APRIL 11, 1998 is a date forever etched in Midleton rugby folklore.
That was the day when the East Cork outfit attained senior status, beating Sligo RFC 30-7 in a playoff game in Portlaoise.
Tom Mulcahy, a stalwart of the club who was head coach at the time, remembers it like it was yesterday.
The Boys of ’98 celebrate Midleton’s promotion to senior status and the AIL 28 years ago
‘It was Easter Saturday, the morning after the Good Friday agreement was signed. It’s an easy day to remember,’ he recalls.
‘It was incredible because the support that came from Midleton that day, I think Sligo were beaten before they even left the dressing room.
‘It was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen in a rugby game. When we left the dressing room that day to run out onto the field, which was maybe 100 metres or more from the dressing room, there was a double line of Midleton people there to greet us.
‘Poor ol’ Sligo came out, and they had to duck to one side and go around the crowd. It was amazing.
‘There were 13 busloads of Midleton people that travelled that day plus numerous cars and whatever. It felt like most of the town was up there.’
GLORY DAYS
Midleton quickly consolidated their place in the All-Ireland League and they became a tough nut to crack, especially at home.
‘Town’s Park was a fortress,’ Mulcahy says with pride.
‘If you went there and won, it would be a massive result in your season calendar.’
Midleton taking on UCD at Belfield in Dublin in Division 2 of the All-Ireland League in 2001
Midleton were a firm fixture in the old Division 2 of the AIL during the early 2000s and they were a serious force, with a hardy pack featuring Philip Smyth, Kevin Brierly, the Cullinane brothers, Aidan ‘Mahaffy’ McCarthy, Garvin Lynch and Brian O’Connell, younger brother of Sunday’s Well and Munster legend, Ken.
Damon Urlich, a real general at scrum-half, was a shrewd acquisition from New Zealand.
Another Kiwi soon arrived on the scene. His name was Jason Holland. A club icon who went on to represent Munster on 102 occasions before serving as assistant coach at the province and the All Blacks.
But Holland has never forgotten where it all began, especially after he suffered an early injury setback.
‘Jason broke his hand. He dislocated his thumb and ruptured his tendon in his second game with us. It was only a friendly against Richmond,’ Mulcahy recalls.
‘We kept Jason. We looked after him. He couldn’t work at the time. We looked after him down the town. When he did make the big time, playing in two Heineken Cup finals, the world and his mother were after him, but he refused to leave.
‘He’s a Midleton man through and through. He’s come back (to the club) twice in the last two years now and has done a bit of work behind the scenes with the players. He loves Midleton.’
Munster great Jason Holland playing for Midleton against Greystones in the AIL in 2000
Holland was part of a stellar team which mixed it with the big Munster clubs. For Mulcahy, the Munster Senior Cup final defeat against a star-studded Shannon in 2003 remains the one that got away.
‘They had 14 contracted players,’ he says of their opponents that day in Musgrave Park.
A team which included seasoned pros such as Mick Galway, Tony Buckley, Trevor Hogan and Eddie Halvey. Midleton’s band of nine-to-fivers, along with Holland, gave them a good rattle before going down 22-13.
‘We could have won it,’ says Mulcahy. ‘
Jason got yellow carded. They scored 12 points when he was off the field. We were there or thereabouts. Brian O’Connell scored, what I thought, was a legitimate try. It just wasn’t our day. It was Mick Galway’s last ever rugby match as well, which was a bit of an occasion as well in itself.’
Holland wasn’t the only esteemed New Zealander who wore the red and black jersey with distinction.
Christian Cullen, the legendary All Black who spent four seasons at Munster, once lined out for the club in 2006.
‘We played Cork Con in a Munster Senior League match and Munster asked us to play Christian because he needed to play a game coming back from injury,’ says Mulcahy.
‘Christian Cullen (far right) only played one club game in Ireland and that was for Midleton. So, he’s officially a Midleton player.’
Andrew McCarthy, who is now chairman of the club, was coach at the time and uttered a line which has become immortal in the clubhouse.
‘Midway through the first half, Andrew looked over the bench and he said, “warm up, Cully!”,’ Mulcahy remembers.
Christian Cullen, the All Black many consider to be the greatest full back the game has seen, once turned out for Midleton when working his way back from injury with Munster
‘I was standing on the sideline. I couldn’t believe it. He was running like a ghost. It was amazing to watch.’
There was one incident in the game, featuring one of the Midleton backs, which has never been lived down. Mulcahy takes up the story.
‘Gary Colbert had the ball and he was flying down the wing. Cullen came up in support on his inside. It was a two-on-one. All Gary had to do was pop the ball to Cullen and he was in under the posts, but Gary dummied and scored himself.
‘Everybody f***** him out of it afterwards, because Cullen would have scored a try for us!’
LEARNING THEIR TRADE
Fast forward to the present day and Midleton are still going strong. There have been setbacks along the way and the club fell on some hard times but there is immense pride that, despite some big setbacks, Midleton has remained a senior club for the past 28 years.
Midleton have high hopes for this season and beyond, looking to work their way up the AIL
Today, they begin their AIL Division 2BS campaign away to Thomond, who now have Keith Earls serving on their coaching ticket.
It will be a tough start to the campaign, but there is fresh optimism around Midleton again.
‘We were in the doldrums for a while,’ explains Mulcahy, a club stalwart who has been a member since 1972 and is now the club’s head of recruitment.
‘Around Covid time, we were struggling. We were bottom of the table, second last. We were always trying to aspire to get to mid-table as opposed to win it.
‘We were in a relegation playoff against Richmond (in 2020) and it was nearly disastrous. We nearly went out of the AIL. But we’ve revived. We’ve worked very, very hard behind the scenes, trying to develop the underage.’
Mulcahy cites the brilliant work being done by Bryan ‘Wardy’ Morris, a former senior player, at underage level. Midleton RFC was recently named ‘Underage club of the Year’ at the Munster awards. And with good reason.
‘Our U16s won the Pan Munster trophy, the biggest trophy we’ve ever won at underage level. Our U18s won the Pan Munster Plate and the U14s won their trophy,’ he says.
‘Along with that, Midleton CBS won the Mungret Cup at U19 level, and the U16s won their cup as well. Rugby in the town is growing and the problem we had in the past was that the good players that we were producing were all being taken from us.
Eoghan Smyth, who is currently in the Munster academy, and Mark Donnelly, who is now a part of Munster’s senior squad, came through the underage at Midleton.
As did Danny McCarthy, who has represented Munster and Ireland at underage level and is currently packing down at tighthead for UCC.
The Nowak twins, Kamil and David, who have gone on to represent UCC and Cork Con are another two players who learned their trade at Town’s Park.
‘They’ve got their first caps for Poland last weekend against Czechia,’ Mulcahy says.
Midleton running out to play at Towns Park, which has been a fortress for them over the years
NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK
A vibrant and talented young squad will be facing down Thomond this afternoon.
Reuben Moloney is back to anchor the pack at tighthead after a spell in Scotland. Second row Denis Broderick, flanker Conor McCarthy, along with scrum-halves Chris O’Brien and Chris Callinan as well as full-back Jack Colbert are all local lads.
South African hooker JB du Toit has taken over the captaincy this season.
‘It’s his fifth season with us. He’s a fantastic influence. How he’s not being picked up as a professional is beyond me,’ Mulcahy notes.
‘He’s fantastic and he’s great for the club. He’s hugely loyal to the club, just like Jason (Holland) is.’
Isris Rqibi — ‘an amazing character’— led Midleton in recent seasons. The powerful No8 is a member of the Irish Defence Forces.
And there are some exciting additions. Italian centre Gabriele Baffigi, who played pro rugby with Lazio in his native land, arrived in Cork to work for an engineering firm in Little Island and has wound up at Midleton.
Today, Baffigi will line up alongside Hunter Cowan in the midfield. Another talented Kiwi back who took the road less travelled to Midleton.
‘He met a girl in Perth and she happened to be from Midleton,’ Mulcahy explains.
‘They’re after having a baby in the last few weeks. They’re living in Broomfield (a housing estate in the town) and he’s another one who just walked into us, which was fantastic.’
Club stalwart Tom Mulcahy says Midleton are ‘building something special’ for the future
THE WAY FORWARD
Like many amateur clubs up and down the country, Midleton faces plenty of challenges. Finances and logistics, for one.
It costs a lot of money to take a busload of players and support staff halfway across the country for an AIL match.
The club have welcomed the recent restructuring from the IRFU, with Divisions 2B and 2C changed to 2NB (North) and 2BS (South), in a bid to cut down on travel time, with the hope of making the AIL more sustainable for clubs and players.
To form the divisions, a notional line has been drawn between O’Connell Bridge in Dublin and Eyre Square in Galway.
All clubs north of this line will participate in 2BN, while clubs south of this line will participate in 2BS.
A welcome change. Engagement is another constant challenge, however
‘Holding onto young fellas is huge because there’s so much out there now for them, with social media and whatever. That’s a challenge,’ says Mulcahy.
‘The other challenge that’s there… going back to 2017 when I came back to Midleton, the standard of our division has just gone through the roof. The team we had in 2017 would have really struggled.
‘I think the team we have now, that we have for the coming season, is probably the strongest squad we’ve had in 20 years. So hopefully things will go right for us.’
Mulcahy has been involved in the game for a long time.
So long that he now finds himself coaching grandkids of players he used to coach. He’s seen it all at club level but, for him, nothing compares to a matchday at Town’s Park.
‘I’ve been in several clubs. I’ve been involved with Cork Con and Sunday’s Well. I’ve coached at Nenagh, Kilfeace and Old Christians. I had great years in Rockwell College.
‘The difference between Midleton and everywhere else that I’ve been, really, is it’s more like a GAA club in the sense of it’s very community-based as opposed to club-based.
‘Lots of rugby clubs or art clubs, and this one is, you know, after a game when we win and the lads sing a song inside the dressing room.
‘Everybody’s in there, from babies to people who are 80 or 90 years old. Everybody’s in there together singing. It gets emotional in there. We’re trying to build something special.’
The foundations have always been strong in Midleton. This is a club on the rise.
