top of page
Search

President's Message 5.3.26

Spring is definitely in the air and the pitches are drying out, and as you can see from this week’s newsletter, there is so much going on in our Club.

 

Last weekend started on Friday night with the Men’s J1s having a fabulous 26-21 win over Old Wesley. Receiving regular updates as I attended the Bective Club dinner certainly added to my enjoyment of the night! Well done to the squad and coaches. Our J1s play the first round of the Metro Cup this Sunday vs Bective… 3pm ko in the school. Please come down and support the team.



Our Men’s firsts travelled to Armagh on Saturday and put in, arguably the performance of the season so far. A bonus point win was well deserved. We scored four fabulous tries and our defence was incredible. The first of our 5 Cup finals! This win moved us up to 7th in the table, a very narrow 1 point ahead of UCC and Naas. Our hosts were very gracious losers and gave us  a very warm welcome. There is much to admire about City of Armagh as a Club. They had 170 at the prematch lunch which was their ‘Farmers Day’. It's a real community Club, with a wonderful group of volunteers.



It doesn’t get any easier for our squad as they head down to Garryowen this Saturday. Garryowen defeated the league leaders, Old Wesley, in Dublin last weekend. With the Ireland Wales match on Friday night, I know the lads would appreciate as many Blackrock supporters in Limerick. It really does make a difference, particularly at away matches.


Our Castle 3rds had a very tough battle against a strong St Mary’s team, losing 29-39. With the huge number of injuries, we literally had only 15 players for this game. Our guys are back out this Saturday, playing Navan in Stradbrook at 12.30pm.


Our Women’s AIL team continued on their fantastic run with a 12-62 win over Ballincollig down in Cork, consolidating their second place in the table with 3 matches remaining in the regular season. This Saturday we have a double header vs Railway Union. We are hosting 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 day in store with the lunch and Panel discussion, followed by our J1s trying to gain some revenge for the recent defeat in the Metro Cup final. We then have the WAIL clash between the second and third placed teams in the league followed by the Big Raffle and After Party!



Last Sunday was one of the busiest days in the Club so far this season, which saw 7 away teams played in Stradbrook in the morning. Our u17 are enjoying a very successful season and continued with a 29-20 win over Seapoint. A gallery of photos from the match include some great action shots, along with some lovely post match photos of the team with their coach Moe! Other notable results include strong cup wins for our u13 teams. There was a great buzz around the place and can I give a big shout out to the the lads organising the car parking… a job really well done.


I headed up to the Belfield Bowl on Sunday afternoon to watch our u 20s 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.

 

Well done to Luke Coffey and the Blackrock SCT squad on their narrow 22-17 victory over near neighbours St Michael’s College in the SCT semi final. We wish them well in the final on St Patrick’s Day and look forward to welcoming the squad to the Queen’s pre match lunch on 21st March.

 

Good luck to Thomas Clarkson vs Wales on Friday night.

 

At the time of writing the Ireland u20 team has not yet been announced. We wish our Blackrock clubmen the very best on Saturday night.

 

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 Health and Wellbeing Evening at 7.30pm next Tuesday March 10th. We have a super line up of speakers. Let’s turn out in big numbers, a lot of work has gone into organising this event.

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

  • Annual Club dinner on Friday 8th May

  • Golf Classic on Thursday 21st 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... those who make it all happen in our Club. There is a lot of really positive activity across the Club, I encourage you to drop by Stradbrook and enjoy what is on offer. I can assure you that you won’t be disappointed.

 

Good luck to all our teams this weeks.


All the best,

Mick

 

Mick Dwan

President 2025/ 2026

Blackrock College RFC



 
 
bottom of page