Plenty of comings and goings at Nenagh Ormond ahead of the new league season

A new club rugby campaign is almost upon us as Nenagh Ormond hope it will be third time lucky in their quest to make it out of Ulster Bank League Division 2A when they began away to Navan this Saturday.

Over the last two seasons, Nenagh have been at the business end of the division, however have missed out on automatic promotion, as well as through the playoffs, despite making it to the finals on each occasion where they fell to Dolphin and City of Armagh respectively.

Ensuring they get at least a home playoff spot if they fail to win the division outright is one of the main aims for Nenagh this season but it could take a few weeks for them to find their feet.

Ivan Muldoon has moved on after two years as coach with Dermot Dunne coming in as coach after a couple of successful seasons at junior level with Kilkenny and is currently involved with the Cistercian College senior team.

Stephen Carey has returned home from Poland were he was working for the last couple of years and not only is he returning to the playing ranks, he is take over as backs coach from Derek Corcoran who has moved onto a similar role at Young Munster.

Indeed, Ormond was have been heavily hit by switches to some of the big Limerick city clubs with Kiwi Clayton Stewart joining Corcoran at Tom Clifford Park, Kevin Seymour to Garryowen while centre Willie O'Connor and wing/full back have moved to Shannon. Allied to the retirements of Eoin Gardiner, Michael Slattery and Conor Muldoon, it has robbed Nenagh Ormond of a wealth of experience and quality.

“It could be six weeks too early for us,” said Eoin O'Callaghan (who has become joint-manager of the team with John Long) of being ready to hit the ground running because of the huge overhaul to the coaching and playing staff since the end of the last campaign.

 

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