University College Cork Rugby Football Club currently plays in Division 1B of the All-Ireland League. Founded in 1872, they originally played as ''Queen’s College Cork'', as UCC was then known. Recent successes include winning the All Ireland U-20 Championship in 2002. In the same year, they also reached the AIB League playoffs for the first time, narrowly missing out on promotion to Division 1. Leading players in that team included

Denis Leamy Denis Patrick Leamy (born 27 November 1981) is an Irish former rugby union player who is currently part of the coaching team with Munster. He was a back-row forward who could play either flanker or at number 8, and occasionally played at cent ...

, Stephen Keogh and

Frank Murphy William Francis Murphy (April 13, 1890July 19, 1949) was an American politician, lawyer and jurist from Michigan. He was a Democrat who was named to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1940 after a political career that included serving ...

, all of whom went on to play for

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 ...

Honours

* All-Ireland Cup **1935-36: 1 * Munster Senior League **1913, 1914, 1931, 1933. 1934, 1936, 1942 1943, 1945, 1950, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1974, 1978, 1981, 1985: 17 * Munster Senior Cup **1887, 1888, 1897, 1900, 1901, 1912, 1913, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1939, 1941, 1950, 1951, 1955, 1963, 1976, 1981: 18 *

Munster Junior Cup The Munster Junior Cup is a rugby union competition played in the province of Munster, Ireland. The competition was established for the stronger junior clubs and the second teams of the Senior clubs in the province of Munster. The current champio ...

**1921, 1933, 1950, 1953, 1963, 1967, 1969, 1975, 1977, 1979: 10

Notable former players

Ireland

In 1879 Ashley Cummins became the first UCC player to represent

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Since then at least 55 UCC players have played for the full national team. 34 of these played for Ireland while still playing for UCC.

Donal Lenihan Donal Gerard Lenihan (born 12 September 1959) is a retired Irish rugby union player. He appears regularly as a co-commentator on TV and radio for rugby matches and writes for the Irish Examiner. He also works as a financial consultant in Cork. ...

was the last UCC player to be capped by Ireland while still attached to the club.

British & Irish Lions

As well as representing

, at least nine UCC players also went on to represent the

British & Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

. At least two of these players, Mick Lane and

Tom Kiernan Thomas Joseph Kiernan (7 January 1939 – 3 February 2022) was an Ireland international rugby union player. He won 54 caps for Ireland as a full-back between 1960 and 1973 and captained his country 24 times. At the time of his retirement he wa ...

, were still UCC players when they toured with the Lions.''The Ireland Rugby Miscellany'' (2007): Ciaran Cronin

References

External links

Official site
{{Sport in Cork City

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 ...

Rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby league: 13 players per side *** Masters Rugby League *** Mod league *** Rugby league nines *** Rugby league sevens *** Touch (sport) *** Wheelchair rugby league ** Rugby union: 1 ...

Rugby union clubs in County Cork

Senior Irish rugby clubs (Munster) 1872 establishments in Ireland