Rugby finds fertile ground in heart of GAA country
Occasional patches of sunlight drifted across the mountains out beyond Tralee the way they do in the valleys of Wales, and we might have been pitchside in Maesteg or somewhere comparable, rather than watching Munster-Aberavon in the British and Irish Cup.
Tralee RFC have their home ground a little outside the town but there was a simple way to find the game: you just had to follow the flags as soon as you hit the first roundabout on the outskirts of the Kerry county town.
Those red banners drew you out to the ground itself, and there was a good crowd there to see the match: lilting Welsh accents mingled with the burr of home conversation in the warm-up.
The British and Irish Cup is unlikely to be mistaken any time soon for the Heineken Cup, but that doesn’t mean they were blasé — about the game in Tralee RFC itself. Munster Rugby chief executive Garret Fitzgerald remarked that while they’re keen to bring quality matches around the province, there’s a minimum requirement in terms of grounds and facilities when it comes to hosting those matches.
Tralee had hosted one before. They knew the amount of hard work involved.
“Pitch preparation was the big issue, given the weather recently,” said Jay Galvin of Tralee RFC. “We had two pitches ready, the first pitch and the third pitch, depending on the requirements.
“Munster okayed the first so we got that ready last Monday. Then we had the downpour on Tuesday.”
They didn’t panic. It was a question of rolling up the sleeves and working hard again. On Saturday the surface was ready again.
“It’s come up good on the day, the weather’s pretty good and the ground staff here are excellent.”
Mind you, Saturday started early for Galvin. He was out in O’Dowd Park before 8am. “And all day the day before. And the day before that. Obviously there’s a lot to organise in terms of parking and so on, it’s not just the pitch or the playing surface. But it’s worth it to see the crowd, to see people enjoying themselves.”
Fitzgerald said the initiative wasn’t based on financial return; it was more about saying thanks to the clubs, and rewarding them, and Tralee is certainly a success story. Though they’re based in the very heart of Gaelic football country, there’s a growing keenness for the oval ball in the area.
“The local interest is quite good,” says Galvin. “We have Danny Barnes involved with Munster and we have a couple of players in the AIL.
“We have teams at each age group as well — 13s, 14s, 15s, 16s, 17s — so hopefully we’ll have a supply of players. And everyone is getting a game, too, which is important.
“We have Gaelic footballers who’d come out to us for training but what’s more significant maybe is that we find that the clubs in town organise training around what we’re doing because the kids like to be involved.
“It’s hard to tell young lads nowadays, ‘you can’t do this or you can’t do that’. They make up their own minds and we’re working hard here to provide facilities for them.
“We have 350 kids here on Saturday mornings, we have three full playing pitches and nine acres of space.
“We’re working with the schools in town as well. We realise we’re in the heart of Gaelic football country but the sports complement each other.”
On the field of play the result went the right way, with Munster strangling the visitors gradually as the second half wore on, even if they missed out on some try-scoring opportunities.
There was a particular buzz in the crowd when Barnes, the local, got involved in the play, while the zip in Peter Stringer’s pass also drew plenty of approving murmurs. When the final whistle was blown, there was a lightness to the step of most of the spectators strolling back down the lane out of O’Dowd Park.
“We could do with more people, who couldn’t?” said Galvin. “If we were running it again we’d look at how we’d attract more people out here. Munster’s marketing people have been very good, particularly when you consider it’s a Heineken Cup weekend for them to work on as well.”
That’s another day’s work. The main show may have been in Thomond Park yesterday, but Saturday in Tralee was a fine appetiser. And some of the youngsters playing in the shadow of the Kerry mountains on Saturday may yet see more spectacular settings.
* michael.moynihan@examiner.ie
