Club Grounds

Prior to 1968 the club's games were played at Priory Park thanks to permission from the Jesuit Community. In 1975, after 7 years in Rathbane, the club bought Crescent College's old playing fields at our current home in Rosbrien. The clubhouse was built in the 1980s and development of the grounds and pitches has been an ongoing process since then. The clubhouse was extensively re-furbished in 2005.

Club History

Club Origins

In the mid 1940s Rev. J.G. Guinane S J. arrived to teach in Crescent College S.J. Limerick. A charismatic individual with a whiff of excitement about him, he had been in action during the war as a Chaplain with the Royal Ulster Rifles. He was passionate about the game of rugby and probably Old Crescent Rugby Football Club owes its existence to ”The Ginner“ as he came to be called. Taking over rugby training he set about winning the Munster Schools Cup and succeeded in 1947. He saw great potential in that winning team and persuaded them to stay and play together so in September of that year Old Crescent Rugby Football Club was founded and became a member club of the Munster Branch of the Irish Rugby Football Union. In 1952 the club was promoted to senior club member of the Branch and the Ginner‘s formidable negotiating skills were more than useful in the process. Father Guinane remained deeply involved with the club until his death.

The first President of the club was Ivan Harris father of the legendary Richard Harris, movie and stage star. .Richard started his adult rugby career with the club for a period after he finished at Crescent College (and appropriately Richard‘s big breakthrough as a film star was in 1963 playing the part of a rugby player in “This Sporting Life”). First club Captain was Paddy Berkery who in 1955 was capped as fullback for Ireland having moved to Dublin and joined Landsdowne

Membership of the club was initially confined to past pupils of Crescent College but it soon became apparent that this limited the club‘s growth and membership has been open to all applicants for many years. Contact is maintained with the school (now the Crescent College Comprehensive S.J.) where we are always willing to help promote rugby

On the Field

Father Guinane‘s belief in the original team was justified as in 1950/51 it reached the Munster Junior Cup final losing out to Cork Constitution five points to three and in 1954/55 again won through to the Munster Senior Cup final losing out in the end to UCC. Over the years progress on the field was mixed. In 1961/62 under the captaincy of Billy Leahy the club again reached the Munster Senior Cup Final only to lose to Bohemians. In 1976 the club won it‘s first senior trophy, the Limerick Charity Cup.

With the introduction of the All Ireland League in the 1990-91 season the focus of the senior game in Ireland changed from provincial to National . The League had two divisions in those early years, a first division of nine teams with two promotion/relegation places between the first and second division and a second division of ten teams with three promotion/relegation places from the winners of the provincial leagues. In 1991/92 Old Crescent won the Munster Senior League and went on to defeat the winners of the Leinster, Connacht, and Ulster Senior Leagues, Clontarf, Galwegians, and NIFC respectively. Old Crescent, Clontarf and Galwegians won promotion to the All Ireland League. Malone, CYMS and Sundays Well lost their places.

In 1995 / 96 under the captaincy of Diarmuid Reddan and the coaching team of Larry Greene, Jed O‘Dwyer and John Hogan, the club won the Division 2 title going undefeated in the league campaign and achieved promotion to Division 1. The team held their position in Division 1 for 2 years, then regained their place for a season in 1999 / 2000. Since then the team has been a constant challenger for promotion many times coming within a game of this. At junior level, the 3rd XV captained by Mike O‘Mara and managed by Eugene O'Riordan captured National honours by winning the Junior 2 Millennium Cup in 2001 / 02.

Changing Times

On 27th August 1995 the International Board decided that rugby football was to become an ”open“ game and rugby as a truly amateur game ceased to exist. To quote Edmund Van Esbeck from his impressive book Irish Rugby 1974-1999

it is no exaggeration to say that the announcement was received with utter dismay by the majority of people involved in the game, amateurism had given the game so many of its most appealing aspects. Rugby had evolved and prospered on the dedication, hard work, and goodwill of successive generations through the years. Now it had gone from being a game to being a business overnight.“

It was as if a gold rush had started. Top players saw or thought they saw an opportunity to earn big money.. Wealthy individuals saw or thought they saw an opportunity to own clubs on a par with the top soccer clubs. In the UK and France long established clubs were taken over under the guise of sponsorship. Professional clubs challenged the National Unions for control of the game. Money was poured into attracting top players from all over the world. The European Cup competition was announced. TV stations competed to show games. For a while money seemed to be no object and the only object. In Ireland also the illusions took hold, some clubs saw themselves as the Irish entrants into the European Cup. Some players sought payment for playing club games -even in front of only a few dozen supporters. For a while there was whiff of panic in the game as virtually every senior club was widely believed to be spending heavily in competing for players and on foreign players and coaches, and virtually every club did spend more than they could afford just to keep up with the competition.

In the years since the introduction of the All Ireland League and ten years into the professional era as things settle down some things have changed and some have changed little, Some long established clubs are struggling to survive while younger clubs thrive in the AIL. The IRFU to its credit kept its nerve and kept control of the professional game in Ireland for the benefit of the rugby community but the boundary between the club and professional game is still being explored. Clubs continue to play the game more or less in the traditional way, but. it has become a more demanding game, more expensive for clubs, more demanding of players time and commitment but still a great source of fun and friendship for all involved.