'Munster Rugby haven't trained here in 15 years' - The inside story of how Waterford's huge rugby population, undergoing a grassroots revival, is waiting to be tapped into by a province that needs all the help it can find...

Waterford is experiencing a bit of a boom in recent times.

This is a county with 180,000 inhabitants, which is predicted to swell to 200,000 by 2040. An untapped resource by Munster? Unquestionably.

Yes, there are challenges. Waterford is a hurling stronghold. Mount Sian, Ballygunner and Erin’s Own are big players down there.

It also has a powerful soccer heritage, Waterford United have long been a League of Ireland force and local soccer is a big draw as well.

It’s remote, in rugby terms. You could be looking at a five-hour round trip to attend a game at Thomond Park if you resided in places such as Tramore, Kilmacthomas or Waterford city.

But it’s a big area with established clubs, a university and a rising population.

In the 1990s, Waterford man Ben Cronin starred for Munster and Ireland and recently the county has produced Jack O’Donoghue and Tom Ahern, who have both represented their province and country with distinction.

But why are there not many more Waterford names reaching the top levels of the game?

It is a valid question and a timely one given that Munster are at a particularly low ebb and need all the help they can get.

Speaking to people on the ground in Waterford in recent weeks, there is a very real sense that this is a rugby county with vast potential crying out to be resourced…

THE GRASSROOTS

Conall Fitzpatrick has been spreading the rugby gospel in Waterford for a long time.

Through his work as a minis and youth coach with Waterpark RFC, he then served as a Club Community Rugby Officer (CCRO) for both Tramore RFC and Waterpark. Since 2024, he has held the role of Rugby Participation Officer (RPO) for Waterford and reports directly to the Munster branch.

Fitzpatrick’s job is getting around the region and driving participation in primary and secondary schools. He also organises summer camps, blitzes, skills camps and tournaments.

'I'd be of the opinion that if we get them in and playing at a young age, they're more likely to maybe stay playing,’ he says.

One of the big success stories in recent years is the work with so-called emerging schools in the area.

‘These would be non-traditional rugby schools or maybe schools that maybe had a tradition in the past, but it’s lapsed over the years for varying reasons,’ Fitzpatrick explains.

‘Ard Scoil na Mara in Tramore. Newtown and Waterpark College and De La Salle in the city. Pushing out a bit, you’d get St Declans in Kilmacthomas and what's colloquially known as the Friary in Dungarvan.

'We would bring those emerging schools together on a reasonably regular basis. We'd probably have to try and do it once a month or something along that line for each of three age groups.

’It’s not a competition and there's no scores or leads or anything like that. There’s not a huge pressure on schools to be at every one, or to make them feel that they can sort of pick and choose what suits them best.'

Fitzpatrick has been heartened by the openness of secondary schools across the region.

‘I sometimes hear stories of my colleagues around the province expressing concern that they're having difficulty maybe getting into a school or to run a program or to try and get access to potential players, but I have to say my personal experience is the exact opposite.

‘I've never had anyone say, “no, we don't want you”. People actually come to me and say, “oh, I got your number from so-and-so, or I hear you've been in that school, any chance you'll come and do a bit with us as well?”

‘So my personal experience has been very positive in that sense that there's definitely an appetite to have it, and certainly it does seem to have an effect. Even the Waterford City club. A couple of seasons ago, we ran a school blitz for schools that are in their catchment area and I got a phone call the following weekend saying there were 10 new guys at training just off the back of the blitz.’

There’s good things happening at the grassroots, by the sounds of it. Rugby is growing across Waterford, particularly at youth level.

‘The biggest success that has come from ground zero is Ardscoil na Mara,’ Fitzpatrick notes.

‘They're a reasonably new entity in terms of a school. They're an amalgamation of all of the other secondary schools that had existed in Tramore and all came together to form that.

‘There's 1,000-plus pupils attending it. They basically went from zero rugby to getting involved in the emerging school stuff, to fielding teams in competitions that have gone on to win competitions over the past couple of years.

‘They're a real success story. In less than 10 years, they've gone from no rugby to getting involved in the emerging school stuff to now fielding junior and senior teams in competition and being successful in terms of going on to get a bit of silverware at the end of the year.’

Waterford is booming and, with a rapidly growing population, there are serious possibilities to grow rugby further.

‘Yeah, absolutely. There's plenty of house building going on and the population is building. I think there is an amount of optimism,’ Fitzpatrick adds.

'In terms of the sport of rugby. We can't think, “all right, we're on the up”, and any uptick that does exist is on the back of some hard work by lots of people across all of the clubs.

‘If we take our foot off the pedal, that might just very quickly disappear. I think that we still need to continue to put the effort in.’

So, the foundations are strong. Plenty of kids and young adults are being exposed to rugby from a young age across the county.

It made sense to pay a visit to the biggest club in Waterford to investigate the next stage of the development pathway.

THE CLUBS

There are four major rugby clubs in the Waterford area: Dungarvan RFC, Tramore RFC, Waterford City RFC and Waterpark RFC.

Waterpark, however, have been the major player for a long time. Founded in 1925, it has been the bedrock of rugby in Waterford for the best part of a century.

Pat Murphy has been a stalwart of the club. A former player, he’s now the chairman. It’s a glorious Wednesday evening when we sit down for a chat in the clubhouse bar before the youth teams gather for training.

‘Rugby has always been a battle in Waterford,’ Murphy states.

Once upon a time, Waterpark were a high-flying senior outfit in the All-Ireland League. Jack O’Donoghue, who has made more than 200 senior appearances for Munster, came through the ranks here.

At one stage, the club were competing in Division 2 of the old AIL. But Waterpark would fall on hard times.

‘We had the bust around that time and we moved into a recession,’ Murphy says.

‘A lot of kids were moving away. Everywhere in Munster was affected, rugby-wise. I think there were about 200 transfers from AIL players into Dublin at that time because the jobs were there.

‘Regionally, rugby got harmed, but Waterford was actually the slowest to recover. And at adult level, it’s still recovering.’

These days, they are competing in Division 2 of the Munster Junior League. The youths system is thriving, however. Their underage sides have made a huge impression. Waterpark had four players on the Munster U18 clubs panel during the summer.

Murphy is proud of those achievements. Player retention at senior level is another big challenge, mind.

‘So our youth structure, even as successful as it's been, kids still move away to go to college,’ he explains.

‘Recently SETU becoming a university is a help, but we won't see the benefit of that in the short term. It's going to take time. And even at that, with the demographics of the country and Dublin being the focal point, the amount (of players) that actually move and go and never come back is sizeable.

‘We produce players for teams all over the country and further afield. Look, that’s the nature of the game. At adult level, it does hurt us, it hurts us all the time.** **Waterford is in a bit of a boom at the moment. You can see the difference with numbers in the city.

‘There's lots of big companies here and there is lots of employment, but it's not reflected in adult participation. That is our biggest problem really at the moment.

‘At the end of the day, we need one successful team at our level to start the ball rolling.

‘Rugby went through the phase of following the provincial teams and national teams and everyone was travelling to Thomond Park every weekend, but they actually wouldn't watch a club game here. And it went full circle. Covid helped that too with people becoming more involved in the local clubs.

‘It's still a battle, even though people are more involved in their club. It's still a battle at adult level. It needs a serious drive on as regards playing numbers and support structures.

‘We had a period here in the 2000s where we would have fielded three adult teams every weekend. Firsts, seconds and thirds. We had an U20s side which would have played in the Munster U20s league as well.

‘So you would have two adult teams playing early in the 2000s. Every Saturday and Sunday. Then we had a successful ladies team as well. So you had five adult teams moving around here at that time.

‘You can't quantify that. The atmosphere. The amount of adults knocking around the place, that in turn brings more adults following teams. It's huge.

‘You've got to get one adult team moving and build from there. We are fortunate this year that we have a ladies team starting again this year, which is huge and that will create a whole other following and people will participate.’

Things are looking up. The club have recently completed some impressive refurbishments of their facilities, including an astro-turf pitch.

‘We've built some padel courts beside it to try and make them revenue earners. So hopefully that will come to fruition in the next four to six weeks,’ Murphy says.

‘It’s about trying to create revenue in the club because no matter what way you look at it, when you're running that number of teams, you need money. Pitches need maintenance. More than anything else you need more pitches. What we've found actually is we have 16 teams moving in the club now.

‘With 16 teams, it's always a clash with training times because all the kids' teams from U12 up train in the evening time during the week and that just creates more and more problems and more and more challenges with pitch time. And with weather in Ireland, we've looked to use the astro turf then.

‘We were cancelling training. We were hiring other facilities. So it's to nice to have. That's the bottom line really. That was the drive to get that completed.’

Murphy outlines some of the other challenges facing the club. He describes the AIL days as a ‘soak for money’ but an unforgettable time.

‘We're so long out of it now, kids don't get the whole scenario of the buzz and going to the north playing a match and going to the West playing a match and playing out of your own comfort zone.’

Sunday rugby is the norm for many junior clubs, but it has proved a major hindrance, too.

‘Sunday socialising is gone, therefore your revenue stream is gone. The bar for us is probably a loss leader,’ he says.

Murphy, along with other directors of rugby, have pushed for Saturday games while he also cites a lack of referees as another challenge for clubs in the area. A major issue on that front is that GAA and soccer referees get a match fee, while rugby referees - at junior level - are purely voluntary, apart from fuel expenses.

A little bit more visibility would certainly help. Munster have recently held open training sessions in Thurles RFC, Newcastle West and Killaloe. Curiously, the province haven't paid a visit to Waterford for almost 15 years.

There is one planned for later in the session, with Waterpark RFC set to host. It’s long overdue.

‘We've asked for that, so they've looked at maybe in November, potentially, they may come,’ Murphy noted.

So, is there a sense that the Waterford clubs feel a bit disconnected from Munster?

‘Look, at the end of the day, we are remote. And the big centres will always dominate for a couple of simple reasons. They're close to where the action is. The big bases, be it Limerick or Cork,’ Murphy reasons.

‘They've got the A schools there. In the last few years, we've really ramped up the communication with Munster in all facets, be it youth, be it support. What can we do as regards to the development here? We went and spoke with the guys who were very helpful.

‘They realise that there's a serious potential in the area, absolutely, but unfortunately, from a Munster perspective, they are short on money and they have their own challenges.

‘They can do as much as they can do. They have people working on the ground, but I think they'd like to do more. They'd certainly like to have more money to do more because they realise we have a very good youth structure here.

‘Last year, Dungarvan and Waterpark were two of the best teams in the province at U18 level. Waterford City had two players in the Munster underage structure this year. So out of Waterford on its own, Say it's a panel of 30 players. Well, there's a quarter coming out of the Waterford area county.

‘I think that they realise that there's lots going on here. They'd certainly like to help it. But in the short term, I don't know how much they can do. And they have so much to get the big house in order. It is a problem.

‘A lot of people would argue that, well, if they don't stem the blood flow at the first team, how can you do the rest? Other people would argue, “no, no, it's bad enough. Let's work and develop our own.”

‘Look, everyone has their opinion. But all I can say is it's been an open door for us these last couple of years. And they are doing their best with what they have.’

There are plenty of other good things happening at the club. Dave O’Callaghan, the former Munster flanker, is currently head coach of the first XV while Eoin O’Connor, another former Munster player who came through the Waterpark ranks, has been calling down to the club to do some coaching, too.

Long term, there are ambitious plans for Waterpark - in conjunction with SETU - to become a potential high-performance centre serving the south east.

‘I hope so. We may see some fruition in that in the next couple of months,’ Murphy says.

‘Nothing guaranteed, but I hope so. We have some people doing a huge amount of work done in the background, both on and off the field, with development stuff, getting facilities ready, and then negotiations.’

THE COLLEGE

South East Technological University (SETU) has a strong relationship with Waterpark and there is a significant crossover for players who line out for the college and the club.

In terms of facilities, the university boosts a high-performance gym and a number of grass pitches. There has been significant growth, particularly in the women’s programme, in recent years.

Plenty of people from non-rugby backgrounds have been drawn to the sport once they began their studies at SETU.

‘You would always have your die-hard rugby players,’ says Shauna Fitzgerald, the Sport and Societies Officer in the college.

‘But then you do have the players that may dabble and have different fingers in different pies in terms of sports and stuff like that within the college.

‘I know within the last couple of years what you've seen is people have had a couple of the GAA lads come across afterwards to play. Because maybe someone in their course is like, “oh, here, you can come and play.”

Same with the girls. You're kind of making friends and they're driving their friends to training. And then all of a sudden someone who may have never played rugby before has now fallen in love with the sport or maybe someone that wants to always try it now has an opportunity to do it.

‘Maybe they've always played ladies football or they've always played men's football or they've played basketball or whatever. And they've just met someone and they've been given the opportunity.

‘But you still have the likes of your girls from Dublin or your girls from around that area of the Greater Dublin area that are still coming down. Girls from West Cork are coming up to us as well. Lads from West Cork are coming up to us.

‘There is still a wide spread of locations and counties that are still attending our college, which is great because it allows the students to meet these people and train alongside people that maybe hold different skills or have different attributes than what they're used to playing. And it just allows them to learn and develop more in terms of rugby skills.’

There’s been some notable successes for the college of late.

‘Our men’s team managed to win the Tier 2 League final a few years ago,’ Fitzgerald adds.

‘It was our first trophy in recent years. There was a lot of third and fourth years involved in that which got us over the line in that. Our women’s team made it to the Cup final last year. We didn’t win on the day but for our women’s team, to come from where they had been four or five years ago, to be competing in a final, it was definitely a step in the right direction.

‘We’re definitely going in the right direction.’

That seems to be the sense across the county at the moment. Munster have a lot on their plate at the moment, on and off the field, but investing more resources in Waterford would be a smart move.