Oughterard RFC bursting at the seams with new recruits

Talking Sport with Stephen Glennon

One of the fastest growing rugby clubs in Connacht – and, perhaps, the country – Oughterard RFC are now planning the next phase of their development in order to cater for the ever-increasing number of children and adults descending upon the West Galway town.

No doubt, the club has come a long way since players first gathered in a field owned by Pat Higgins of Sweeney’s Hotel in 2004. At that time, the session centred around throwing the oval ball about while practicing footwork in between the rocks and stones that littered the earth. No cones or bollards were required.

To this day, it makes current Club President Norman Deacy smile. “There are actually pictures of the side of the hill and the rocks being marked out on a Saturday morning so the kids don’t fall on them. That is where it started.

“Since then, the club has got bigger and bigger and last year was the first year where we saw kids who started at U-6s or U-7s back then breaking into the Firsts’ team for the first time. So, the flow has begun to happen.”

Although not a founding member of the club, Deacy, a former player and honorary secretary of Galwegians RFC, got involved shortly after that when his sons began to express an interest in playing mini-rugby. At this time, the Deacy family were living in Oughterard.

“I was a Galwegian all my life – as was my father and grandfather – but my two sons are playing out there. I asked them did they want to play with ‘Wegians but they have no affinity to it. They started in Oughterard when they were five years of age and that is all they know. It is the same with the rest of the guys.”

Indeed, he says the allegiance shown by the players – who hail from Clifden to the Westside of the City, with Moycullen the biggest catchment area in between – to Oughterard RFC is “just frightening”.

“The players tend to stay if there is a team for them,” says Deacy. “Now, we are at the stage where there are 170 minis, from leprechauns up to 12s, and we have 50 youth players. Then, there is a Firsts’ team that plays in the J2 League and they have a squad of about 30 while there is also a Veterans’ team that tours every year and they have about 20. So, we have over 300 players in all.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.