President’s Message 13.3.26

A huge international rugby weekend in store as the Six Nations Championship reaches it’s most exciting conclusion in years.

Last weekend was another busy one on the Club front. It started at lunchtime Saturday when our Men’s Castle 3rds played Navan in Stradbrook and unfortunately came out the wrong side of a pulsating contest, losing 35-43. Injuries up the line are putting pressure on our ability to field full squads. I’d like to thank Aidan Finn and Matthew Curneen for the huge work they are putting into the Castle 3rds.They have performed really well in their first season and most importantly have had a lot of fun and enjoyment along the way.

Our Men’s firsts travelled to Garryowen on Saturday and put in another top class and very brave performance. We had a number of late changes to our selected squad due to injury. Playing with the wind we built up a 21-5 lead by half time. Garryowen used the power of their pack, including an All Munster front row, to gain the upperhand. A number of maul tries followed. Their Munster hooker scored 4 tries including one in the last play of the game, to pip is 31-28. We were extremely unlucky. Try and losing bonus points were the least we deserved. Trinity’s last minute winning try vs UCC did us a favour. However, Naas secured an away win in Highfield and moved 1 point ahead of us into 7^th in the league table. Three more Cup finals to come!

A special congratulations and recognition goes to Brian Colclough who marked a milestone achievement, 100 Caps for the AIL, on Saturday. Well done, Cokes, on an impressive feat, over a storied career at Blackrock.

There are no AIL games this weekend. We play Queens at home on Saturday week 21^st March. The pre match lunch has been sold out for weeks and I would urge as many of you to come down and support the team… it does make a difference.

Our Men’s J1s had a super 41-22 win over Bective in the Metro Cup on Sunday in the school. They gave a superb display of open running rugby… well done. They play Old Wesley in the next round.

A huge well done to our u20s squad and management on a fantastic 33-24 win over Trinity in the McCorry Cup last night. They scored some superb tries and it was wonderful to see the celebrations afterwards. Best of luck in the next round.

I headed up to the Belfield Bowl on Sunday afternoon to watch our u20s play league finalists UCD. A tough day for our lads who were down a significant number of players due to injuries and call ups to the first team squad.

Our Women’s AIL team’s fantastic unfortunately came to an end when we lost 5-39 to Railway Union at home to Stradbrook on Saturday. We still remail in second place in the table. With 2 league games to go in the regular season we are guaranteed a semi final spot… our objective at this stage is to secure a home semi final. Our Women’s J1s avenged their recent Metro Cup final defeat with a win over Railway before the AIL game. We hosted a special WAIL pre-match lunch in Stradbrook, celebrating all that is great about Women’s Club rugby and International Women’s Day. What a special day in the Club, despite the defeat in the AIL game, with the lunch and Panel discussion followed by the Big Raffle and After Party! A big thank you to the Panelists and in particular Jen Moore, Erin Dalton and Conor Cleary who put in a lot of work to organise the event. Thanks also to Pat Finn and Dec Gardiner who represented the Executive Committee at the lunch, while I was down in Garryowen.

Last Sunday was another busy day for our Minis and Youths. Some notable results including a strong cup win for our u14s. Lots of planning going into end of seasons tours for many of our Minis groups… it’s fantastic to see, and well done to all the coaches and organisers.

Good luck to Luke Coffey and the Blackrock SCT squad who play St Mary's in the SCT final in Tallaght at 1.30pm next Tuesday. We look forward to welcoming the squad to the Queen’s pre match lunch on 21^st March, hopefully with the Cup on display!

At the time of writing the Ireland senior and u20 teams have not yet been announced. We wish our Blackrock clubmen the very best this weekend vs Scotland.

I’d like to thank Ray McMahon, Mark Rogan and Dillon Coghlan for organising the Health and Well Being evening in the Club on Tuesday. I’d also like to thank our excellent Panelists, Carole Ann Clarke, Brian Kingston and Dr Matthew Sadlier who gave so generously of their time. This is a very important subject for us all and as a Club, we intend to organise similar events in the future.

We held the Past President’s dinner in the Club last night, the first one since before Covid. A big thank you to Simon Mullen, Job Langbroek and Erin Dalton for helping to organise the event. We had nearly 30 Past Presidents in the room and Pat Finn and Mick Hearty gave us an update on activities in the Club. There was a great exchange of ideas and I appreciate the wise counsel from our Past Presidents. A most enjoyable night all round.

We have a special event in Stradbrook tomorrow night where we will be welcoming cyclists and support staff from the My Name'5 Doddie Foundation. Led by Gordon D’Arcy, over 300 guests will be arriving at the Club as they complete their journey from Scotland to Dublin, bringing the match ball for Saturday’s game. The event is part of a charity effort to raise funds and awareness for MND. A big thanks to Dave Rhatigan, Conor and Erin for organising the Club for the event.

Please note the following dates for important events coming up. Details are in the newsletter and on the Club. I look forward to your support

• The Queen’s pre match lunch on March 21^st

• Annual Club dinner on Friday 8^th May

• Golf Classic on Thursday 21^st May in Milltown. This is booking out quickly. Please book your team &/or tee sponsorship through the Club website or contact Erin in the office.

I want to thank all our volunteers, our bar and catering teams, Conor and Erin in the office, our groundsman Paul, who make it all happen in our Club. Please drop into Stradbrook and enjoy what is on offer.

Happy Saint Patrick’s weekend.

All the best,

Mick