Tallaght Rugby Club links up with Guinness for senior season

TALLAGHT Rugby Club have announced that they will be merging their Senior Team with Guinness Rugby Club for the foreseeable future.

The arrangement was decided recently with the two clubs contesting the annual Philip Preston Cup.

Neither club comes from a traditional rugby area and both have found it difficult in recent seasons to find numbers to make up teams at senior level.

The arrangement will see the clubs alternate training sessions with tuesdays taking place in Iveagh Grounds and thursday’s session taking place in Pitch 100 in Firhouse.

Similarly matches will also be rotated on an alternate basis with home games taking place in Iveagh and Tymon Park respectively.

Tallaght Rugby Director of Rugby Tony McManus spoke on the merger.

“Both clubs are in non traditional areas and playing numbers across leinster have been suffering in the adult game over the last two seasons.

‘We both were struggling for members so we just had a discussion what it would look like if we merged, rather than have two good senior team’s going, we thought it would be a great idea to have the two come together and play.”

“We haven’t decided how long it will be, we are taking it season by season at this stage, we have a decent youth set up and in a couple of years that will blossom into another senior team back in just Tallaght.

‘We are just playing it season by season at this stage.”

McManus touched on the struggles the two sides have faced.

“A lot of it boils down to facilities, we just train on a council pitch in Firhouse out of a container.

‘Guinness’ did have the Iveagh Grounds but Trinity have bought that now, now there’s no bar or clubhouse as such anymore.

‘They’ve struggled that way as well.

‘Rugby is a very social game so not having a clubhouse or facilities that other big rugby clubs have can be a big struggle.

‘Look, we’re all well used to it now at this stage, it’s the social side that keeps us together.”

The merger was well received by players on both sides.

“No pushback, it’s a big thing to have numbers even at training, it pushes people to perform when there are jerseys and a spot in the team on the line.

‘Everyone wants as many people training as possible, it makes the sessions a higher quality and makes it easier to persuade new players to stay if they are coming up to full training sessions.

‘No one wants to be fighting for numbers every week to try and get matches together.

‘You don’t want to be worrying on the Thursday if you have enough numbers for the weekend.”

Tallaght-Guinness found themselves back in action in the cup against BGF Ravens and are shortly due back in action into the Metro League season.