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Rugby

Selfless culture change key to St. Michael's development boom | Ronan Kelleher

As much as Andy Farrell's first Six Nations squad was momentous as a new era of Irish rugby it wa...



Selfless culture change key to...
Rugby

Selfless culture change key to St. Michael's development boom | Ronan Kelleher

As much as Andy Farrell's first Six Nations squad was momentous as a new era of Irish rugby it was perhaps even more momentous for those at St. Michael's College on Ailesbury Road. 

For the first time, the Dublin school had five of their past pupils in an Irish international squad, the latest high point for Michael's blossoming rugby academy.

The school had produced just one international prior to 2014 but is now the country's foremost feeder school with James Ryan, Luke McGrath, Ross Byrne, Ronan Kelleher and Max Deegan all in Farrel's first squad.

Kelleher, who is one of 11 Michael's past pupils in the current Leinster squad and whose father, Tim, is the school's principal, spoke to Off The Ball about the school's development as one of Irish rugby's finest breeding grounds.

"I think there was a substantial culture change around 2006/2007 which really set the tone," Kelleher explains of the school's success.

"They brought in coaches, new coaches who had a vision of what they wanted Michael's to be and then the support staff too."


4 February 2014; Ronan Kelleher, St Michael's College, is tackled by Gary O'Reilly, Terenure College. Leinster Schools Senior Cup, 1st Round.

However, it was the identity of those coaches that made the difference, with Kelleher highlighting the success of the school in bringing back their best past pupils to coach the next generation.

With Kelleher and Harry Byrne themselves coaching the u13s to cup success last year, their motivation, Kelleher says, is to give back as former pupils did for them.

"I think it was just this kind of selfless thing, just to try to give back more than anything else. The school ended up giving us so much in the end, there's a few of us now playing professional rugby and I think a lot of it was due to the lads who came back and helped us and helped progress our game.

"So Emmet McMahon came back and now we might have five or six professional second-rowers, so that was huge.

"He was a second-row himself and a good player as well so he came back helped out, coached and as a result of his influence Ross Moloney came back, Ryan Baird came back, Oisin Dowling came back to coach a little bit and so did James Ryan so that's a part of it."

While he may describe his work with Michael's u13s as "nothing too serious" it is the continuation of a formula that saw the school complete a Senior and Junior Cup double last year and become Leinster's predominant feeder school.

Whether Kelleher and his former Michael's teammates can replicate that success with Ireland is yet to be seen.

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Leinster Rugby Leinster Schools Senior Cup Ronan Kelleher St Michael's College