Grassroots rugby taking strength from solidarity
Financial strain on AIL clubs has increased due to lockdown but they’ll have each other’s backs
RUGBY clubs across the country have fallen silent in recent weeks. This is usually the time when excitement fills the dressing rooms and clubhouses across this land. After months of hard slog under floodlights on freezing evenings, this was the time when it all paid off. The business end of the season in the sunshine would bring the chance of promotion, silverware or local bragging rights.
All that changed 11 days ago, however, when the IRFU confirmed the cancellation of domestic rugby, at all levels, for the remainder of the season. The gates have been padlocked and all clubs have downed tools for the foreseeable future.
Many saw that ruling coming a long way off. The English, Scottish, French and Welsh unions had implemented similar measures in recent weeks and the writing was on the wall.
The fight to contain the spread of Covid-19 on this island has superseded all other priorities – and rightly so – but that decision is going to hit clubs hard in the coming months.
From Terenure to Tullamore, the effects of this lockdown will be keenly felt.
Many clubs are just keeping their head above water even in normal circumstances. As the IRFU revealed in their statement last week, 56 clubs currently have loans with the IRFU.
A moratorium has been put in place on all those repayments for a four-month period effective from April 1. Every little helps in this dogfight.
Ireland emerged from the recession around the beginning of the last decade and Irish rugby, at a professional level, followed suit in an era of unprecedented success at provincial and Test level. But there was no boom time in the club game.
Bumper crowds, sponsorship and TV money have made the Pro14, European Champions Cup and Six Nations lucrative business but the club game has been struggling along for many years.
Pulling the plug on the All-Ireland League with just four rounds to go not only denied the likes of Cork Constitution – the runaway leaders of Division 1A – a chance to defend their title, it denied the club, and the many others dotted across Ireland, the opportunity to generate some precious funds for their ailing organisations.
Speaking to clubs across the country this week, the same stance was adopted every time: there are bigger issues in the world at the moment than the plight of the amateur clubs, but it still hurts.
‘WE ARE STRUGGLING ‘
It’s a point not lost on John O’Mahony, a stalwart of Cork Constitution.
Father of Munster and Ireland flanker Peter O’Mahony, ‘Con John’ has been steeped in the tradition of the club competitions since he was a boy. O’Mahony, who served as president of Con last year, has seen the All-Ireland League’s slide from the forefront of Irish rugby to the professional game’s shadow in recent times.
Losing the right to defend their title is an unfortunate occurrence in the wake of the coronavirus crisis but the potential financial losses in the coming months are far more concerning.
‘I suppose the one thing that all clubs have in common is the issue of finance,’ says O’Mahony.
‘We were coming to the business end of the season. Again, it looked like we were in a position where it looked likely that we were going to make the play-offs so we had... not pay days… clubs don’t really have those, but good days in terms of semi-finals. From that perspective, you have the gate, you have the pre-match lunch and you have the post-match bar. They’re all big contributors to the finance of every club, irrespective of their divisions.
‘That impacts greatly. They’re the most prominent things but, look, I have to touch base on it: our first concern was the welfare of all our players, but also the players in every team that we encounter and that would go from senior to the Under 7s and 8s.’
The same goes for the 50 senior clubs competing across the five divisions of the All Ireland League.
Shannon, once the kingpins of this competition, have fallen on hard times as well.
Now competing in Division 1B, they fancied their chances of returning to the top flight but must now bide their time until next season.
Tomás Healy, chairman of Shannon RFC, having just finished up a meeting with other key officials of the club – conducted with social distancing guidelines observed, of course – lays bare the scale of the challenge at present.
Keeping clubs afloat is a constant battle. A mix of sponsorship, weekly lottos, fundraisers, renting out facilities, gate receipts, pre-match functions and the post-match bar keep clubs like Shannon in existence. The IRFU announced a financial package of €500,000 to help clubs last week. It’s a hefty lump sum, but it gets spread thinly across 50 senior clubs with bills to pay.
‘We are struggling and the IRFU may want to be upping their grants and give it to the clubs as quickly as possible,’ Healy admits.
‘I don’t know if €500,000 is going to do it. There’s 50 clubs in the country... that’s not even €10,000 (per club) The clubs are struggling already.’
And it’s not just top senior clubs who need a dig out as well. There’s the numerous tag and touch rugby teams which keep the nine-to-fivers engaged on many an evening.
Head down to the likes of Monkstown Rugby Club on a weekend morning and you will be greeted by a hive of activity generated by hundreds of children playing mini rugby.
These clubs are the foundations for the professional game here. The schools system – particularly the Leinster schools – are lauded and well-funded due to their ability to churn out players who are primed for the rigours of the professional game, while the provincial academies – with Leinster once again a market leader – ensure a steady flow of fresh talent.
But the clubs are where many of today’s Test stars first picked up a rugby ball. Their role should not be forgotten in the grand scheme of things.
THE FORGOTTEN SEASON
The 2019/20 domestic season will be consigned to history with an asterisk attached.
With just four rounds to go and the play-offs on the horizon, there were a host of clubs that had a shot at history in their sights.
Cork Con, the defending champions, were cruising at the summit of Division 1A with 14 wins from 14. There has been much talk about the exploits of Leinster and Liverpool this season and how both are set to
be denied their chance to complete their prolific campaigns, but this current Con outfit were right up there in terms of their winning ratio. Undefeated this term, the Temple Hill side had won 39 games from their last 42 outings, in all competitions over the past two seasons.
‘I suppose we had been, like everybody else, assuming that it would be pushed out and pushed out but they seem to have come to a decision about the domestic game very early on,’ says O’Mahony. ‘But there are bigger issues out there and from Cork Con’s perspective, I suppose we were in a happy position.
‘We were well clear at the top of 1A and therefore the impact of the decision to finish the domestic season it means we’re secure where we are and, okay, we would have liked to think that we’d have gone and successfully defended our crown but it’s very difficult particularly for teams like Highfield who were in a similar position in 1B with all likelihood of being promoted. That’s a tough call for them.
‘We’re cognisant that everybody is not as lucky as we are in that respect.
‘It’s a tough one to call but the only option available to them was to call it a day. Certainly, you look at a club like Young Munster who were one point off the play-offs with four games left.
‘The scenario I’m just highlighting there is what option had they really? It seemed a cleaner cut.’
Highfield, coached by former Munster prop Timmy Ryan, have been on an exponential rise through the senior divisions in the past few years.
The Cork club – titans at underage level, but finally realising their potential as a senior team – were nine points clear of second-placed Old Wesley and on course for promotion to the top flight.
The likes of Barnhall, Malahide and Skerries further down the food chain can also feel somewhat aggrieved with how things have unfolded.
On the other side of the spectrum are the sides which were afforded a stay of execution due to the season ending prematurely.
Ballinahinch were the basement boys in Division 1A and in the fight of their lives to retain their status at the top table. The County Down club, who had a points differential of -108 before the competition was called to a halt, have survived.
Likewise, Navan in Division 1B, who were 21 points adrift of Naas at the bottom of the table. Dolphin were set to drop down from Division 2A while Ballina, who conceded 414 points across 13 winless outings this season, have been saved from the trapdoor.
Curiously, Ballina finished this campaign on -1 points.
In a microcosm of the issues that the league is facing. Ballina, a club which produced Connacht hooker Dave Heffernan, were hit with a €2,000 fine and a two-point deduction after one of their players –
Kieran Lindsay – was pictured on social media receiving the keys to a car from local sponsors Connolly Motors.
The club were found to be in breach of the IRFU’s Regulation 6, which states that no amateur player in the AIL can receive payments or benefits.
Then there was Midleton, who were hovering precariously on the bottom rung of Division 2C. The east Cork club, which produced former Munster centre Jason Holland, have secured their senior status for another season.
There are winners and losers in all this. A point not lost on O’Mahony, who has friends involved with Dolphin and Midleton.
‘I’m not sure about the other divisions in terms of where teams were in relation to play-offs. I know it doesn’t happen in every division but, again, I’m in Cork there are friends of mine in clubs like Dolphin and Midleton who would been at the other end of the scenario.
‘You could see that it saved their bacon so I’m sure there’s a few clubs that are quite happy, like Ballinahinch who will survive into 1A next year. There’s a silver lining to the cloud for these people as well I suppose. Look, it’s all back into the melting pot for next season, I suppose. There’s nothing more we can do about it.’
PERSPECTIVE
In the end, the problems in the club game have been parked for the foreseeable future. Everything is relative but the current health crisis puts it all in perspective.
‘We’re just getting on with our own daily lives,’ Healy adds.
‘This has taken over our lives and rugby is a shadow. It’s a memory. We’ve more concerns about our family, our friends and our parents.
‘There are bigger things going on in the world. We just have to play our part in participating in the best possible manner.
‘The ruling is absolutely correct. What’s done is done now. We just have to move on and stay safe.
‘We’re getting really good feedback that lads are prepared. The coaches are prepared to stick by the club and we’ll stick by each other. As a club, it’s brought us together.’
Solidarity in adversity. The clubs are well accustomed to it by now.