Pres Christians rivalry, the long road to Ulster, and playing for love of the game

Bryan O'Connor and Peter Sylvester won the 2017 Munster Schools Senior Cup with PBC, and played for the Ireland U20s at the World Championship but then their careers diverged. O'Connor is now part of the Ulster squad while Sylvester is enjoying life in Miami

Bryan O'Connor before an Ulster URC game against Cardiff (left) and Peter Sylvester playing for Terenure College in the 2024 AIL final. Pics: INPHO and Sportsfile

Thinking back, Bryan O’Connor feels it may have been excessive for him and the friends he’d grown up with in Crosshaven to act like strangers but they’d made decisions that put them on opposite sides of the Cork schools rugby cold war. O’Connor went to Pres, his friends to Christians.

“To get home to Crosshaven, there's the 220 bus,” says O’Connor, a tighthead prop now part of the Ulster squad.