Home is where the heart is

Fergus Aherne doesn’t get back to his old Musgrave Park stomping ground much these days, but there is plenty to make him feel at home when he does.

For a start, the jersey from the former Irish scrum-half’s first cap against England in 1988 is one of many adorning the walls of the Dolphin clubhouse.

His father Gerald and both brothers also lined out in blue and yellow, while he says he “grew up in the kitchens” serving food with his mother, Mida.

Aherne went on to be a captain of Lansdowne, where his father and brother also played. So when the sides met in the Ulster Bank League Division 1A on Saturday, it was a perfect day for him to make the trek from his home in Dublin to Cork.

“I don’t get down to matches that often, I haven’t been back here in the clubhouse that much,” he says. “I have young kids in Dublin so if I get down it’s to get away from hurling matches, hockey matches and rugby matches, to my Mum and Dad.”

Given Ireland were also opening their Six Nations campaign against Wales helped make a day of it. Dolphin were somewhat constricted by daylight but pushed the kick-off back to 3pm to allow members of both clubs catch the national side in action on the box 90 minutes earlier.

“I would normally watch games at home with my family, without the distractions...” Aherne tailed off as Cian Healy scored Ireland’s second try, and the clubhouse erupted. “...then again when Ireland are winning, you can really enjoy it being amongst a crowd as well!”

It sounds like an ideal afternoon for a rugby die-hard; a hearty feed, knowledgeable company and atmosphere for the Six Nations on TV — yet no queues for the bar — followed by a quality Ulster Bank League clash, right under your nose.

But nobody in Musgrave Park last Saturday was thanking the IRFU for scheduling club games on the same weekend as a big international. Dolphin club patron Derry O’Shaughnessy reckoned they were down 20 lunch regulars while Aherne thought the visiting Lansdowne crowd was shy on numbers too.

“I know a big crowd wouldn’t have travelled from Lansdowne because of the clash with the Six Nations,” he said. “The club matches are secondary, squeezing them in between two internationals isn’t ideal for getting a bit of interest in the AIL.”

Warming to that theme, Lansdowne vice-president Mick Quinn goes a bit further. Quinn is a former Ireland out-half and a Five Nations winner in 1974, who terms it “ridiculous” to have the AIL on a Six Nations weekend.

“Today I’ve come to Dolphin primarily to watch Lansdowne play. I would always go to watch a club game before anything else,” explained Quinn. “The IRFU have forgotten about the clubs; we should have everyone watching Ireland play, there are other weekends which could be used for club games. I love club rugby, but it’s been pushed into the background too much.”

Quinn’s point was all too obvious as Dolphin and Lansdowne trotted out to the pitch watched by just a handful, the majority still engrossed in the Six Nations action. That left most with a dual watching brief for about 25 minutes, cheering on the green hordes while occasionally craning necks to find the tries were raining down outside.

Overall, the experience of watching Ireland play in Dolphin’s clubhouse was overwhelmingly positive. The banter is more knowing and circumspect; no meaningless and ill-timed shouting of rugby buzzwords at the screen, and a respectful lift in the volume of the cheers after Ireland’s third try, as the crowd noticed the venerable Brian O’Driscoll was its scorer. Should you have so wished, you could also have bent the ear of Munster backrow David O’Callaghan, quietly looking on from the rear of the room, with your theories on Ireland’s inconsistency at the lineout.

For Quinn, and the stalwarts, though, it’s about so much more. “These are always great days. There’s a great association going back 100 years between these clubs.”