Trinity celebrate after winning Division 2A last year
Rory McCarthy
Deputy Sports Editor
These are heady times for Dublin University Football Club. Trinity returns to Division 1 of the All-Ireland League after years of close runs and inconsistency. Last year was by any standards exceptional for Trinity rugby. By the standards our rugby team sets, winning the Scandinavian Sevens Tournament wasn’t exceptional really as Copenhagen isn’t up there with the East Midlands, Canterbury or Stellenbosch as a true rugby heartland. Nonetheless, Trinity started the season winning the All-Ireland Sevens then capturing the prestigious aforementioned Scandinavian Sevens, before winning the UBL Division 2A title, losing only once in the league all year and remaining unbeaten in 2012. They also managed a double over Varsity rivals Oxford and Cambridge and finished the season retaining the All-Ireland Sevens in sensational fashion, by defeating Malone RFC. Trinity would need a dream team of Vince Lombardi, Joe Schmidt and John Delaney to maintain such high levels of success. Delaney would provide the off-field banter and shenanigans of course!
However an air of reproach and caution would be advisable. Numerous obstacles and challenges face the students this year. First and foremost is the loss of Dominic Gallagher to an unfortunate knee injury sustained playing for Ulster A at the tail end of last season. Gallagher was arguably Trinity’s standout player last season, with his intelligence and pace in loose play matched by his speed off the ground and ferocity in the tackle. Gallagher will be sidelined until Christmas, presumably, and with the season starting at the end of September then he will miss a good chunk of the most crucial period, as a young Trinity side seek to impose themselves on a tough and unforgiving league.
Furthermore, Division 1 of the Ulster Bank League operates with a home-and-away system with teams playing the other sides in the league twice. Whereas in Division 2, rivalries and lucky wins could be put to bed after the 80 minutes, the home-and-away fixtures will build a familiarity and thus contempt amongst the teams that the college side will not be used to. Trinity will need to learn lessons from every game they play this year regardless of the result to ensure complacency doesn’t affect their ambitions. There is no love lost between the Leinster and Ulster clubs in provincial rugby and Trinity will have five journeys up the M1 this year with one of those trips to face Malone who will have gripping memories of not only losing the All-Ireland Sevens Final to DUFC, but also being pipped at the death in a close game in College Park last season. DUFC, aside from UCD, will be the youngest team in the league by some distance and seasoned teams such as Buccaneers, Bruff, and Ballynahinch, will target that youth, countering with their own marked experience.
The fixtures ultimately haven’t been too kind to the students. The five trips north of Newry town were all to be expected and prepared for. The students face Blackrock RFC up first and after sinking down from Division 1A, the ‘Rock Boys’ will be very eager to lay a marker down that this division is not their default playing field. The ‘Colours’ game takes place on Friday 16th November, with Trinity listed as the ‘home’ team despite the fixture being played in Donnybrook. This throws up a few problems for DUFC. Naturally it means Tony Smeeth and Co. have one less home game than they would have counted on. Trinity also must contend with a day less turnaround than their main rivals. UCD play Blackrock the Friday before allowing for a 7 day turnaround whereas Trinity will have 6 days to recover from a thumping encounter against Malone will prove a trying test.
The toughest slog of the season is arguably the period between January 26th to February 23rd. Trinity will play no less than four games in this period, three of them squashed together in a ‘Ulster-sandwich’, if you’ll forgive that metaphor. A trip to Ballynahinch is followed by a tough home encounter against Paddy Jackson’s Dungannon followed by another trip to play Ballymena. Should the students come out of this testing period unscathed they will only have to play UCD away from home under lights with another six-day turn around.
Tom Brady, of American Football fame, re-iterated many times not to “get too up when you’re up or too down when you’re down”. Terrific Tom has 3 Superbowl Rings, so we’ll grudgingly take him at his word. There are numerous positives for Trinity this year. Surprisingly for a university team player loss has been relatively low. Gone is Trinity legend and Hall of Famer Shane Hanratty who knew the rolls and angles of College Park as well as a nurse knows the best places to shift in Coppers. However due to his studies he played a limited role this year and his position was ably filled by Ariel Robles, and on occasion, Niyi Adelokun. Robles bagged 8 tries in the league so clearly the number 11 shirt is potent.
Trinity managed to win the league last year by eleven points with that aforementioned young team. Four of the starting team last year could have played U21s, which is a high figure, and players such as Tom Collis and Brian Du Toit stepped up when required. Jack Kelly looked incredibly assured and mature playing his first season of UBL rugby and never once appeared out of place in the second row. Paddy Lavelle was a revelation at inside-centre and deservedly got Ireland U20s trials. Trinity also has some cracking senior players competing again for the 1st XV this season.
Michael McLoughlin is club captain for the season, and the former Clongowes Wood College scrumhalf will provide crucial game-management for his team. Ian Hirst has done his very best to provide a physical impersonation of Tom Hardy’s Bane packing on size in the pre-season and the former Kings Hospital man is no slouch at the dark arts of scrummaging. Neil Hanratty had a sterling season last year with his height playing a key role for the students at restarts and his power used extensively coming in from his wing. If Smeeth can get the balance between young guns and wise heads clicking, then the components of this Trinity team can not only compete but also prosper in this league.
The step-up from Division 2 to Division 1 is as big as you could imagine and Trinity will need to remain competitive all year round with what is a relatively small squad. It is no secret that the J1 team spent last season getting worse beatings than Floyd Mayweather Jr’s…sparring partners. Registering only one win in their league all year to say they got beaten from pillar-to-post would be an injustice to objects that regularly get beaten from pillar to post. Trinity will need strong depth beyond the First XV to have any hope of staying up let alone contending in Division 1B. Brian O’Driscoll remarked that “to stand still in rugby is to go backwards”. For Trinity, just to stay still will be an achievement in itself this year. After that, bigger dreams can be imagined. All in all, our college side go out with high hopes of achieving their goals, and representing our institution and students as best they can.
