New Season of Senior Men’s Rugby kicks off this Saturday

After playing virtually no rugby since March 2020, this Saturday August 21^st 2021 sees a welcome return to playing rugby for Longford Senior Men when they take on Clondalkin in the 1^st round of the inaugural Colm O'Shea/Leinster League Cup at 3 PM.  The competition only involves Division 1A and 1B sides and is a straight knock out competition.  It is a great way to kick off the rugby season and familiar foes Clondalkin will prove a stern test.  Glenn Baskett continues in his role of first team coach, with Hubie Connolly taking over the Captains armband this season from Benny McManus.  There have been big numbers at training with a lot of players coming through from underage system in what promises to be an exciting blend of young and old.  Longford stepped up their preparations for the Clondalkin match by being the first team to train on our brand new state of the art full size 3G artificial pitch.  It involves an investment of more than €600,000 in rugby/sport in general in Longford and surrounding counties and is a fantastic facility to play rugby and other sports in practically all weather.  It means the days of matches been called off due to waterlogged pitches are hopefully a thing of the past in the Longford RFC.

The Bank of Ireland Leinster League Cup (Colm O’Shea Cup) will be played over four weekends preceding the commencement of league competitions.

The final will be hosted by Landsdowne RFC in a double header with the Metropolitan Cup Final on Saturday, 11 September.

Speaking at the launch, Bill Duggan of the Competitions Committee said, “The last 18 months have seen the decimation of the domestic rugby programme across all levels of the game and as we look to return to rugby, we felt that there was an opportunity with cup competitions such as these to offer vital game time ahead of the start of the league action later in the year."

“More than that though, it’s about getting people to re-engage with their clubs and their communities and the buy-in from the clubs has been superb. I would also like to acknowledge the support of Bank of Ireland and their continued support of domestic rugby in the province and support for the ‘From The Ground Up’ mantra that everyone in the grassroots of the game live and breathe.”

The finals of the Bank of Ireland Com O’Shea Cup and Metropolitan Cup will take place in Lansdowne FC, as a double-header on the back pitch of the Aviva Stadium.

The Metropolitan final will open proceedings followed by the Colm O’Shea Cup final.

The Colm O’Shea Cup will be presented to the winners of the Bank of Ireland Leinster League Cup final (made up of teams from the Leinster League Divisions 1A and 1B).

Colm O’Shea passed away in September 2020 and was a former chair of the Leinster Competitions Committee, and valued member of the Junior and Rugby Committees and of Lansdowne FC for many years. Lansdowne FC are delighted to host this prestigious event in recognition of their esteemed club member.

On behalf of Bank of Ireland, Director, Area East, Joann Hosey, said, “Bank of Ireland are a proud sponsor of Leinster Rugby at all levels and we’re delighted to support initiatives like this that look to inject life back into rugby in Leinster.

“So many events and competitions have been impacted by Covid-19, but we never lost our focus on the importance of competing and living up to our ‘Never Stop Competing’ mantra. So we are all now really excited for a new season of rugby and we look forward to finals day in Lansdowne RFC on September 11 as part of that return to competitive action for our clubs.”

Bank of Ireland Colm O’Shea Cup Competition – Round 1

Mullingar v Cill Dara
Tullow v Seapoint
Dundalk v Boyne
Longford v Clondalkin
Gorey v Bective Rangers
Ashbourne v Co Carlow
Monkstown v Kilkenny
Suttonians v Wicklow

Bank of Ireland Metropolitan Cup Competition – Round 1

Greystones v Blackrock College
Clontarf v Lansdowne
Navan v Naas
MU Barnhall v Dublin University
Terenure College v Wanderers
UCD v Old Wesley
Enniscorthy v Old Belvedere
Tullamore v St Mary’s College

Longford RFC Notes

After taking a well earned break we will back as usual with Senior Men’s notes for the season.

We are all hoping for a full rugby season, this year and challenging at the top of Division 1B.

The Sin Bin is now back fully open as per government regulations and we are looking forward to seeing all our members, friends and supporters there after games throughout the season.  We wish Andrew and all this staff all the best and ask all our members to support the Sin Bin as much as is possible.

Senior Men Training on new 3G Pitch