Over the past 25 years or so Dolphin have played 17 Kiwis in the AIL but only a couple of Australians, Peter Owens & Rory O’Connor.

25 year old Rory O’Connor’ s parents both come from Waterford. He represented Australia U20’s in 2014. He decided to try for a contract with Munster and came over in the Australian off season. Played six times  in the front row for Dolphin Nov/Feb 15/16. He scored two tries in his final game, a 32-22 victory over Buccaneers, interestingly, the Buccaneers winger also scored two tries, his name, also Rory O’Connor.

In 2017 he got a short term contract with the Melbourne Rebels and when he returned to Warringah he was on the winning Shute Shield side (Sydney Premier Competition). The Civil Engineering student who teaches the Saxophone in his spare time, finally got his first full time contact for the 2020 season. While he missed the Rob Penny era in Munster by a season, it was Penny who gave him a two year contract for the Warratahs and he has already made his Super Rugby debut.

The other Australian who played for Dolphin and played Super Rugby was centre/wing Peter Owens. He was unlucky to get just the single cap for the Brumbies alongside  Stephen Larkham, George Smith, Owen Finnegan and Jeremy Paul. Lining out against him was former Munster and South African captain Jean de Villiers and Schalk Burger.

His 2 year contract finished with a serious leg injury in January 2006 but recovered sufficently to make 11 appearances in 2006/07 season for Dolphin scoring three tries.

Apart from playing for Dolphin they have another interesting thing in common, Peter also played for Warringah and he scored the final try in their 2005 (29-23 ) Shute Shield victory.

But it was 7’s where Peter made his mark, playing 51 time for Australia, making the all time top scoring charts.

Team: Australia

Players at World Rugby Sevens (All Time) 

Name Games Points Tries PPG
1 James Stannard 245 1239 68 5.05
18 Peter Owens 51 256 32 5.01