Munchin’s heroes recall glory days
The St Munchins team that won the Munster Schools Senior Cup in 2002
Colm Kinsella talks to Bruff’s Brendan Deady and Munster player Donnacha Ryan about St Munchin’s memorable cup win in 2002
“I REMEMBER we were in the dressing room at the Dolphin end of Musgrave Park. It’s mortifying saying it now, but a while before I had asked our centre Brian Cahill if he would give me a loan of his runners-up medal from the previous year’s cup final. I pulled the medal out before we ran out on the pitch. I said something ridiculous like; ‘Today’s the day lads we get another one of these, or get something we never had before, a winner’s medal’ At that age, you tend to be a bit naïve and can say anything.”
Donnacha Ryan cringes as he recalls the moments before St Munchin’s College took to the pitch for their 2002 Munster Schools Senior Cup final showdown with PBC at Musgrave Park.
It was 20 years since a side from the famed Corbally rugby nursery had won the blue riband of provincial schools rugby and they had lost four finals over the previous seven seasons. But it all came right that March day with Damien Varley’s late try - his second of the game - and a stunning conversion from the then 16-year-old Wayne Murphy helping the Limerick side record a nail-biting 20-19 success.
Bruree’s Brendan Deady played at out-half for Munchin’s against Pres’ that day. Deady started playing rugby at the age of seven with Bruff RFC. A talented Gaelic footballer, he also went on to represent Limerick at minor level.
There is a long history of talented young rugby players from Bruff RFC attending St Munchin’s College. At no tome was that link stronger than the 2002 Senior Cup winning side.
Deady won a Munster Schools Junior Cup medal in 1998 as a substitute on a side which featured former Munster centre Barry Murphy.
Three years later he was a member of the St Munchin’s side which suffered Senior Cup final heartbreak at the hands of Rockwell College. But the following season, Deady was one of four survivors who went on to taste Cup glory.
“The 2001 defeat stood to us. We learned from our mistakes. Ourselves and Pres’ had the fewest number of representatives on the Munster Schools Cup team the following season. Yet we got to the final. Everyone fancied CBC and Rockwell, but ourselves and Pres’ were the two dark horses.
“John Broderick did a huge amount of work with us. He brought preparations to a new level. Munchin’s had been going through the motions for a few years, but John got fellas focused. As a boarder, you were living and breathing rugby 24 hours a day.”
Head coach Broderick had also been instrumental in ensuring Donnacha Ryan attended St Munchin’s College in his Leaving Cert year.
Ryan had started playing rugby with Nenagh Ormond at 17, making the Munster and Irish Youths side in his first year. The towering lock believed a year playing schools rugby provided him with the best avenue to continue his progression.
“When I came into Munchin’s from Nenagh CBS initially, it was a real culture shock. It was wall-to-wall rugby,” Ryan recalled.
“Because you were boarding you were constantly talking to the other boarders about the game.
“You were playing every day, matches twice a week. It was absolutely brilliant. You are constantly walking down the corridor, looking at the teams which have gone before – the 1982 side, which was the last one to win the Munster Schools Cup before us. There was a lot of pressure on us because the side had been beaten in the 2001 final against Rockwell.
“We played Rockwell in the ‘02 semi-final and a lot of their guys were still involved. John Broderick gave a fantastic speech before the game. I will never forget it. He went through every player on both teams comparing them. “You had Damien Varley up against Denis Fogarty, the likes of myself up against Mark Melbourne. I remember when he came to one guy in particular on our team who was up against one of the Rockwell players who was ear-marked to play Irish Schools, he told our player the only difference between him and his opponent was that he had more elocution lessons than our player had! I don’t think the guy on our team even knew what elocution was!
“We went out and played like mad-men. Everyone was in an unbelievable frame of mind. Munchin’s brought a huge intensity to the Senior Cup. Every team hated playing Munchin’s and we fed off that. From a forward’s perspective, we were so fit. You were prepared to do anything to win. It was knock-out scenario and really taught you how to play Cup rugby.
“It may not have been glamorous watching us play, although sometimes we did produce some nice stuff. It was good grounding for a forward.
“We had a good mix of county lads and city lads, with Wayne Murphy, Jeffrey McNamara, the scrum-half who could only pass off one side! You had David O’Mahony, Aodhgan Gallagher and the posh lads on the team like Damien Varley! Then we had a very good mix with the culchies like myself, Brian Cahill and Brendan Deady.
“There was a massive will-to-win and everyone was trying to be so competitive, trying to be tougher than the next fella, that’s what it became.
“We won the final by the skin of our teeth. I think Varls (Damien Varley) was the only guy to play Irish schools from the team. I thought Brendan Deady and Mikey Carroll were very unlucky. We probably didn’t have too many stars. There were no egos and that made it work well.
“I would not be here today (playing with Munster and Ireland) were it not for the 21 guys I played with at Munchin’s and without John Broderick.
“As much as sometimes I hated boarding school - the classroom element of it - looking back on it as a mature person now, it was the guys in Munchin’s, Nenagh and Shannon who got me where I am today.
“We all have different lives now, but it is great to know you experienced something like that.
“Ray Ryan, who won an AIL medal with Munsters’ used to bring us to the matches. I remember him saying that it was easier to win an AIL medal than a schools senior cup medal.
“I wondered why and he said it was because you have 10 or 15 years to win an AIL medal, but you had one, maybe two, years to win a Munster Schools Cup. It is the hardest thing in the world to do. When you win one you feel you can accomplish anything.”
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