(From the Dolphin February Newsletter)
It’s a name that will not be familiar to Dolphin members, he played in the 1923 Final Irish Trial, listed as London Irish & Dolphin. How he got there was unusual as was his lack of representative experience.
He does not appear in contemporary newspapers representing Dolphin, but was on the London Irish Wales tour in December 1922.
Interpro’s were just seen as Irish Trials and were held just ahead of the Final Trial, on 10th January Munster played Ulster. The Munster scrum half cried off and was replaced by O’Malley making his Munster debut. He made a better impression on the Irish Big 5 than the Munster selectors as he was dropped for the Leinster game days later but had impressed enough to be named on the Possible side for the Final Trial.
The scrum half scored a try and while he did was not selected he received very positive press reaction and being talked about as the future Irish Scrumhalf. J B Gardiner was selected at scum half, but for the next match was moved to the centre. It was not to be for O’Malley, the next scrum half was W Cunningham who was out half in the Final Trial.
He never played for Munster again, he turned up on the possible side on the Leinster Trial Teams the following December but there is no record of him playing an interpro again. So he scored in the Final Trial, less than 3 weeks after his only provincial appearance. He was a regular December tourist with London Irish, being on the first London Irish side to visit Belfast in 1924. He also represented St Thomas’s Hospital captaining them in 1927.