Doran And Murray Leading MU Barnhall’s Bid For Third Junior Cup Crown

Despite crossing paths during their underage days, Katelynn Doran and Órfhlaith Murray did not really get to know each other until joining MU Barnhall in 2017. Their pair could lift the Energia All-Ireland Women’s Junior Cup as co-captains this weekend.

Now the most experienced members of the MU Barnhall squad, Doran and Murray are hoping to lead the club to a third consecutive Energia Junior Cup triumph in Sunday’s final against Malone at Dundalk RFC (kick-off 2.30pm – live on irishrugby+).

Barnhall were bottom of the Leinster League’s Division 2 back in 2017, failing to win a single game. They bounced back a year later and it was the start of a journey that has taken them to the heights of Division 1 in the province, and back-to-back All-Ireland Junior Cup titles.

As a scholarship student at Maynooth University, Doran did a four-year undergraduate degree in Law, before completing a Masters in Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice. Now working in a law firm as a legal executive, she is focused on her FE-1 exams on the way to to becoming a solicitor.

The Leinster-capped back rower has also lined out for Old Belvedere in the Energia All-Ireland League, and speaking to IrishRugby.ie, she agreed that getting the chance to lift the trophy on Sunday would mean so much to her.

“I think it’d just be so surreal, like it’s things that you dream of,” she said. “It’s the days that you’re flogged at training with your fitness and you have your S&C and it’s torrential rain and it’s days like that, you’re wondering what is all for.

“But then to lift that trophy as captain, I actually couldn’t think of anything better, especially with the bunch of girls that I’m playing with.

“I’m playing with my best friends, and just to do it for the club, I actually can’t really put it into words. I just get emotional thinking about it, but I would just love to give back.

“So many people have put so much into this team. And as I said, it’s not just for a year or two years, but under Colin Moran and Niamh Fitz (Niamh Fitzgerald), they’ve put in so much and they’ve given so much, and people tend to forget sometimes that this is not their job.

“They’re like most of the people that help out, the volunteers, and they have to run their own businesses or go to their own jobs as well as doing this. So it’s just (that) I’m just very grateful and privileged to be in the position that I am in.”

While Doran grew up in Kildare town and only began to play rugby in 2015 with Cill Dara, an hour up the road in Dunboyne, Murray picked up the sport at the later age of 17.

Lining out for local club Garda Westmanstown, Murray also had ties to Barnhall where her brother and dad both played. She also gained a scholarship to Maynooth University, where she studied Business and Geography. She is now a secondary school teacher, teaching those two subjects.

The 26-year-old is currently the oldest player on the Barnhall team, one year older than her fellow co-captain. She admits it is such a special feeling to join Doran in sharing the captaincy duties having both been on this journey together with the Leixlip-based club.

“It’s really special, to be honest. It’s class being able to do it with someone who you’ve played with the last six or so years and won and lost so many different things together,” acknowledged Murray.

“So, yeah, it’s really nice, and I’m excited to hopefully win some more this weekend. I wouldn’t have known Katelynn that well at all, but we played the last six or seven seasons – I don’t know how many seasons it was together.

“We started in Division 3 of the Leinster League, and then we went 3, 2, 1. And then we won a few other bits along the way as well together. So it’s actually quite special that we get to do it together this year.

“I think we work really well together because I think we have two completely different personalities as well in that way. And then, Katelynn’s kind of the pack leader, and then I’d lead the backs.

“She works with the forwards a lot, and I work with the backs because that’s our roles between ourselves. I’m literally the oldest person on the team, which makes me feel very old, but I feel like I’m not that old!”

Doran echoed those sentiments when also speaking about the co-captaincy dynamic, saying: “To be able to go out onto that pitch alongside Órfhlaith, me and Órfhlaith joined Barnhalll the same year and we’ve been playing ever since.

“So to walk out onto the pitch as co-captains,  I couldn’t write it, and I couldn’t ask for a better co-captain or team to walk onto the pitch with.”

From her first day with Barnhall, Doran had always dreamed big. Despite being relegated from Division 2 that year, she has always had her eyes set on bringing the club to All-Ireland League level.

For the last number of years they have knocked on the door in Leinster, and currently sit top of the Division 1 table with an unblemished record.

Moran, the IRFU National Training and Education Manager, sat down with Doran back then, and while she felt many would laugh her out the door for talking about reaching the All-Ireland League, he reassured her that they would do their utmost to get there.

Fitzgerald’s charges have been riding the crest of a wave in recent seasons, and Doran believes the club are ready to make that step up to the AIL and are hopeful they can do it this year.

“That’s been the dream since 2017. I walked onto the team in 2017, to a phenomenal coach in Colin Moran. And me and Colin sat down at the very beginning, and he was like, ‘what’s your goals, Katelynn, what do you want to get out of this?’.

“I was like, ‘I want to bring Barnhall to the AIL’. And most coaches would laugh you off the pitch. I don’t think the girls won a game in that season.

“So most coaches would laugh you off the pitch, but Colin was like, ‘we’ll get you there’. And he did everything in his power and put all the implements in place to try and get us there.

“Then season after season, that season we went up to Division 3. Then from Division 3, we went up to Division 2. Then Covid put a pause on it for a year, but then when we got to play in Division 2, we played and we went straight up to Division 1.

“We’ve been in Division 1 now the last few years. The first year we were in Division 1, we won, but there was a lock on AIL, so there was no promotion or relegation play-off there. Last year we were knocking on the door, but obviously Tullow took the win up.

“But we were there or thereabouts. We played Tullow and beat them 32-0 just before they went up to the AIL, so we’re ready for it. We just hope we get the opportunity to finally go up into it.”

First they have to play this weekend’s final which is the second that Murray will compete in, having transferred fully to All-Ireland League club Suttonians in the 2022/23 season, which saw her miss out on the inaugural final win over Tullamore.

While she missed out that year, she got the chance to play last season and enjoyed the experience, noting that it does not come around too often.

She is impressed by the amount of talent coming through the ranks at Barnhall, including the underage players who have added an extra dimension to the squad in terms of competition for places.

Having faced Malone at Gibson Park last year and come out on top with a hard-earned 24-15 win victory, Murray is aware of the threats they will bring to Sunday’s decider in Dundalk.

“It was class and in Women’s rugby, I don’t think that finals come along too often, so it’s really nice to have been in a few. Like last year we were in two different finals, which is kind of rare in rugby,” she highlighted.

Barnhall has been in a good few finals and divisional play-offs and stuff like this, so it’s really nice to be able to do that. I suppose that’s why it means so much because you’ve been there from, I suppose, the building stages of it.

“Then even those girls that are retired now, they’re all still around, supporting the games and stuff, so it’s really, really nice.

“It’s class seeing the talent that’s coming through the scholarship (programme) and then as well from the underage. Like the underage systems in Barnhall are really good as well. So from both of those feeders, it’s amazing. The talent that’s coming up is crazy.

“We have 18-year-olds that are playing rugby as if they’ve been playing senior rugby for donkey’s years, and then we have girls to back that up that have been around for the last three or fours years.

“The standard is class, and we have so many numbers at training as well, over 45 players some nights. The competition that we have this year, it just makes everyone so much better as well.”

She added: “Malone are a really good team. I remember playing them. We played them in the first round of this competition last year, and it was a really tight game.

“I think they’re an experienced team as well, so they’ll know what they’re doing.We just have to prepare really well for them and see what happens on the day. It’s a final, so everyone’s going to be up for it. I imagine it’ll be a tight game again.”

Doran will be looking to win her third Junior Cup crown, and coming in as favourites given they have been the standard bearers the last two years, she says they will be training hard this week and hoping to make their experience count on the day.

“It’s right there in front of us, we just have to go out now on Sunday and put everything aside, forget about the two that we have, and just focus on the one that’s in front of us,” she insisted.

“Hopefully all the training that we put in just brings that one home. People can say we’re the favourites. That’s not the way we’re going to be training. We’re going to be training as hard as any other game.

“We played Malone last year, we had to go up to them, so we know how hard it is. On that day, we were lucky. We came out on top but very slightly. We scored four tries, and they scored three. It was very close, so we still have that in the back of our minds.

“But we have a new team, we’re training harder, we’re more gelled, so hopefully that stands to us. You can’t put a price on experience, like experience going into a final. It’s so hard to come by.

“Finals are so hard to come by, so gaining that much experience, playing on those big days is hard to come by too.

“We’re just so privileged in Barnhall that we got so lucky to make it to a number of finals in the last few years. So hopefully we know how to play with our cool heads and just put everything into action.”