GAVIN CUMMISKEYon how title contenders Clontarf and St Mary's shaped their clubs for AIL success in a new era
EVER WONDER where the next wave of Irish-produced coaches will come from? From the schools and the clubs, of course, or in the case of Peter Smyth and Andy Wood, a combination of both.
Saturday’s meeting between Clontarf and St Mary’s College RFC at Castle Avenue should decide the destination of this season’s Ulster Bank All-Ireland League Division One A title. More or less.
There will be some last-round drama next weekend but, really, this is the AIL’s main stage moment for 2012. The national rugby scribes will be on site, while RTÉ will broadcast live from 1pm.
Smyth, like Wood at Clontarf, took over two years to log 120 coaching hours to gain his level-three qualification from the IRFU. He also teaches at Blackrock school and coaches the senior cup team. Wood is games master at Belvedere College.
Injury denied Smyth a fruitful career alongside the current ageing generation of Triple Crown, Grand Slam and Heineken Cup winners. Hooker on the Blackrock teams from 1994-96 – playing alongside Leo Cullen, Bob Casey and Brian O’Driscoll – Leinster and Ireland A caps were garnered before a fairly rapid move into coaching. By then he was a St Mary’s player, having switched allegiance due to the presence of Shane Byrne at Blackrock. It’s no coincidence these two Dublin clubs are fighting between themselves to keep the silverware in Leinster.
“It’s funny, St Mary’s were historically very competitive in the AIL,” Smyth remembers. “Always in the mix and then obviously we got over the line and won it in 2000. But in 2002/03 we were cleaned out by the Celtic League; we lost all our professional players, guys like Victor Costello, Mal O’Kelly and Denis Hickie never really played for the club again. We struggled for a while after that, getting relegated in the 2003/04 season.
“That’s when the club realised rugby in Ireland has changed. We’ll never get those high-profile players to play for us again so we started building a new club and a new team. It meant getting guys who are happy with the achievement of playing first-team rugby and want to keep going at that level. And that’s a very rare thing nowadays. Kids play schools’ cup, then under-21s but the drop-off rate is huge thereafter.
“We have been lucky St Mary’s the school has been very strong over the last 10 years. They won the cup in ’02, they got to a final in ’03 and Jono (Sexton)’s team in ’04 were very strong; they were 17-3 up against ’Rock and got pipped, you remember that game?”
Who doesn’t remember that game.
“In 2005 they were semi-finalists and finalists again in ’08 and semi-finalists in 2010.”
The High School has also played a part; club captain Hugh Hogan, flanker Gareth Austin and former professional scrumhalf Matt D’Arcy were educated at the less celebrated, but equally important, rugby nursery.
The new edict allowing only two contracted players per team hasn’t really hurt St Mary’s as Ciarán Ruddock and Darren Hudson are in the Leinster Academy, so they don’t count. Even regular Leinster reserve prop Jack McGrath has togged out on five occasions.
“The great thing about Jack is he loves coming back. He’s a Mary’s guy to the core, played in the AIL final two years ago.”
St Mary’s former professionals like D’Arcy, Stephen Grissing and the brothers Sweeney, Rob and Richie, have returned. “They just love being involved and holding that down with a job as well.”
Clontarf’s pedigree is even more impressive. Despite being disastrously and shockingly relegated two seasons ago, and yet to win an AIL title despite contesting the 2003, ’06 and ’09 finals, they remain the standard-bearers of club rugby in Dublin. “To be that strong over a 10-year period you have to be recruiting good players and producing them at the same time,” Smyth agreed.
That’s another secret to success of these clubs; constant gardening.
The dip and rise of Clontarf these past two years coincided with Wood departing from and then returning to the club. His is a typical wandering Kiwi tale. His brother Bruce was playing for DLSP, brought over by Phil Werahiko, when Andy visited in 1999.
He stayed, eventually marrying an Irish woman, Tara.
After a season coaching Naas then Blackrock he was rehired by Clontarf last summer.
The northside club are very serious about not slipping from the top tier ever again. Recruitment of local players is impressive but they’ve also added quality from Cork in fullback Richie Lane, Evan Ryan, Frank Cogan and livewire flanker Barry O’Mahony.
They, too, have players on the fringe of the Leinster squad like outhalf Noel Reid, centre Collie O’Shea and hooker Aaron Dundon.
But what really makes Clontarf such a vibrant club is its volunteer ethic, comparable to the GAA in its fanaticism.
“The committee has set things up extremely well from the director of rugby (Peter Walsh) to the chairman of rugby (Terry Brown),” said Wood. “You look down through all our age grades and we are competing in semi-finals. The success makes players want to come back, to continue to play rugby.”
