Liam O'Connor (born 13 July 1995) is an Irish former

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

player who played as a

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for

United Rugby Championship The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. The current name was adopted in 2021 when the league expanded to include four South Afr ...

club

Munster Munster ( gle, an Mhumhain or ) is one of the provinces of Ireland, in the south of Ireland. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" ( ga, rí ruirech). Following the ...

Early life

O'Connor was born in

Cork Cork or CORK may refer to: Materials * Cork (material), an impermeable buoyant plant product ** Cork (plug), a cylindrical or conical object used to seal a container ***Wine cork Places Ireland * Cork (city) ** Metropolitan Cork, also known as G ...

and first played rugby aged 7 with

Dolphin RFC Dolphin Rugby Football Club is a rugby union club in Cork. It was founded in 1902, by members of Dolphin Swimming Club seeking to find a wintertime activity. They play in Division 2A of the All-Ireland League. Former Irish Coach, Declan Kidn ...

. He then attended Christian Brothers College and represented the school in

Junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

and

Senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

Cup rugby. He has played for Munster at Under-18, Under-19, Under-20 and 'A' level, as well as representing Ireland at Under-19 and Under-20 level. O'Connor also played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

at underage level for Delaneys and, aged just 16, played

in goal IN, In or in may refer to: Places * India (country code IN) * Indiana, United States (postal code IN) * Ingolstadt, Germany (license plate code IN) * In, Russia, a town in the Jewish Autonomous Oblast Businesses and organizations * Independ ...

for St. Nicks in the

Cork Senior Football Championship The Cork Premier Senior Football Championship (known for sponsorship reasons as the Bon Secours Cork Premier Senior Hurling Championship and abbreviated to the Cork PSFC) is an annual club Gaelic football competition organised by the Cork Count ...

Munster

On 16 January 2016, O'Connor made his competitive debut for Munster when he came on as a substitute against

Stade Français Stade Français Paris Rugby () is a French professional rugby union club based in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The club plays in the Top 14 domestic league in France and is one of the most successful French clubs of the modern era. The ...

in a

2015–16 European Rugby Champions Cup The 2015–16 European Rugby Champions Cup was the second European Rugby Champions Cup championship (21st overall), the annual rugby union club competition for teams from the top six nations in European rugby. The European Rugby Champions Cup repl ...

fixture. O'Connor made his first start for Munster on 1 September 2017, doing so in the sides opening fixture of the

2017–18 Pro14 The 2017–18 PRO14 (also known as the ''Guinness PRO14'' for sponsorship reasons) was the seventeenth season of the professional rugby union competition originally known as the Pro14, Celtic League. It is the first season to be referred to as th ...

against Benetton. He signed a two-year senior contract with Munster in January 2018. O'Connor was nominated for the 2018 John McCarthy Award for Academy Player of the Year in April 2018. O'Connor made his return from a knee injury sustained during Munster's game against

Ospreys The osprey (''Pandion haliaetus''), , also called sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor reaching more than in length and across the wings. It is brown o ...

in December 2017 in their fixture against

Dragons A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

on 26 January 2019. O'Connor signed a two-year contract extension with Munster in January 2020, and signed a one-year contract extension in January 2022. He featured off the bench in Munster's historic 28–14 win against a South Africa XV in

Páirc Uí Chaoimh Páirc Uí Chaoimh ( ) is a Gaelic games stadium in Cork (city), Cork, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is the home of Cork GAA. The venue, often referred to simply as The Park, is located in Ballintemple, Cork, Ballintemple and is built near to ...

on 10 November 2022, but was forced to retire on medical grounds upon the conclusion of the 2022–23 season.

Honours

Munster

**Winner (1):

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

References

External links

*
Munster ProfileURC Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:OConnor, Liam Living people 1995 births People educated at Christian Brothers College, Cork Rugby union players from Cork (city) Irish rugby union players Cork Constitution players Munster Rugby players Rugby union props