St Mary's College Rugby Football Club is a

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

club based in

South Dublin South Dublin () is a county in Ireland, within the province of Leinster and the Eastern and Midland Region. It is one of three successor counties to County Dublin, which was disestablished for administrative purposes in 1994. South Dublin Cou ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, playing in Division 1A of the All-Ireland League. The club was founded in 1900 by former pupils of St. Mary's College, Dublin and was originally known as Old St Mary's. They club won the Leinster Senior Cup for the first time in 1958. In 2000 they won the

AIB League The All-Ireland League (AIL), known for sponsorship reasons as the Energia All-Ireland League, is the national league system for the 50 senior rugby union clubs in Ireland, covering both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The league w ...

for the first time under the captaincy of

Trevor Brennan Trevor Brennan (born 29 September 1973) is an Irish former rugby union player. He played for Barnhall, Bective Rangers, St Marys College RFC, Leinster, Stade Toulousain and Ireland, being capped 13 times. He played either in the second row or ...

. The club was formerly sited at College Drive,

Templeogue Templeogue is a southwestern suburb of Dublin in Ireland. It lies between the River Poddle and River Dodder, and is about halfway from Dublin's centre to the mountains to the south. Geography Location Templeogue is from Dublin city centre t ...

from 1955 until the 1970s, including clubhouse and grounds which have since been developed as ''Fortfield Square'' apartments. In the 1970s, the club moved to Templeville Road to rugby grounds formerly owned and used by

Templeogue College Templeogue College C.S.Sp is a boys' voluntary secondary school in the suburb of Templeogue, Dublin in Ireland. It was founded in 1966 and is run by the Holy Ghost Fathers (Spiritans), a Roman Catholic religious institute. The motto of the sch ...

, the

Holy Ghost Fathers The Congregation of the Holy Spirit (officially the Congregation of the Holy Spirit under the protection of the Immaculate Heart of the Virgin Mary; ) is a religious congregation for men in the Catholic Church. Members are often known as Holy ...

sister school of St Mary's College.

Honours

* All Ireland League **1999–2000, 2011–12: 2 *

All-Ireland Cup The All-Ireland Cup, also known as the Bateman Cup, is a knock-out competition for the winners of the four provincial rugby union cups in Ireland. History The Bateman Cup ran from 1922 to 1939 as a competition for the four provincial cup-winners, ...

**1974–75: 1 * Leinster Senior League **1972, 1978, 1980, 1989: 4 * Leinster Senior Cup **1958, 1969, 1971, 1974, 1975, 1987, 1993, 1995, 2005, 2010, 2013: 11 *

Leinster Junior Challenge Cup The Leinster Junior Challenge Cup was the forerunner of the Leinster Towns Cup. The cup was established in 1888. It was established as a competition for clubs below senior level who were affiliated to the Leinster branch of the Irish Rugby Foot ...

**1905, 1907, 1908, 1911: 4

Notable players

Ireland

The following St Mary's players represented

at full international level. MEN: 1970 Sean Lynch (17) 1970

Denis J. Hickie Denis Joseph Hickie (12 April 1943 – 26 December 2021) was an Irish rugby union player. He played as a number 8 for St. Mary's College, Leinster and Ireland. Career Hickie, along with his brother Tony, played on the first team from St Ma ...

(6) 1972 *John Moloney (27) 1972 *Tom Grace (25) 1974 * Shay Deering (8) 1977 Tom Feighery (2) 1978 Tony Ward (19) 1978 Terry Kennedy (14) 1979 *Ciaran Fitzgerald (26)** 1979 Rodney O’Donnell (5) 1981 Paul Dean (32) 1988 Vincent Cunningham (16) 1996 Victor Costello (39) 1997 Denis A. Hickie (62) 1997 Conor McGuinness (14) 1997

Kevin Nowlan Kevin Nowlan (born 1958) is an American comics artist who works as a penciler, inker, colorist, and letterer. He has been called "one of the few artists who can be called 'artists's artist'", a master of the various disciplines of comic produc ...

(3) 1997 John McWeeney (1) 1997 Malcolm O’Kelly (92) 1998 Trevor Brennan (10) 2000 Peter McKenna (1) 2001 Emmet Byrne (9) 2002 Keith Gleeson (27) 2003 Mark McHugh (1) 2005 Kieran Lewis (3) 2007 Shane Jennings (13) 2009 Johnny Sexton (45) 2009 Kevin McLaughlin (8) 2010 Rhys Ruddock (3) 2011 Sean Cronin (35) 2013 Jack McGrath (10) *Had the distinction of captaining Ireland. **Captain of Triple Crown winning teams in 1982 and 1985

Ireland 7s

The following St Mary’s players have represented the

Ireland national rugby sevens team The Ireland national rugby sevens team competed in several international rugby sevens competitions. The team was governed by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). In May 2025 the IRFU dismantled the programme at the end of the 2024/25 season, i ...

: * Terry Kennedy

British & Irish Lions

As well as representing

, the following St Mary's players have also represented the

British & Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

.Ciaran Cronin (2007), ''The Ireland Rugby Miscellany''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:St Mary's College Rfc Rugby union teams in Ireland Rugby union clubs in South Dublin (county) Rugby clubs established in 1900 University and college rugby union clubs in Ireland Templeogue All-Ireland League rugby union clubs Leinster Senior League (rugby union) teams