Club Focus: Kinsale RFC

Set on the picturesque coastline of Cork, Kinsale RFC was founded in 1982 by a group of local rugby enthusiasts, who played rugby with Douglas RFC and set out to establish a rugby club in the town.

Boasting large playing numbers at Adult, Youth and Mini level, Club President Peter Elliot has been involved with the Club’s underage section since 2004.

“Traditionally I’ve looked after the youths and have watched our playing numbers grow significantly since my involvement with the club, said Elliot.

“We have 250 playing members at mini level and 100 playing in our youths fielding U13, U14, U16 and U18 squads.

“Last season was a particularly good season for us reaching the ‘A’ cup final at U18s and also achieving qualification for the Munster U18 Youths competition. Our back Ethan Greene was also selected on the Munster U18 Clubs side featuring in the interprovincial series.

“U18 has always been tight in terms of numbers. We only had about 20 players on our squad last season so to achieve what we did was a great accomplishment.”

“We’re very well organised from an underage point of view and I think parents appreciate that – which is why we have such huge numbers.”

Playing in Division 2 of the Junior League, Kinsale fields two adult teams comprising over 50 players and Elliot said the club aims to continue recruiting for their underage section and retain the players at U20 level in order to feed into their senior side.

“Obviously, where we are situated from a catchment point of view, there’s a limit of the number of players you can recruit, but our aim is to make sure we get as many young people playing the game as possible.

“We’ve grown our numbers every year over the last ten years but our challenge is to retain our players at U16 and U18 level.

“We have tried to field an U20 side in the past but unfortunately didn’t have the numbers. We ran an amalgamated U20 side with other local clubs last year but ultimately our goal would be to field our own U20s to bridge the gap between the U18s and our seniors.”

“At Adult level we were promoted the year before last to Division 1 but unfortunately were relegated last season. Our target this year is to consolidate our position at the top of Division 2 to prepare for promotion again in the future”

Surrounded by twelve acres of land at Snugmore, Kinsale RFC has three pitches and a state of the art clubhouse with major development plans underway to improve changing, shower and toilet facilities.

“We were fortunate enough to be able to purchase some land around the club three years ago and have a club development plan in place, said Elliot.

“We have three pitches right now including a training pitch” he added. “We are also very fortunate to have access to two further pitches across the road that we lease from a local farmer that caters for our underage players every Saturday morning, and a third that we use for the Kinsale Sevens.

“We installed match grade floodlighting on to our main pitch this summer and can now play matches on Friday and Saturday evening which is a huge plus for our players and supporters.

“The plan for our recently purchased twelve acres is to add two more playing pitches and we hope to extend our clubhouse, create more changing rooms and generally improve our facilities, he said.

Hosted by Kinsale RFC, the Kinsale 7s tournament welcomes almost 100 teams and 10,000 visitors from all over the world every May holiday weekend contributing approximately 5 million euro towards the local economy, and Elliot acknowledges the club are in a privileged position to fundraise for its development during that time.

“Every year we are very fortunate to host the event and it does mean, from a fundraising point of view, we are in a very strong position compared to other clubs.

“That and the club lotto scheme brings in additional income to contribute to our pitch and playing facilities development and it is up to us to use those funds to their full potential.

“The Kinsale 7s has been an annual event since 1988 when 12 teams participated, and is operated entirely by hundreds of volunteers.

“The unique hosting capabilities of Kinsale town and surrounds enables us to run the event in true partnership with local businesses and services. It is Ireland’s largest rugby 7s tournament and contributes both to the National 7s game and encourages local players to play and take up the sport.”

New floodlights at Kinsale RFC