cheeks for the supporters — but we held out for a hard-fought victory. We'll meet the winners of Greystones v Railway Union on Saturday 23rd April at a neutral venue. Please do make the effort to support this team, who have now reached a league and cup final.

Thank you to the DLSP President and Director of Rugby for their kind words in defeat and for wishing us success in the final. This was truly an epic Junior rugby game, and both sides made it a sporting occasion for all who came to support.

Saturday 22nd April 2023.

Path to the final

Energia Park, Friday 26th April 2024. Captained by Andrew Gibbons (injured captain) and Thady McKeever (stand-in captain), our J4's beat Bective Rangers 19–12 for the club's ninth O'Connor Cup.

Path to the final

Watch the final