President's Message 10.12.25

It has been a challenging first half of the season for our Men’s 1sts and 2nds where injuries have taken their toll and impacted us significantly in our ability to compete in our respective leagues. Last weekend 27 players out of our 63 man senior squad were unavailable for selection. It is testament to the strength and depth of our Club that we remained competitive over the last four months no matter how acute our situation became.

Our 1sts travelled to Instonians last Saturday and, despite a very valiant effort, lost 42-18 to a very strong Instonians squad who included a number of former internationals and professional players including Craig Gilroy, Shalk Van de Merve and the Whitten brothers. Instonians have now gone unbeaten in 31 consecutive AIL home games. I believe the return home fixture will be a lot closer! A big thank you to the Instonians President, Graeme McCausland and his colleagues for their generous hospitality off the pitch. The Ulster Branch President, Paul Hart, a proud Instonians member, attended the pre match lunch. A big shout out to Conor Twomey and the Blackrock u11 minis for their support on the day. They had played a mini blitz earlier and had a fantastic trip to Belfast.

This Saturday our 1sts play league leaders Old Wesley at home. We have a sold out lunch. It would be great to see a big turnout of supporters… our lads would appreciate it. If the game is anything as good as the final league game vs the same opposition last season then we are all in for a pre Christmas treat.

Hard luck to Eoin de Buitleir and Shane Jennings who were on the Connacht team that lost narrowly in the Challenge cup. Shane unfortunately picked up an injury and we wish him a speedy recovery.

Our Women’s 1sts continued their winning ways with a super 29-5 win out West over Galwegians. Please see the comprehensive match report on the Irish rugby website: WAIL BCRFC. This Saturday we travel away to Belfast to play Cooke in the final AIL game before Christmas. Best of luck to everyone.

A depleted Men’s J1s travelled to Donnybrook to play Old Wesley on Sunday. We played some super rugby and the half time score was 19-19. Unfortunately, despite long periods of sustained pressure, we didn’t get over their line in the second and a couple of maul tries and a breakaway try for Wesley gave them a 36-19 victory, a scoreline that certainly didn’t reflect the tightness of the game. Well done to the management, coaches and players. A welcome rest this weekend.

Our u20s put in a fantastic battling performance against a very strong UCD side on Sunday. We earned a losing bonus point going down 26-38, the least we deserved. There is an excellent match report on the game on the Leinster rugby website: U20s Prem 1 Report. Back on the horse this Friday night when we play Terenure away at 8pm.

Our Castle 3^rd XV hope to continue on their unbeated run when they play CYM away at 2pm this Saturday.

Sunday is a busy day for our Youths teams and we wish them all well. The fixture details are set out in the Newsletter.

A busy weekend coming up in the Club. Please drop down. A sellout lunch on Saturday, a game against the League leaders, the Munster game from Pairc ui Caoimh at 5.30pm followed by music… a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

The IRFU ‘Your Club Your Country’ draw helped Clubs throughout the Country raise over €1.1m.I’d like to thank everyone who bought tickets in our Club. We sold over 900 tickets this year, a big increase on the 600 last year, raising over €9,000 for our Club. Unfortunately, we didn’t have a winner from Blackrock, but there is always next year!

Still lots more before year end… Santa's visit on Sunday 21^st, the Annual GOAL Mile on the 26^th and the Club’s Raceday in Leopardstown on Sunday 28^th. Good luck to all our players doing exams over the next week.

I take this opportunity to thank our Chairman, my fellow Exec Members, all our volunteers, Conor, Erin, Groundskeeper Paul, our bar and catering teams, team managers, coaches, bagmen, players, our sponsors, our members and supporters for everything you do for our Club. Hopefully, following the Christmas break, our players come back refreshed and re energised for the second half of the season.

May I wish you all a healthy and happy Christmas and all the best for 2026.

Thanks

Mick

Mick Dwan

President 2025/ 2026

Blackrock College RFC