In The Begining...

The Story of Blackrock College Rugby Club starts of course with the school which lends the club its name.

In 1860 Fr. Leman a priest of the French Congregation of the Holy Ghost Fathers opened their first school in Ireland. The site of this school was the Castle Dawson House in Williamstown. The original name of the school was the French College of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

The early French Fathers in Blackrock preferred gymnastics as the first official form of sporting activity. Gymnastics apparatus was installed from the begining and the regieme was based on the gymnastics devised by the French Military Academies. The emphasis during the summer months was cricket.

Football gradually crept into the recreational activities, but what set of rules were adhered to can only be guessed at. It is certain it was not rugby, as the game was not codified in Ireland until Barrington and Wall drew up the rules for the game in Ireland at Trinity College in 1868.

The only authorative account of the introduction of rugby in Blackrock College comes from the description of Matt Hynes, a former student. Hynes remembered: "In the early eighties a few of the boys, (Fred Dennehy should be mentioned), seeing what a grand game rugby football was, ordered a ridiculous looking oval ball, planted grotesquely high goal posts and in very attractive looking blue and white jerseys and stockings started a game which sorely puzzled even the players themselves."

Although Matt Hynes makes reference to the early eighties, it is clear rugby started in the College not later than 1880. The first recorded game was against The High School on November 26 1881, and was reported as follows. "The High School 1st XV v The French College. High School won by a goal and two tries to one try. But on the same afternoon a Blackrock College side played a match against Corrig School and a third match was between Williamstown Castle Club and the French College Club - an internal affair. All that is clear evidence of the strength of the game in the college from that early moment.

Continued...