Family Influence Strong For Creggs

An all too familiar site for Creggs over the last number of seasons to be competing in this competition, in successive seasons they have also made it to the semi final stage of fighting for promotion to the Energia All Ireland League.

Getting over that first hurdle however in this competition has been tricky for the Westerners. In four previous attempts, two have resulted in one point defeats. The most recent they suffered a 27-26 defeat on the road to Newcastle West, while in the 2021-22 instalment, Kilfeacle & District prevailed 9-8 in Creggs.

Alongside that they were defeated in their first appearance back in 2018 by Division 2C outfit Clonmel, while two years ago they finished second best to Clogher Valley, who have recorded back to back promotions and are fighting it out in Division 2B of the All Ireland League.

Fourth time lucky perhaps for Creggs?. President Dave Purcell has seen a lot of growth in the club over the last number of years since he moved from Limerick, where he played underage rugby with Garryowen, to now being involved with the club on the Galway-Roscommon border.

In preparation Creggs have played two Cawley Cup games and one Connacht J1A League game this season, but have had to postpone a few games at the start of the season due to other obligations. Speaking to irishRugby.ie Purcell spoke of their unlucky nature in the competition over the last number of years, as the competition begins right as some players return from their local GAA commitments.

“We have been a bit unfortunate in the last couple of years, got very close to Kilfeacle a couple of years ago probably should have won that one on a rotten day in Creggs. A high scoring game against Newcastle West last year and then a couple years back lost to Clogher Valley, who have gone on to bigger and better things. Anytime you are getting out of your own province and playing at a high standard and you’re not meeting the same teams that you normally are, it’s good for the club.

The first round of this competition tends to fall just at the end of our GAA season, so there’s lots of fellas still only coming back. The county final was only in Roscommon last weekend, two of my own lads were involved in it. So these lads are only returning to rugby this week because of the football finals and also a couple of injuries, playing at that level it’s attritional, you need a big squad and I suppose over the last couple of years we found out that you take a couple of injuries and then all of a sudden you are thread thin.

We have been a bit unlucky but the team has acquitted themselves very well in the last couple of years. It’s not ideal, you’d prefer to be going into these games with more miles under the belt. That’s just not possible, we will go out there, we will be fresh, we don’t have the same level of injuries in previous years, there’s pro’s and con’s to both. You won’t know until the end of 80 minutes whether going in fresh is an advantage or disadvantage.”

This year is a special one for Creggs. 50 years since their foundation. Reaping the fruits of their labour, the underage structure has flourished over the last number of seasons, with predominantly local players coming into the squad, with the CBS Roscommon having become a big driving force in recent years.

Of that generation coming through the club, Purcell has three sons lining out this weekend, Shane, Mark and Ciaran, who also donned the Connacht jersey earlier this year, part of the Junior Interprovincial team that lined out in a clash with Leinster in Creggs. Purcell senior, has been involved with coaching underage in Creggs and also CBS Roscommon for many years, many of those players will take to the field on Saturday. Purcell admits it will be a proud moment to see all three sons involved, also believing the club would love a run at Junior Cup success this year after many years of heartache.

“Creggs are 50 years old as a club this year, founded in 1974. Nearly every single one of the lads would have come through the youths system, and I have had the privilege of coaching most of them from 13 to 18. They are a good bunch of lads, rugby really took off in Creggs from a youth point of view when we launched rugby in the CBS Roscommon and I have been involved there for the last 12 years as well.

“Most of the lads would be fairly local, Brian Diffily who has been captain for the last number of years, James Brandon who went to the
Cistercian in Roscrea, he is captain this year. My own son Shane Purcell as 10, would have done a year at MU Barnhall before coming back, my other son Mark, during the Covid years played in the Irish Clubs and Schools squad.

The three boys along with Brian Diffily and a few others played with the Connacht Juniors during the summer, it is obviously a proud moment for me to have three sons involved. Creggs would love to go on a run in the Junior Cup this year, we don’t make any bones about it, we were unlucky in the last couple of years, this year we would love to go on a run. As a club we need it, the lads have great desire to go on and play All Ireland League, we are a GAA interland club prominently so at the end of the day we are just trying to develop lads as best we can and get a good squad to have a good run in this AIL Cup.”

Tullow will be a big topic of discussion in the Purcell household all week, along with the three sons playing on Saturday, Dave’s daughter Sarah, who made her debut with the Connacht Senior Women in their recent Interprovincial campaign, will take on Tullow’s female counterparts in the colours of Galwegians in the Energia All Ireland League Women’s Division that evening at 5:30pm.

On the topic of colours, a change of jersey will be required at the weekend as both Tullow and Creggs wear the same colours, including identical sponsors!. As mentioned this is no unfamiliar test for Creggs, along with four attempts at trying to advance in this competition, they suffered defeats to Richmond in 2023 and Ballyclare earlier this year in the Energia All-Ireland Men’s Provincial League Championship Semi-Finals.

With a young squad, Purcell admits the team were quite young going into those games but gained experience at the same time, however with their development squad promoted to J1B this year, they have a lot more viable options to have a big squad to cover if needed, which they did not have in recent years. It all begins this weekend against Tullow, certainly not a sister club of Creggs, going off their colours and sponsor similarities.

“We know a bit about Tullow, funnily enough they wear the same colours as us and are also main sponsored by Murray Timber as we are. We will be like sister clubs playing them at the weekend. The lads will really look forward to it, to pit yourself against the best of other provinces. We played Ashbourne in the last couple of years, we played Clogher Valley in the last couple of years, who have gone on to promotion after promotion. Ballyclare, Richmond out of Limerick in a semi-final a couple of years back as well, each of these occasions is experience for the lads. We have a very very young bunch of lads. Yes now the bones of them are getting to 24 probably hitting 25, most of the team would be in that age group and below.

In the last couple of years they were 24, 23, 22, 21, they were young to be heading into that, we didn’t have the squad size required. But hopefully now the lads have worked hard to get them in the right place, our development squad got promoted last year and are playing J1B, they are giving us viable options and lads are playing good rugby. We would hope to have the squad and guys that can fit in seamlessly and cover for guys if we do have the injuries, hopefully we don’t have the injuries.”

Energia Men’s All-Ireland Junior Cup

Saturday, October 26, all matches 14:30 unless stated

Connemara v City of Derry, Monastery Field
Cooke v Kilfeacle & District, Shaws Bridge
Dunmore v Seapoint, Fairgreen Pitches
Enniskillen v Tuam, Ardgart
Mallow v Bective Rangers, The Beeches
Suttonians v Newcastle West, JJ MCDowell Memorial Ground
Thomond v Dromore, Liam Fitzgerald Park
Tullow v Creggs, Rathoe Road