Historic day at UL Bowl

HISTORY will be made on the opening day of the All Ireland League season when UL Bohemian and UCD play the first rugby match at the University of Limerick Bowl,(Saturday, 2.30pm).

The venue has existed since 1973 with the foundation of the original Thomond College. A visionary of the time had the foresight to move tons of earth excavated for the college building and stack it to create an amphitheatre effect above the pitch.

A running track surrounding the playing pitch quickly followed.

The “bowl” has known many auspicious occasions — like the day in the mid-1990s when Jack Charlton brought his Republic of Ireland soccer team to Limerick to show their paces against a local selection.

“There were 6 or 7,000 people there that day and it was a tremendous occasion for all at the university,” recalls Dave Mahedy, a former student of Thomond College and now director of sport and recreation at UL.

“We also staged a number of Collingwood Cups over the years and the Irish and Munster rugby teams while a host of famous athletes from all over the globe have also used the bowl and the facilities here.”

Now comes a fresh challenge. A few years back, UL linked up with the Bohemian rugby club to produce a team capable of taking on the big guns like Shannon and Garryowen and have done so to such an extent that they were, in Mahedy’s words, “an intercept away from reaching the AIL final last season”.

With Thomond Park closed for the foreseeable future, the side have decided that their bigger matches this season should take place within the college campus.

“Putting on soccer matches was easy enough but there were a few complications in getting the place ready for rugby,” explained Mahedy. “Goal posts had to be sunk, for instance, and other areas in the dead ball areas had to be modified. That has all been done to everybody’s satisfaction. The pitch is the ideal size and now all of us in UL can’t wait for Saturday.”