Ennis pride as trio bridge the gap with Munster

Three members of the Ennis RFC alumni took their places in the match-day squad for Munster’s Champions Cup tie against Wasps.

10 December 2021; Ethan Coughlan, bottom and Tony Butler during Munster Rugby squad training at University of Limerick in Limerick. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Ken Butler made a day trip to the Coventry Building Society Arena last Sunday as the proud coach and mentor to three members of the Ennis RFC alumni as they took their places in the match-day squad for Munster’s Champions Cup tie against Wasps.

But he was also there as the proud father of Tony Butler, who along with Conor Moloney and Ethan Coughlan was sprung from the bench late on in the province’s stirring and against the head 34-15 bonus-point victory.

“It was Roy of the Rovers stuff really,” admits Butler, “and it’s great for the club, because they all made a good impression. It’s a tribute to the work that has been put in since they were very young, with great coaches like Liam Browne, Niall O’Sullivan, Damien O’Connor and Nigel Moloney, but personally, it’s great for the family too, because we love it and we’d be steeped in the rugby”.

Indeed, the Butler family association with Ennis RFC goes back to the 1950s when the club was reformed, while in the late 1960s they provided the rugby platform for Charleville man John Madigan, Ennis’ first player since Des Torrens in the 1930s to step up and make the grade in the Munster senior jersey.

“For me, it was all GAA growing up,” says Madigan, “but when I came to Ennis my rugby career really took off, just because I was staying in digs with Chrissy Butler on Parnell Street in the town and her son, Tony ‘Golfer’ Butler, got me up to the rugby club straight away. I was involved from the word go and it was thanks to Tony,” he adds.

In time, Madigan became a stalwart of the Munster second row as a partner to another GAA convert, Moss Keane, and packed down for the province against the All Blacks in 1973 when they drew 3-3 — it would have been the first and most famous win of all only for the tourists to secure a draw with Trevor Morris’ injury-time penalty — and 1974 when they went down 14-4.

Nearly 50 years on, Ennis’ contribution to the Munster cause at senior level was bridged last Sunday, with all three debutants having strikingly similar back stories to Madigan in leaving GAA sports behind them to focus their attentions on rugby in the past few years.

Butler and Coughlan were gifted footballers with St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield, being the driving forces of the club’s county minor success in 2018, while in hurling Butler was a Harty Cup winner with St Flannan’s College in 2020 and played for Clare in the 2019 Munster minor final. Meanwhile, Moloney was once a rising underage star for the Kildysart footballers.

“Tony and Ethan would have been together playing rugby since they were Under 10,” reveals Butler. “Conor would have come to rugby at Under 15 level. His goal at that time would have been to play football for Clare, but he came to the rugby and took to it straight away — he loved the physical contact and he showed that when coming on on Sunday.

“A big thing for us in Ennis,” says fellow coach Nigel Moloney, “is that the three of them all came through the club to play for Munster. All the time you hear about the schools, that it’s the schools and the school system that nurtures the players, but this goes against that.

“These three were always so dedicated to the cause. They were always so good to work, but you could say the same about the whole group they were with — with Ennis from Under 13 to Under 18 they only lost three games. Three came on for Munster, but there were three or four more who were just as good as them.

“Usually after underage, there’s a big drop-off of players, but the fact that 19 of the team that Tony, Ethan and Conor were on are still playing is a testament to how good and how dedicated they were,” he adds.

“The three lads have sacrificed so much to get where they are,” says Butler. “During the summer when their friends would be going off to different things, they couldn’t and wouldn’t go anywhere. This was what they wanted. They wanted to train and train harder to be part of the Munster Academy squad. They achieved that and then it was just pure opportunity and circumstance that allowed them step up and be part of the senior squad. It was a reward for all the hard work,” he adds.

“Tony, Ethan and Conor were part of a special group,” says Moloney, “and for me there’s one incident over the past year or two that really brought the level of commitment home to me. It was during the first Covid-19 lockdown and I was talking to Conor on the phone one evening about his training.

“He was training away on his own and I told him I’d drive back to Kildsyart with some tackling bags for him, but straight away he said ‘no need, I made up my own tackling bags out of manure bags’. He was tackling bags of manure. It showed the will and the dedication of the man. They all have it and it shows you what can be achieved by hard work,” he adds.

And, it’s this exact point that Nigel Moloney tried to impart to the next Ennis RFC generation as he gathered the Under-9 squad for training on Sunday morning last, a matter of hours away from what turned out to be the biggest day yet in the club’s history.

“We were training and I just told them that, ‘nine years ago I started with Tony and Ethan’s group and they were the same age as you, so turn on the television at 3.15pm to watch the match because they’re going to be playing for Munster and remember they were in the same shoes as you are now starting out as nine-year-olds’.” 

If they watched the game, they could not but be inspired.