Portarlington Rugby building for the future with optimism

For clubs all over Leinster, the unexpected premature end to the rugby season in March came as huge disappointment.

This was certainly the case for Portarlington RFC’s senior men’s team as they were primed for promotion in the Leinster League when the season was cancelled but with a new injection of youthful talent into the senior ranks, club supporters are full of confidence that this new season can bring success as well as development.

Under the direction of Player Coach Ross Doyle and Director of Rugby Paul Mannion, Port will contest Division 3 of the Leinster League and their bid for success gets underway this Sunday as they travel to take on Clane.

Port only lost three ties last season and sat in second place when the lockdown interrupted proceedings and they will feel even more confident this time around with a host of returning talent and youths graduates joining the ranks.

Jordan Fitzpatrick and Leinster Schools Senior Cup winner (with Cistercian College Roscrea in 2015) Keith Kavanagh have returned to the club following spells with Shannon RFC while former Leinster Youths and UCD player James Brennan is back having taken a sabbatical from rugby to train with the Irish Air Corps.

Kavanagh has taken up a coaching role in the short term as he waits for surgery on a cruciate injury. Adam Lambkin and Séan Cullen have also been added to the squad having furthered their rugby education at Cistercian College Roscrea and their experience at the highest level of schools rugby will be welcomed by Ross Doyle and his coaching team.

Youth and development are the focus of the clubs strategy and the addition of talented youths graduates Adam Maher, Ben Dooley, Cian McCann, Devlin McLaughlin, Jack Mallon, Nicholas Doggett and Peter Dunne has brought a new level of excitement to training and generated a revived enthusiasm in some of the more established players who have suffered some tough seasons in recent years.

Ross Doyle, who has played with the club since he was a minis player and won representative honors with Leinster Juniors from 2012 to 2017, is relishing the opportunity to not just coach but line out with these players.

“We are looking to build towards the future and with this squad we can do that with confidence knowing that we have players who are both talented and committed.

“And even though the goal is to give the young guys plenty of experience while working on building a strong culture of doing the right things both on and off the training pitch, we can still expect to have some success in the short term.

“We have a great blend of youthful enthusiasm and quality experienced players who will lead and teach the younger guys.

“I really hope that we can get to a point where crowds can line the pitch at Lea Road because we are going to be playing an exciting brand of rugby. That has always been the Portarlington way”.

One of those “quality experienced” players referenced by Doyle is new club captain Stephen ‘Oscar’ Oakley.

The skipper comes from a committed club family with both of his parents Breda and Frank having served as club President and his sister Laura staring for the women’s team. Stephen plays at No 8 for the club and he will be expected to set the tone for the younger players when it comes to work rate, decision making and discipline.

Along with the likes of Stephen Mulhall, Keelan Hunt, Andrew Wilkinson and last season’s captain Aaron Ryan, Oakley will look to help to bond the squad both on and off the pitch.

“We want to build a group of guys who want to go to war together and then for pints afterwards!

“We missed out on our club tour to Spain because of Covid and we hope to be able to rearrange it sooner rather than later because we know that success on the pitch requires a togetherness that only comes from not just respecting each other but wanting to be part of something special as a group.

“I’m really excited by the potential in this squad and the coaching team that we are lucky enough to be working with and so I could not be more proud to have been selected to be captain”

Director of Rugby Paul Mannion has just recently retired from playing. Like Doyle the former scrum half also played with the Leinster Junior team and his experience will be a huge benefit to the club as he looks to focus on encouraging boys and girls to play rugby and enjoy the experience as much as possible while developing their core skills.

“Guys like myself and Ross have got so much from playing rugby and my aim is to ensure that as many kids as possible get a rugby ball into their hands and experience the fun and friendship that is available from a sport as inclusive as rugby.

“We are working with minis and youths coaches to ensure that training sessions are focused on getting the kids moving and handling the ball as much as possible through a games based approach to training.

“Our CCRO Páidí Mahon is doing great work getting kids playing rugby during P.E classes in the local schools and we have girls teams at every age group so there is a team for everyone in the community now”.

The Captain and his parents: Stephen ‘Oscar’ Oakley with Frank and Breda Oakley

As the men’s team heads to Clane this Sunday there will be a huge sense of excitement around the squad and hopefully they will be able to see this season to its conclusion and have the success that they are working so hard to achieve.

As well as Sunday’s hosts, they will need to overcome challenges from Ardee, Athboy, Dublin Dogos, North Meath, Ratoath and Tallaght if they are to achieve their goal of securing automatic promotion to Division 2.

Meanwhile, Portlaoise, who are under the management of former Buccaneers and Towns Cup winner Donal Rigney, take on Athy in Division 2A today.

The Leinster League have structured the competition in such a way to minimise travel.

Their first six games are against Kildare opposition as they face Athy, Newbridge and North Kildare at home and away.

The three Dublin-based teams – Balbriggan, De La Salle Palmerstown and Coolmine – as well as Wexford play against each other in the first six rounds before the teams then cross over to play the other teams in the division.

Having been relegated in 2018, Portlaoise just missed out on promotion to Division 1B last season.

SEE ALSO – Portlaoise Rugby Club elect new president ahead of 2020-2021 season

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