Club Focus: Bruff RFC

Founded in the season 1969/1970, Bruff RFC is situated at Kilballyowen Park in Country Limerick

At the time of inception Bruff were kindly donated a pitch for the princely sum of £1 by Lieutenant Colonel O’Grady and has since blossomed, boasting excellent facilities which includes four pitches, a clubhouse, six dressing rooms and a gym.

Qualifying from the J1 League to a senior club in season 2003/04, Bruff were crowned AIL Division 3 champions three years later. In 2010, they claimed the Munster Senior Cup, beating Garryowen FC in the final, before going on to win the All Ireland Bateman Cup.

With over 320 youth players and 52 coaches from Under 6 age grade right up to Under 20 level, Bruff RFC take huge pride in their underage structures which has seen the likes of ex Munster and Ireland international prop John Hayes come through the system.

Claiming this season’s Munster championship and overcoming Sligo in the All Ireland semi-final, Bruff U19’s will travel to Naas today to compete for the All Ireland U19 title where they face last year’s finalists Navan RFC.

Chairman of underage Tony Clifford said “Sligo were a fine side and we were delighted to come away with the win. Our full back, Brian Fanning is on the Ireland Youths Squad and has played with two of the Sligo players. He knew a bit about them so we did a lot of homework before going into the game."

“Navan beat us in the U17 All Ireland final two years ago so in a way it’s a rematch. They also made it to last year’s final so we know that they are a strong side with a huge amount of experience; but we have a great squad of players and are very confident we can put it up to them and hopefully come home with a piece of All Ireland silverware.”

Having been recently relegated from AIL Division 2A to 2B Clifford acknowledges the many successes of Bruff’s underage is a good indication that the club hold a very promising future.

“If we didn’t have a plan ‘B’ it would be a disaster, but the success of our underage teams gives us a great sense of confidence”, said Clifford. “ It’s like the changing of the guard. A lot of our senior team have come to an age are going to retire at the end of the season.”

“That particular squad have been very good to the club over the years where they themselves progressed from underage winning the Under 16, Under 18 and Under 20 All Ireland finals. That same group of players got Bruff promoted in the AIL and won the Munster Senior Cup and Bateman Cup. They brought a lot of silverware to the club and many of them are now back coaching.”

“We have a core of underage teams that are Bruff home-grown players. This season alone there were three Under 18 players playing senior rugby, so our players are coming through. At the moment we have a great U19 and U20 squad, who have both won Munster titles, feeding into our seniors also. Our U16’s also made it through to the Muster Cup semi final stage so the club is constantly progressing.”

“Our goal is to develop players for Munster and Ireland but I suppose the first rung of the ladder for us is producing players to play adult rugby for Bruff whether they play Senior, J1 or J2. There’s no rugby schools within our area so we are solely responsible for developing young players ourselves. That’s why we have to really focus on our minis and give our players the best opportunities from early on.”

With a long term development plan in place Bruff place a huge emphasis on their coaching structures which Clifford says has been the key to their progress as well as a huge amount of support within the community.

”There’s no secret to it, we’re lucky we have plenty of coaches and plenty of players coming through the gate. We have very good coaching structures in place with excellent committed coaches including club stalwart Mickey Cahill who has been working with or underage players for years. From U13 to U19 we have at least four coaches on every team, dedicating themselves in developing our youths.”

“We’re a community club and everyone involved is very proud to be associated with Bruff RFC. Everyone knows each other and are always very eager to give back to the club. When you retire you come back coaching that that’s the way it is. Generally 95% of the players that come through the underage structure with Bruff stay with Bruff, and are truly proud of the club and what we are about.”

“The last two years we’ve embarked on a ladies team who are doing really well and we are also starting up girls’ rugby which is proving very popular.”

“For now we are looking forward to Saturday’s final and hopefully we’ll add an All Ireland cup to this year’s underage trophy cabinet.”

Bruff RFC Officers

President: Pat Dunne
Hon. Secretary: Ken Daly
Club PRO: Jonathon Ryan
Youth Officer: Tony Clifford
Fixtures Secretary: William Conway