Ormond can recover from tough experience

IN ALL FAIRNESS

Nenagh Ormond’s senior rugby team are the epitome of how fortunes can change from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows in a relatively short space of time.

2025 will go down as the clubs greatest ever year. A first ever Munster Senior Challenge Cup success and promotion to the top-tier of the All-Ireland League for the first time in their history are achievements that will last the test of time, more so than the first half of the current campaign in division 1A of the AIL where Nenagh Ormond have lost nine from nine and are rooted to the bottom of the table, pointless.

The players and coaches knew more than anyone else that the step up would be steep, but not even they would have felt it would be this tough, with not even a try-scoring or losing bonus point to show for their efforts at the half-way point of the season.

It is a surprise that it has worked out this way. Over the past couple of years, Nenagh have shown their ability to compete with and indeed beat top tier teams, as they did to Cork Constitution and Young Munster on route to winning the Munster Senior Cup. Yes, playing week on week against the best is a different challenge altogether, physically draining and the power deficit between a team that were playing third tier rugby just over a year ago to now taking on Clontarf, St Mary’s and the like is notable.

One aspect that has helped bring Nenagh Ormond to where they are, has been their spirit. That togetherness as a country club, largely made up of players from the locality, has made the cherry & whites as hard to beat as they are; never more in evidence than in the promotion playoff final last April when despite being outgunned by UCC for long spells, they stayed in the game which game them the chance to conjure up one of the most remarkable comebacks in any sport this year to put the seal on a remarkable campaign.

The squad is largely the same, bar the retirement of playoff final hero Josh Rowland and out-half Ben Pope who has returned to New Zealand. However, one has to think that another retiree, Colm Skehan, has been the greatest loss of all, not just on the field as an experienced prop, but also in his role as the strength & conditioning coach.

Nenagh Ormond’s rise in recent years has been down to a collective approach but if you wanted to reduce it to just one individual, it is Moycarkey native Skehan whose arrival into the coaching team in the summer of 2022 coincided with the upturn in fortunes.

His decision to move on at the end of last season has been keenly felt, with the clubs first hire as a replacement S&C coach moved on pretty quickly, which left the group playing catch-up.

Ormond’s struggles are eerily similar to that of the Tipperary senior hurlers in 2024. When you don’t get your pre-season right, you get exposed in games, and it is then virtually impossible to change course during the course of the season as with games largely week on week so time for to focus on added strength and fitness work isn’t there.

Nenagh Ormond are where they are now and have to make the best of it with a view to the longer term. Their stay in the division 1A of the AIL will be just one year. They are currently fifteen points off second from bottom UCD. It’s not irretrievable but climbing off the bottom is highly unlikely.

The next three weeks or so still remain hugely important. Last Saturday’s 57-10 loss to Young Munster is as low as this group of players have been for some time. Conceding 49 unanswered points after half-time suggests their spirit, once their great strength, is now brittle. However, it can be rebuilt and with the return fixture against the cookies first up on the second Saturday in January at home, it affords the players and coaches the opportunity to start the New Year in a different mindset and have something to show for their season. The pressure is off to some extent.

The next few weeks are when the leaders within the squad, and there are many, need to take a hold of the rest of the squad and bring them with them. They haven’t become a bad team over the past three months. They are in a difficult spot but would they trade where they are to where they were in May of 2022, needing to win a playoff to avoid being relegated to the fourth tier of the AIL!