Halpin Hoping Galwegians Can Achieve Goals After ‘Getting Monkey Off Our Backs’

Having moved to Galway for his studies, Halpin made the switch to Galwegians once his time in NUIG had come to an end. ‘Wegians has clearly become a huge part of the 23-year-old’s life, and away from playing he also helps to coach the Under-17 boys team.

Stepping up as stand-in captain in what is only his second season playing in the Energia All Ireland League, Halpin was immensely proud when given the role of taking over from the injured Jack Winters back in October.

Speaking to IrishRugby.ie, the young flanker describes joining Galwegians as ‘the best decision I’ve made in my rugby career to date’. His early love for the game came from his time at Athy RFC and Newbridge College.

“I began my rugby career with Athy around the age of eleven, and then moved to Newbridge College for school and played Junior Cup and three years of Senior Cup up to 2019,” he said.

“School is definitely where I took rugby seriously, dropping out of Gaelic football. With so many senior students to look up to such as Jimmy O’Brien and Jordan Duggan, it was impossible not to catch the bug for rugby.

“I then played with NUIG while in college before making the move to Galwegians, an incredible club and community. I’ve had some great experiences along the way.

“Playing Leinster Schools and going on the NUIG Scholarship programme to New Zealand in 2022. Most recently it’s been an incredible honour to be selected as the interim captain for Galwegians.

“Ever since I moved to ‘Wegians I felt immediately at home with all the lads and the supporters. I would never claim to be an overly flashy player but I pride myself on working as hard as possible for the guys around me, so to be recognised for this gave me a great sense of pride.

The spirit of brotherhood in the club is second to none. I’ve fostered a real love of the club and it drives me to give back.

“I currently coach the Under-17 forwards, something I thoroughly enjoy, and it’s great to see those lads out supporting the senior team every weekend.

“I was actually unaware of the fact that I am the youngest captain until a group of the alickadoos pulled me aside to congratulate me and ran me down the board with all the previous captains in the clubhouse.

“This was a great moment for me and something I’ll remember forever. The history and pride everyone has in the club was so evident.”

It has been a difficult season so far for Galwegians having suffered seven straight defeats to begin the Division 2B campaign, five of which saw late scores snatching the win away from Brendan Guilfoyle’s side.

However, in the most recent rounds ‘Wegians have put together back-to-back bonus point wins over Malahide (29-22) and Sligo (24-7). They look to have turned a corner for a more positive outlook heading into the second half of the season.

Halpin is understandably proud to lead the team whether in Glenina and or on the road, and despite that tough period of successive losses, he always had the belief that they would get back on track in terms of results.

“Being captain, I did feel the responsibility was mine to get the lads in the best possible mindset before a game which I worried would be hard with past results in everyone’s heads, but this was never the case.

“We have always been the kind of team to give it 100% on the pitch. I also found that other natural leaders in the team, such as Dylan Keane and Andrew Sherlock, were always a great support by just being their usual vocal, determined personalities.

“I was worried I might go winless at one stage! But then, week on week, we could see little improvements coming into our game-plan.

“The break before Malahide (in early December) gave us more time to iron out some inconsistencies, and I was extremely confident as we got closer to Christmas.

“The defeats were crushing each week. The likes of the Wanderers result (losing 21-20) really sticks out. To have gotten so close to them away from home and to lose with the last kick of the game, and then chat afterwards with their players, who were in disbelief of their win, was tough to take.

“The first maybe three losses, we almost bought into the narrative that we are just an unlucky team, but after that we just had a look at ourselves and improved our own game, taking luck out of the equation.

“Each week in training we did our best to put past results behind us and focus on the upcoming game, although in the background our coaching and leadership group were working to fix errors in our approach to games. This seems to be bearing fruit now.

“We definitely do feel as though we have started to get back into our groove from last year. There’s still a lot of work to be done now going forward to avoid making a slip back into losing ways, but it’s great to have gotten the monkey off our backs and get that first win.”

Seeing that frustratingly long winless run come to an end last month could be seen as a big relief by many, but the ‘Wegians players and coaches always had ‘a belief and expectation’ that that they could get a result each week.

While they made sure to enjoy the post-match celebrations after beating Malahide at home, their attention quickly turned to Sligo a week later in the first of their Connacht derbies either side of Christmas.

Halpin says they did not change much in order to get that maiden triumph on the board, but making the Crowley Park support proud is certainly a motivating factor as they look forward to hosting their provincial rivals in Saturday’s return match (kick-off 2.30pm).

“It was great to get that first win of course, but our focus immediately turned to Sligo and the rest of our season. We still have great aspirations for the rest of our season, we have just made it more difficult for ourselves to achieve these goals.

“It was going into the clubhouse after. The alickadoos never lost their belief in us, and us – as players – are always so eager to do them proud. It’s a massive driver throughout Galwegians.

“To be honest we didn’t need to change much. We were doing our weekly video analysis on ourselves as normal to identify poor decisions or defensive pictures.

“As I said, we had our leadership meetings just to have more clear communication between players and coaches to outline what we were seeing on the pitch.

“I think these meetings helped a lot just to decipher the areas of the pitch where we maybe were putting ourselves under needless pressure.”

After bringing 2024 to a close with a strong showing in Strandhill, Guilfoyle’s men will be doubly determined to repeat the result on home turf – especially with ‘Wegians currently in eighth place on 19 points, six clear of second-from-bottom Sligo.

Clogher Valley, the team that beat them to the Division 2C title last season, are only eight points better off in fourth spot, so if they can start the New Year with another win, the momentum will continue to build for the Blues.

Full-back Darragh Kennedy bagged a brace of tries the last day in Sligo and will be a danger man once again. Halpin says only another 80-minute performance will do as Paddy Pearson’s charges will have bottled up the hurt of losing at home four weeks ago. He added:

We definitely have to draw a line under the first half of the season. We’ll also be reminding ourselves that we can’t afford to cough up losses and fall out of games as we have previously if we still want to achieve our goals.

“Going forward we will have to hold ourselves to the highest standard that we know we are capable of achieving.

“Even with a great result away from home, you can never afford to underestimate Sligo, especially in a derby. We all know how physical we have to be to match them, and ultimately it will come down to who wants it more on a cold wet day in Galway.”

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