Gilbert: Playing For The Club, There’s Something More Than Just You And The Team

As well as lining out in the second row for Clontarf in Energia All-Ireland League Men’s Division 1A, he also works as a Rugby Development Officer at the north Dublin club.

From the age of six, Gilbert has been engrossed in all things Clontarf FC. Growing up in Marino, just a short distance from Castle Avenue, he often attended games with his dad Gary who, being involved with the club for many years, was a big influence on Fionn discovering his love of rugby.

It would not be a normal weekend at the Bull Ring if Fionn was not around the place. He balances his time between playing for the seniors with helping to coach and help the next generation develop as ‘Tarf’s first ever Rugby Development Officer.

“It’s kind of all I ever did. When people ask me did I try other sports, I tried GAA for a year but I gave it up. Rugby was all I did, there was nothing else,” he told IrishRugby.ie.

“When I was brought down by mam and dad week one, supposedly I was useless on the first day. Dad being involved in the club previously was thinking, ‘oh God, what’s he going to be like as a rugby player?’, but it turned out great.

“Played here since I was six and I was just always down here. If it wasn’t on a Saturday match day watching the firsts with dad bringing me up, I was here during the weeks playing with my friends.

“Some of my best mates aren’t from school or they aren’t from college, they are from my rugby team that I played with growing up. I wouldn’t probably be where I am now in life without the rugby club.

“Obviously I have a job here now, I live down the road, I play for the club. Here a couple times a week between work, gym and training. My whole kind of life is centred around this place really. I hope I don’t get sick of the place in a few years!

“I love coming in here after a game and you meet all the older gents who come in for a beer, they shake your hand and they thank you. It just feels like a really special place.

“Just an extra special feeling when you put on a club jersey and you know there’s something more than just you and the team. I’ve got that feeling since I was a kid.”

Taking up the RDO role in 2022, it was no doubt a big step for the second row as he was just 22 at the time and fresh out of college when a member of the club’s Executive Committee told him about the new post.

Gilbert admits that it was initially quite challenging moving into a job he was not familiar with. However, after a tough search for work after college, he ended up securing a position at one of his favourite places just over the road from his home.

“It was funny really. I was just out of college and a lot of my college friends were all interested in the coaching side. So we were scratching our heads going, ‘it’s hard to make a decent coaching job that is enjoyable but also pays the bills’.

“At the same time we were scratching our heads going, ‘there’s not many out there’. All of a sudden I get a phone call from somebody in the Executive Committee at the club saying, ‘oh, the club have done a strategic review and we are looking to put a Rugby Development Officer in place’.

“They rang me asking would I be interested and I sent them on my CV, and I kind of went looking around and there wasn’t a single RDO in the country. There wasn’t much information available, and I thought what am I getting myself into?!!

“It’s a big job, am I able to take it on? I’m only a young lad coming out of college. I was thinking maybe this isn’t for me. Anyway they rang me back and said would I be willing to do an interview? Did the interview and a week or two later got a phone call to say I had got the job.

“I was delighted but obviously the first year I was thinking what do I do? It took a bit of time, but it has been great really since I started.”

He continued: “I’m in schools in the local area, secondary and primary, trying to promote rugby as much as possible.

“I am trying to be around here more often, connect with coaches, create some pathways and try and create more Matt D’Arcys, Mick Kearneys, those sort of people.

“It is challenging sometimes as it’s not like a normal desk job where you’ve got loads of people around you to bounce ideas off.”

On the field Gilbert is lacing up his boots for the fourth season in a row now for Clontarf, five if you count the Covid-19-halted season of 2019/20 when, as an Under-20 player, he made his senior debut to solve a second row injury crisis for Andy Wood’s men.

Ever since then, the 24-year-old has been a mainstay in the ‘Tarf matchday squad. A Division 1A title winner in his first full season, he said it meant a lot to him to be able to achieve success alongside the likes of Mick Kearney and the D’Arcy twins, Matt and Adrian.

Recalling his first involvement with the senior side, he explained: “I was still playing U-20s in the club at the time, I think there was a bit of a second row crisis. Ben Reilly, who was team captain at the time, got injured along with a few others.

“Woody rocked up to our 20s training on the Tuesday or Thursday, and said, ‘oh yeah, we need this young fella to come up and play for us at the weekend’.

“Initially I thought I might have just been on the bench and then, as the league went on, I was starting in a double header, (Leinster) Senior Cup final and also a AIL round so yeah it was pretty cool. I’ve been in two (AIL) finals and a semi-final, this will be my fourth season.

That first year was great and I almost feel luckier that my first season of senior rugby ended with an AIL win. I wasn’t picked for one game, I played 19 out of 20 AIL games and I got an AIL medal so it was pretty special.

“I just looked around that team and the players we had that year. We had Leinster players dropping in here and there every so often, Mick Kearney was dropping in and out from Ulster at the time. He obviously played in the club for years and was a massive idol.

“He came down and coached me at 20s for a while, so playing with him was special. The D’Arcy brothers, I grew up watching when I was six or seven when they first started togging out for the seniors. To get to play with both of them was cool.”

That 2021/22 campaign has been one of two big highlights so far for Gilbert, the latter one coming earlier this year when he made his Ireland Club international debut, helping the team to beat Portugal ‘A’ 20-17 in Lisbon.

He earned his first Ireland Club XV cap alongside club-mates Conor Kelly and Dylan Donnellan, and his green jersey and cap take pride of place at home. The memory of singing the anthem and playing for Ireland will last a lifetime.

“It was pretty special, but it’s not something I ever expected,” he conceded. “The nature of the person I am, I didn’t go to a big rugby school, I went to Mount Temple and I wouldn’t change that for the world.

“Loved the school and I now go back there with my role, but I always felt going from a Mount Temple environment and coming from the clubs pathway that you were one step below or you weren’t looked at as often, that’s just the way I felt.

“I thought when I left school maybe I wouldn’t be good enough, but when I won an AIL medal and got called up to the Irish Clubs, I thought, ‘feck, I obviously am good enough’.

“It was a really special feeling and a really cool experience. Played a very good Portugal side with some of the best players in the AIL.

“It was just cool to meet and sit down lads from Cork Con, or lads from Ballynahinch or whoever, because you might only get to meet them for 20 minutes after a game while they are shovelling a bit of food to get back on the bus.

“It was obviously topped off with winning the game, and somehow I was awarded man-of-the-match after the game by all the players and coaching staff so that was pretty special.

“Funny, I have my jersey in my room and everytime I walk in I see my cap on my bedside locker and I see the jersey. That’s one I won’t forget, that’s up there with winning the AIL as a club player. Those would be my two highlights.”

Gilbert embraced another passionate rugby culture and environment this past summer when he spent a couple of months down in New Zealand, playing with Marist St. Pat’s. The strong New Zealand links with Clontarf made the move possible.

Former ‘Tarf player Matt Smith planted the idea when he was at a reunion at Castle Avenue back in February. MSP head coach Sean Horan wanted to establish an ongoing connection between the clubs where players could exchange for a season or a part of a season.

Gilbert was invited to travel down and, having chatted to his own head coach Wood, also a Wellington native, and many others, he took up the offer and gained valuable experience with the ‘Red Machine’, both from a playing and coaching point of view.

Now back home, he has featured in all All-Ireland League three games to date as Clontarf have shot straight to the top of the table. Wood’s side have strung together bonus point victories over St. Mary’s College, Garryowen, and UCD.

Next up for them is Saturday’s home clash with Terenure College, and a chance for Gilbert to catch up afterwards with Sean Skehan, who coached him for his Ireland Club international debut back in March.

He says they are happy to have three wins on the board, and are taking it game by game with this second block of fixtures including heavyweight encounters with both Terenure, who beat them in the 2023 final, and Cork Constitution, the defending champions who overcame ‘Tarf at the semi-final stage last season.

We’ve always had some great battles (with Terenure) especially in the last year. Had them in a final, the year after we beat them in a final we played them here in our place and they beat us.

“And then we went over to them later in the year and we got one back on them, so it’s kind of been tit-for-tat, one-score games or fine margins. Terenure are a quality team and obviously I was lucky to be coached by Sean so I know how he preps the lads.

“They are a quality outfit, their scrum has got stronger and stronger as the years have gone on. Their set-piece is strong but then they have some really strong and intelligent backs who can move the ball especially in counter attacks, so we know what’s coming.

“We set out from our first block to try and get three wins and we were fortunate to do that. Really close, tough games, playing two of the promoted teams from last year but we knew going to those two games that they weren’t easy.

“We knew the first block wouldn’t be easy, no game in 1A ever is. We are sitting nicely three wins from three, probably not from three of our best performances but we have three wins so we will take it.

“Our next block is Terenure and Con away, going down to the champions. We are taking it game by game. Terenure at home, you can’t look much further past than that,” he added.