Rockwell eager to stay in the limelight

There was a time in the distant past when it would have been unthinkable for a decade to pass without the name of Rockwell College being inscribed on the Avonmore Supermilk Munster Schools Senior Cup trophy.

One of the big three, along with Cork nurseries Christian and Presentation Brothers College, Rockwell have won the big prize 24 times and have been beaten finalists on 15 occasions. Yet, in the last 40 years, the famous Tipperary school has enjoyed just four victories. By the high standards set by the school since the inception of the competition way back in 1909, that is a poor return. But, while fans of Munster schools rugby have been unable to grasp just exactly what has been going wrong, current manager Tony Smith puts it down to an increased level of competitiveness.

“From our point of view, it was hard to comprehend because in that period between 1970 and 1985 [their next victory] there were actually good teams in the school,” he said.

“However, the competition was very good at that stage. We hit a period when Christians were hugely dominant, I call it the Brother Philip O’Reilly era, and unfortunately our good teams weren’t good enough for those particular Christians teams.

“When we entered the 80s there was a mixed bag; I remember on either side of 1985 having very good teams but came up against very good Crescent sides; the same in 1982 when St Munchin’s came flying out to take their second cup. It wasn’t that we fell away, but there always seemed to be one better team out there.”

Having won in 1985, they had to endure many more lean years.

“We did make it to two finals, 1990 and 1991. In 1990, Crescent had a phenomenal team, they beat everyone that season. Then in 1991, Pres beat us 4-0 in terrible conditions in Musgrave Park. That was a Declan Kidney team and Pres had dominance for some years.

“That particular day Pres scored early; it was four points for a try and they literally killed the ball after that. Under the old rules, their number eight could pick and go to ground, they would get the put in and they repeated that process over and over again.”

Apart from having to contend with quality opposition, a significant problem was falling numbers.

“In the 70s and early 80s there were 600 boys. Right up to the 80s we were a five-year cycle school and even now transition year is still optional. Some years you’re very fortunate in that the good junior rugby players would go into TY and you have them then for three years at senior level.

“But back in the 70s and 80s when Pres and Christians had TY for everyone, we had none at all so that was one of the problems because certainly the numbers were there. However, the numbers dropped and that compounded the problem. The late 80s and early 90s saw the emergence of community colleges and that was a difficult factor in trying to compete. At the end of the day It’s a numbers game.”

It still is a numbers game, argues Smith, but things are on the up. By the early 90s, the figure had dropped to 350. Now they are slowly growing and they have 520 students in a mixed school, with about 380 boys.

This will be their fourth final in a row and Smith credits the team beaten by Christians four years ago for instilling the confidence needed to win.

“I think the team of 2009 set the standard,” he said. The fact they made it to a final gave the school a tremendous lift because they showed it could be done. That team had an incredibly tough semi-final with St Munchin’s, a number of guys picked up knocks and they came up against a very good Christians team. It was a step too far really, but at least they showed it was possible to get to finals and ultimately that led to another title last year.”