Congratulations to Niall Scannell who has been selected for the 8th Rugby World Cup, the 4th Dolphin player to do so for Ireland and the first since 1995. Terry Kingston was in the 87/91 & 95 (as captain), Michael Kiernan in 87 and Jack Clarke in 91.
There have been others with Dolphin connections, can any other Irish side say that two head coaches in the same year played for them.
In 1987 the USA Head coach was a man who played with Dolphin in his younger days, George Hook. The official Irish Coach that year was Mick Doyle but he suffered a heart attack at the opening dinner. Mick played for many sides, he played just twice for Dolphin in the Munster Senior Cup, the first game preceded an Irish International which qualifies him as a Dolphin International.
In 1991 Fergus Aherne was scrumhalf, and playing with Lansdowne,three years earlier he earned his first cap when with Dophin.
In 1995, Darragh O’Mahony (UCD) featured for Ireland, before moving to Saracens and back to Dolphin for 2 seasons, 2004-2006.
Also in 1995 & 1999 was a future Dolphin coach, David Corkery. In 2003/2007 there was no Dolphin representative, but we all supported the son of our present Chairman, John Stringer.
As we await the confirmation of other squads, we could see 3 players who played AIL for Dolphin involved in the 2019 World Cup.
Hopefully John Quill will be selected for his 2nd World Cup, and Niall, if you play against Samoa, don’t forget to ask the Head Coach, did you die for Dolphin- our 1997-98 No 8, Steve Jackson.