Club Focus – Killorglin RFC

The town of Killorglin in Kerry has long had an association with the game of Rugby, and it is accepted that the original club was founded as early as 1885.

Since then, there have been a number of false dawns for the club but Killorglin RFC in its current form, founded in 2000, has enjoyed a very successful few years and is most certainly here to stay.

Killorglin are the current Minis Club of the Year and the senior team were crowned Munster Junior Division 3 Champions two seasons ago to reach their highest ever placing as a Junior Division 2 team.

In 2008 Killorglin RFC won Munster’s Club Youth Section of the Year award and is constantly on the look-out for new members as Youth Officer Jerome O’Sullivan explains:

“We’re always advertising and always looking for new members and volunteers in the mid-Kerry region,” said O’Sullivan. “If they’ve never played before and just want to get involved, we’re not just a Killorglin team, we’re a mid-Kerry team as well and anyone in the region is more than welcome.

“Killorglin, being where we are in the south-west of Ireland – it’s a footballing region and it would have never been a rugby stronghold before in the town.

"It’s tough trying to get people to volunteer but we have a great gang of coaches within the club. In the youth structure alone we would have 26 or 27 coaches/managers and they all have the coaching courses done and they’re eager to learn and progress as well.”

Killorglin RFC is now on a very sound footing compared to its formative years. After the club was initially founded in the late 1800s, the emergence of Gaelic football put paid to Killorglin RFC.

They were then resurrected in the 1930's, however, and a golden period followed. The club won the Galway – Foley and McElligott Cups in 1933 and also reached the final of the Munster Junior Cup.

The club seemed to die away again after this time but throughout the 1950s Killorglin played an annual fixture with Killarney RFC on St. Stephen's Day.

The club underwent another short-lived revival in the 1970s but the real turning point came in 1990 when rugby was introduced into the Intermediate School, Killorglin under the guidance and commitment of John Healy and Tom Curtayne.

The school saw great success on the rugby pitch and ten years later, Killorglin RFC was re-established.

Since then the club has gone from strength to strength with the focus on developing players from an early age.

“Our ethos is simple. We want the kids to come in and enjoy it, learn the skills and bring them all the way up,” says O’Sullivan.

“We put a lot of focus into the minis and developing the core skills of rugby. And those players have now come through the system and the investment and time we put into them when they were minis is paying off now.

“When our senior team won the league and got promoted two season ago, out of that 20 odd squad, only two players hadn’t come through the Killorglin RFC youth structure. We’re doing something right if we can field a senior team who have come right through our club structure.”

The underage section of the club is its biggest strength with the local school providing many of the younger players.

“The Intermediate School Killorglin provides nearly all of our players. The head man over the rugby there is Colm Conway who is also a senior player with the club. He gets the players playing in the school and then they’ll start playing with the club,” O’Sullivan explained.

“Regarding playing numbers, our mini section would be quite strong and we would have around 130 players. Our youths would also have around 130 players too and our senior team would have 25-30.

“And when they finish playing, we try to keep any former players within the club and use the knowledge from their playing days to teach the youths and pass on their skills.”

O’Sullivan went on to say that a landmark occasion last season helped to bolster the playing numbers further.

“Last year we formed a ladies team, that was a big thing for the club and they’re going well. Brendan Murphy coached them and Amanda Greensmith from Munster Rugby would have been a big help.

“Their first game was a historic day for the club, the first ladies to run out in the blue and white and represent the club and it was a great day. It’s an area of the club that I think will only get stronger.

“There’s great enthusiasm in the coaching staff and the players have a great camaraderie. And with the World Cup this year and the Kerry representation in the side it’s great for women’s rugby in Killorglin, Munster and Ireland.”

O’Sullivan added that the club hope to one day develop a player for the Munster senior side but the number one priority at the moment is to purchase a home ground.

“We have guys in the regional Munster squads and it will be great to see a Killorglin person don the Munster jersey and one of the aims of the club is to progress the players into the youth structure that Munster rugby have in place,” said O’Sullivan.

“We don’t have a home at the moment but we have been looking for numerous years to buy land and develop it. We’re hoping to secure a permanent home for ourselves and that would be the main aim of the club, we have two pitches at the moment that we are leasing.

"It’s proving difficult to find land you’d think in the current climate it would be easy but not in the mid-Kerry region!”