First game of rugby to be played on a GAA ground this weekend in Cavan as Ulster host Glasgow Warriors in Breffni Park.
Declan Bogue SOMETIME AROUND SATURDAY at noon, when the luxury team coach arrives at the top of the Ballinagh Road and takes that sharp left onto Park Lane, it will be the first time that the natural ampitheatre of Breffni Park meets the entity that is Ulster Rugby.
From Standish O’Grady, the captain of the Ulster-winning side in 1925, through the George Best figure of Charlie Gallagher, all wide lapels on his suits, sports cars and the skills and ultimate demise through alcohol, onto the more modern folk heroes such as the Larry Reillys. ‘The Skins’ of Enniskillen were the first to give them a game, but after that, there weren’t enough bodies willing to get into a bus to head to areas around Derry and Belfast, placenames that they would hear enough about on the evening bulletins announcing a latest tragedy. So instead they entered the north-east Leinster league.Noel Finn of the club recalls those times.
“In the Belfast areas we have Belfast High School, Civil Service, PSNI and Hollywood, Lisburn are in that region,” Finn explains. Club President Ned Lochaden never really paid much heed to any sport until he was asked if he could apply his talents to the front row.“There was nothing at school or anything like that. There was the wee rugby club beside us and I joined up and am still there, unfortunately. Once they get you get in, you can’t get out!” laughs Lochaden.“But I went into the front row. Up with the grunting and the pushing. It’s not like it is today, now.
As for Ulster Rugby themselves, it was interesting to hear from Chief Executive Officer Jonny Petrie this week.
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