By Ralph Mills, CWR Assistant Coach
In the winter of 2013, in the corner of a Castle Avenue rugby pitch that the floodlights never quite reached, twelve women took turns smashing tackle bags into the freezing mud.
They were cold, they were tired, and they hadn’t won a match all season, but still they kept getting up and hitting the bags, time and time again.
For those pioneers of women’s rugby at Clontarf, the adversity was only strengthening their bond.
Flash forward to 2026, and a core of those women still play for Clontarf, though they would barely recognise the place, or themselves, from those old days.
Now, the 4G pitch fills every Sunday with girls’ age-group teams, in one of only two clubs in Leinster to provide a pathway in the female game from minis through to seniors.
Bemused by the idea that rugby was ever considered a ‘men’s game’, the new generation graduating from the juniors has lit up the senior team with its skill and confidence.
The CWR family celebrate promotion to Leinster Division 1 earlier this year.
The road to this point has been bumpy.
For the first decade of women’s rugby at Clontarf, the team searched for consistency through a succession of head coaches in a league structure growing bigger and tougher by the year.
The joy of promotion to Leinster Division Two in 2022 was followed by the pain of demotion the next season.
The turning point came with the appointment of ex-‘Tarf scrum half Tony Lawless as head coach in 2023. Lawless laid down a solid playing structure and instilled a steely self-belief in the players to back up their skill and enthusiasm.
The team were back in Leinster Division Two within a season, and by the end of his tenure last May, they had won promotion to Division One.
Just as significantly, in 2024 the squad expanded with the formation of a second team to compete in Leinster Division Four.
Clontarf could now offer an appropriate level of rugby for everyone, be they a novice converting from another sport, or an expert on the way to provincial or national honours.
This school of rugby has taken on current GAA players, whose combination of skills are always in demand, as well as basketballers, sailors, equestrians and an Aussie rules footballer.
They have gelled into the close-knit team that has won the Leinster Metro Plate two years running, once without conceding a point in the whole competition.
All this, without ever forgetting that rugby at this level is about the fun.
Under new head coach Dan Copperthwaite and forwards coach Kelvins Karani, the first team aims to shore up their position in Division One this season and prepare for a push to All Ireland League status in the not-too-distant future.
The squad was extremely proud to see the first of their number appear for the Ireland Under-20 women this year, though it highlights the need to recruit at a high level to supplement the home-grown talent.
The attractions of Clontarf FC – a community club close to the city, with a foothold in the top Leinster league and big ambitions for its women’s programme – will be clear to any player who finds themselves relocating to the Dublin area.
Meanwhile, the second team is determined to provide a warm welcome and a patient classroom to those learning the game, as well as a loving home to those who have served their time playing at a higher level, but just aren’t quite ready to hang up their boots.
It’s a very broad, very diverse coalition, but Clontarf FC has room for everyone.
If you’d like to know more about women’s rugby at Clontarf, contact Dan on 0896032067.
Training is on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7.15pm at the club on Castle Avenue.