Plenty of comings and goings at Nenagh Ormond
By Shane Brophy
Ahead of the start of the competitive rugby season this Thursday evening in the first round of the Bank of Ireland Munster Senior Challenge Cup, there have been plenty of comings and goings at Nenagh Ormond since the end of last season.
Following their relegation from division 1A of the All-Ireland League, there has been significant changes, headed up by Derek Corcoran focusing on his head coaching duties but they hope their latest recruit from Down Under, Jonty Stewart, becomes the latest New Zealander to make his mark at out-half, similar to Clayton Stewart and Ben Pope.
Aaron Kelly, along with wing David Gleeson, have opted to go travelling while overseas players Angus Blackmore & Tom Croft from Australia and Argentine Mateo Sentous have returned home.
Those moving onto other clubs include young lock Fionn O’Meara who joins Young Munster where his dad Noel won an AIL title in 1993. Work commitments have taken hooker Dylan Murphy to Dublin and was snapped up by Terenure College and so will remain in the top tier, as will scrum-half Luke Kerr who has moved on to Old Wesley.
Ormond will come up against some former players this season, including prop Darragh McSweeney who has joined UCC while fellow prop Sean Frawley has linked up with Old Crescent whom they will play in the first round of the Munster Senior Challenge Cup.
James Meagher will play in division 2A of the AIL with Clonmel while club great Nicky Irwin has called time on his senior career and moves back to junior rugby with hometown Thurles.
Despite dropping down a division in the AIL, Nenagh Ormond will continue to be affiliated with Munster so will continue to have Sean O’Brien, Lee Barron and Michael Milne on their books should they be made available. They will be joined by academy prop Emmet Calvey.
Roman Salanoa, who has been released from Munster, will remain with Nenagh Ormond in a hope to become injury free and win back a contract.
Ormond have also strengthened their connection with Cistercian College Roscrea with the addition of Munster under 19 out-half Aaron Moloney and back-row Evan Brophy.
With Murphy and Sentous having moved on, Nenagh have restocked their hooking positions with the signings of Argentine Ignacio Failla and Taylor Coles, who was previously part for the IQ (Irish Qualified) program, as well as back row Olly Hailing from Wales.
As revealed last week, the club have tweaked their coaching group, although John Long and Derek Corcoran remain as Director of Rugby and Head Coach respectively.
Roscrea’s John O’Dowd joins as an assistant coach with responsibility for the Seconds team who reached the Munster Junior Cup final last season. Under 21 Head Coach Rob Buckley doubles up as new senior forwards coach with Dan Fogarty remaining in charge of the backs, with Kian O’Donnell as S&C Coach
In terms of team management, Eoin O’Callaghan & Enda Brennan will manage the seniors with Paul Colleran in charge of the Seconds and Gearoid Devanney managing the under 21s.