Stillorgan RFC is an Irish rugby

Rugby union

Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...

 team based in County Dublin

County Dublin

County Dublin is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Dublin Region and is also located in the province of Leinster. It is named after the city of Dublin which is the capital of Ireland. County Dublin was one of the first of the parts of Ireland to be shired by King John of England following the...

. They play in the Leinster Metropolitan League and will be playing at J2A level in 2011/2012 season after being promoted from J3 level in 2009. There are also teams playing at J4 and J5 standard. The club prides itself in an open door policy so whether novice or expert all are welcome as the range of teams suits all needs. The club has members from Poland, Canada, Russia, France, Spain and even Mexico. The club has featured on many television documentaries as a result of its cultural diversity and in particular its strong Mexican contingent.

The club colours are maroon, white and navy and are proudly sponsored by VW Asteca (www.vwazteca.ie), Heavey Technology, PC Peripherals and The Dropping Well Bar and Restaurant in Milltown.

Club delegates

Position	Name	Nationality
Chairman	Richie "Dick" McMahon
J2 Captain	Padraig "Innocent Man" Shanahan
J4 Captain	Éamonn "Golden Hands" Ó Hannracháin
J5 Captain	Ciaran "DJ Midget" Lehane

Current and former legends

Position	Name	Nationality
Centre	Paul "The Gap" Gorman
Winger	Brian "Slim" Treacy
Winger	Ross "AWOL" O'Donovan
Prop	Issel "Loadsa Names" Victor Olivera Dawn Smith	Mexico
Hooker	Daniel "Dummy Drop Goal" Shanahan

Club history

Stillorgan Rugby Club (formerly known as Salesians RFC) was founded and first registered with the Leinster Branch of rugby in 1973, when a group of former pupils from schools run by the Salesian fathers themselves playing together in Dublin. Most were a long way from home and had attended school in the Salesian colleges Pallaskenry, Limerick, Warranstown in Meath and Ballinakill in County Laois.

The application was made to the Leinster Branch, who had to be satisfied that the club had a home pitch, complete with dressing rooms and showers. After a bit of searching a pitch of sorts was found in Maynooth and the application was approved Salesians played their first season at J3 level in the '73 to '74 season with moderate success and were soon fielding two teams. The first team colours were red jerseys with black collars and cuffs and black shorts. The club strip was changed in 1978 to reflect the school colours of the new salesian college recently opened in Celbridge. Despite being over 35 years old, Stillorgan is still one of the youngest clubs in Dublin. Stillorgan suffered in the early eighties when many of its founding members retired and the club was forced to move its homeground to the Royal Hospital Kilmainham. In the 86/87 season the club moved to CUS Sports Grounds Bird Avenue and this has ensured the clubs growth and existence and today it comfortably fields 3 teams in the various leagues and cups. The Stillorgan rugby club has a long a proud tradition of playing rugby and enjoying themselves. If they were as good at the former as they are at the latter they would have been All Ireland champions several times over. However in recent years the Stillorgan firsts have won cups, pennants and league sections. In recent times the firsts have won the Leinster J3 Section B Pennant and Leinster J3 League Title.http://www.irishrugby.ie/23_16843.php

Playing on the CUS pitches on Bird Avenue for time immemorial, this truly historic playing ground has given many memorable moments to the many crowds that congregate every weekend to view the champagne rugby that Stillorgan have perfected.

J2B League Promotion and Cup

After a very promising start in their J2 career Stillorgan managed to clinch promotion to the J2A league in the first year at J2B standard. A feat that was well justified by some great wins home and away. The team character that is is were very disappointed not to go that step further and win the league outright but two poor performances in the year made this fairy tale a step too far. A very strong league run ensured 2nd place and promotion but due to a restructuring of the league SRFC will again play in Section B for 2010/2011.

Date	Home	Score	Away	Competition
3 October 2009	Stillorgan	23 - 2013	Bective Rangers	J2B League
10 October 2009	Wanderers	8 - 2023	Stillorgan	J2B League
17 October 2009	Old Wesley	16 - 2026	Stillorgan	J2B League
31 October 2009	Stillorgan	13 - 2015	Guinness	J2B League
7 November 2009	DLSP	6 - 2012	Stillorgan	J2B League
14 November 2009	UCD	20 - 2026	Stillorgan	J2B League
26 November 2009	Seapoint	19 - 2023	Stillorgan	Friendly
12 December 2009	Bective Rangers	21 - 6	Stillorgan	J2B League
23 January 2010	Guinness	11 - 6	Stillorgan	J2B League
30 January 2010	Stillorgan	58 - 7	DLSP	J2B League
13 February 2010	Stillorgan	10 - 8	Old Wesley	J2B League
21 February 2010	Stillorgan	25 - 2012	UCD	J2B League
6 March 2010	Stillorgan	50 - 0	Wanderers	J2B League
22 March 2010	Old Belvedere J2A	7 - 3	Stillorgan	Friendly

J2 Albert O'Connell Cup 2010

With a bye in the first round, Stillorgan's cup campaign got off to comprehensive win over De La Salle Palmerston. Having already accounted for the South County Dublin team twice in the league it was a hat trick of victories as Stillorgan ran out easy winners and if they didn't take the foot off the pedal probably could have won by more.

The Quarter Final meeting with Bective Rangers made a 1st versus 2nd of the J2B League a match to look forward to and it lived up to expectation. With a victory each in the league neither team would under estimate the opposition and a tight game in Donnybrook was always going to be the outcome. After conceding an easy early penalty Stillorgan got their act together and through brilliant forward play from set pieces manages to push a hole through the Bective defence twice for Full-Back Mark Harnett and Second Row Daniel Shanahan to touch down and leave the half time score 15-3 to the visitors.

After 20 minutes of tough slogging where both teams had scoring chances narrowly averted Bectives pressure finally told with ten minutes to go converting a try leaving a nervous final ten minutes for Stillorgan to hang on. Hang on they did and a semi final place was assured by some stout defending and cool heads at the break down.

The reward of this great victory is a home semi-final against J2A side Blackrock College who defeated J"A league Winners Clontaf to get to this stage of the competition. This was unfortunately was the second cup semi final defeat in as many years but having gone up a division and competing against teams in a division above them this was no mean feat.

Date	Home	Score	Away	Competition
27 March 2010	DLSP	5 - 2033	Stillorgan	2nd Round Cup
10 April 2010	Bective Rangers	10 - 2015	Stillorgan	J2 Cup Quarter Final
17 April 2010	Stillorgan	-	Blackrock College	J2 Cup Semi Final

J3 League Winners 2008/09 and Promotion

In Donnybrook in front of a crowd of 12,568 Stillorgan captured their first J3 league title in the clubs history. An 18 - 6 win against DLSP.

Stillorgan RFC went unbeaten through the whole regulation season, winning 12 games out of 12 before the play-offs. They are the only team in Leinster to achieve that feat.
The final was a close affair with Stillorgan's two tries ultimately being the difference between the teams. The first try was scored early on after a scrambled intercept inside their own half.

Great teamwork and support was shown then with six players touching the ball before Finian Finn scored to the right of the posts. The conversion was added by Tim Twomey.

In the second half, a fantastic break through the centre by Peter Hynes cut right through the DLSP defence.

He offloaded to Twomey on the wing to score in the corner. DLSP came close to scoring on a number of occasions but just could not get over the try-line.

Date	Home	Score	Away	Competition
12 October 2008	St. Marys College	7 - 2018	Stillorgan	J3 League
19 October 2008	Stillorgan	55 - 7	Skerries	J3 League
2 November 2008	Stillorgan	19 - 2012	Barnhall	J3 League
9 November 2008	DLSP	8 - 2020	Stillorgan	J3 League
16 November 2008	Stillorgan	20 - 8	Suttonians	J3 League
30 November 2008	Old Belvedere	w/o	Stillorgan	J3 League
7 December 2008	Stillorgan	65 - 0	Dublin University	J3 League
11 January 2009	Stillorgan	20 - 0	St Marys College	J3 League
24 January 2009	Barnhall	3 - 2026	Stillorgan	J3 League
22 February 2009	Stillorgan	27 - 2012	Old Belvedere	J3 League
1 March 2009	Dublin University	3 - 2034	Stillorgan	J3 League
8 March 2009	Stillorgan	6 - 5	DLSP	J3 League
15 March 2009	Suttonians	5 - 2031	Stillorgan	J3 League
22 March 2009	Stillorgan	45 - 8	Monkstown	J3 League SEMI FINAL
22 March 2009	Stillorgan	18 - 6	DLSP	J3 League FINAL

J3 Moran Cup 2009

After an agonisingly close encounter in Bird Avenue and numerous chances to clinch the win Stillorgans dream of the double were dashed and season ended with a 3 point defeat to eventual cup winners Lansdowne in a very hard fought battle after extra time.

{| class="wikitable" border="2"
|-
{| class="wikitable" border="1"
|-
! Date
! Home
! Score
! Away
! Competition
|-
| 8 April 2009
| Stillorgan
| bye
|
| 1st Round
|-
| 16 April 2009
| Stillorgan
| 12 - 0
| Old Belvedere
| Quarter Final
|-
| 23 April 2009
| Stillorgan
| 16 - 19 (aet)
| Lansdowne
| Semi Final
|-
|}