MY CLUB: SKERRIES RFC
Holmpatrick
Skerries
Co. Dublin
www.skerriesrfc.ie/
By DAIRE WALSH
JUST three seasons ago, Skerries Rugby Football Club were plying their trade in the Leinster Junior League. However, with two games remaining in the current Ulster Bank League Division 2A campaign, they are in the frame for their third promotion in four years.
The Holmpatrick outfit have enjoyed a meteoric rise through the domestic ranks, and club captain Ross McAuley is hopeful that they can continue to make waves in the closing stages of the season.
“I read somewhere recently that I think we were outside the top 60 teams in Ireland at one point. It’s probably the last six or seven years, and now this year I think we can be considered to be hopefully in the top 20 clubs in Ireland at the moment,” McAuley remarked.
“If we got promoted to Division 1B, I just think it would be a massive success for us and it would be one of the big success stories for club rugby in Ireland. Because we’ve gone from nearly getting relegated in Leinster Junior rugby all the way up to All-Ireland rugby and we’re hoping to go all the way up to the top.”
McAuley led the side during their successful 2013/14 season in the Ulster Bank League’s fourth-tier, and for a man who has been involved with the club since a very young age, this is clearly a tremendous honour.
“This is my second season as club captain. Last year I was captain of the team when we got promoted from 2B. It was a great way to kick off the captaincy, and this year is going fantastic as well. I’m delighted with how it’s going. My two years as captain has been going really well.
“I would have started with Skerries. That’s where I first played my rugby. It was probably Under 9s or Under 8s or something. I would have gone the whole way up through to 20s and then onto the firsts.”
In addition to playing for the club’s ever-improving first team, McAuley also helps out every Sunday with the Skerries youth section. With teams from age six all the way up to 19, he feels that the current youth structure is helping to boost the profile of Skerries RFC.
“The youth system in Skerries, it’s absolutely massive at the moment. I’d also go down on a Sunday to the youth teams, just to give a dig out coaching or go down and watch their matches. The numbers down there are phenomenal.
“Certainly when I was a younger member myself playing there, which is a good few years ago at this stage, the numbers weren’t like what they are now. There’s a real boom obviously in Irish rugby and then the fact that Skerries are doing well, the kids are kind of getting into it and getting behind it, and they’re all joining the club,” he added.