MINIS SECTION – Building for the Future – Quite Literally
The 2025/26 season was another memorable one for Minis and Youth rugby at Terenure College RFC. And this year, when we say we are building for the future, we mean it quite literally.
The ongoing redevelopment and upgrading of our club facilities has been hugely exciting and will provide a fantastic platform for generations of Terenure players to come. It also meant that, for much of the season, Lakelands occasionally resembled a building site that happened to have a rugby club operating in the middle of it.
Barriers moved, routes changed, familiar landmarks disappeared and parents discovered that getting a child from the car to the correct pitch could require the navigational skills of an Arctic explorer. Through it all, rugby carried on. And somehow, it made the season all the more enjoyable.
Our coaches, managers, parents, volunteers and players adapted brilliantly. Space was shared, plans were changed and everybody got on with it. If anything, the disruption reinforced the sense of community within Minis and Youth rugby. We knew what was being created, we knew there would be a little inconvenience along the way, and we knew the end result would be worth it.
There was also something fitting about watching the physical development of the club happening alongside the development of hundreds of young rugby players every weekend. One involved concrete, machinery and construction equipment. The other involved cones, gumshields and an extraordinary number of missing water bottles. Both are investments in Terenure’s future.
SUNDAY MORNINGS IN LAKELANDS
Despite everything going on around us, Sunday mornings remained Sunday mornings.
From the youngest players taking their first steps in rugby to those preparing to move into the Youth ranks, Lakelands continued to be filled with the noise, colour and controlled chaos that make Minis rugby such an important part of club life.
Our objective remains straightforward: introduce children to rugby, help them develop their skills and make sure they enjoy themselves enough to come back the following week.
Of course, somewhere along the way they also learn teamwork, respect, resilience and the importance of supporting the person beside them. Friendships develop between players and, just as importantly, between families.
Before long, the people you once nodded politely to on a wet Sunday morning have become the same people you’re sharing a bus, hotel or airport with on a rugby tour. Which brings us neatly to Belfast and Parma…
U9s- Belfast Bound
This season our U9s headed north to Belfast for one of the great milestones in any young Terenure player’s career: the first proper rugby tour.
The excitement levels were high from the moment the trip began. For the players, it was an opportunity to travel with their teammates, play against new opposition and represent Terenure away from Lakelands.
For the adults, it was an opportunity to discover exactly how much noise a group of nine-year-olds can generate while travelling together.
The U9s were terrific ambassadors for the club. There was plenty of rugby, plenty of fun and the type of camaraderie that makes these trips so worthwhile.
At this age, nobody will remember every score or result. They will, however, remember getting on that bus with their friends, pulling on the Terenure jersey in Belfast and feeling that they were representing their club. That is what touring is all about.
U12s- Back to Parma
Last year’s trip to Parma was apparently such a success that the obvious solution was to do it all again. So, for the second successive year, our U12s headed to Parma, Italy.
The tour once again gave our players the opportunity to experience rugby in a different country, test themselves against unfamiliar opposition and represent Terenure on an international stage.
The rugby was important, naturally.
But tours are about far more than rugby. Travelling together, eating together, experiencing another culture and spending a few days away with teammates creates bonds that simply cannot be replicated during an hour’s training at Lakelands.
There was Italian rugby, Italian hospitality and, naturally, extensive research into the nutritional benefits of pizza, pasta and gelato.
We are pleased to report that further research may be required.
Returning to Parma for a second successive season also says something about the ambition within our Minis programme. These are wonderful experiences for young players and families, and the memories created will hopefully stay with them long after the boots no longer fit.
YOUTH RUGBY – Growing Up Without Growing Sensible
Moving from Minis into Youth rugby brings a different challenge. Matches become more competitive, training becomes more demanding and suddenly the players who seemed very small only a few seasons ago are considerably larger than some of their coaches. The principles, however, remain the same.
We want young players to develop, compete, enjoy their rugby and remain part of the club.
Our U16 boys deserve particular recognition after completing a superb unbeaten season. It was a fantastic achievement from a group whose success was based on talent, commitment and, most importantly, playing for one another. Going unbeaten is never easy and is something the players and coaches should be extremely proud of.
We also had two excellent examples this season of rugby putting community ahead of rivalry through our amalgamated boys’ teams at U14 and U16. Yes, once again, the hand of friendship reached across the battle lines into Templeville. There are limits, obviously.
But ensuring young players have the opportunity to play rugby is more important than any local rivalry. Our amalgamated teams demonstrated what can be achieved when clubs work together for the benefit of young players.
On match day, rivalries can resume as normal. But away from that, cooperation between neighbouring clubs strengthens youth rugby for everybody.
We might not agree on everything across those particular battle lines, but we can certainly agree that keeping young people playing rugby is worth working together for.
GIRLS RUGBY – From Unicorns to Senior Rugby
Few areas demonstrate the progress being made at Terenure better than our girls’ rugby programme. We now have a vibrant pathway stretching from our wonderful U6 Unicorns right through to U18s.
Every weekend, girls are arriving at Lakelands to learn the game, develop their skills, compete, make friends and become part of Terenure College RFC. That growth hasn’t happened by accident.
It is the result of an enormous amount of work over many years by coaches, managers, volunteers, parents and players who believed that we could create a genuine rugby pathway for girls at Terenure.
WOMENS RUGBY
And this year we are about to take perhaps the most significant step yet. Terenure College RFC is preparing to launch its first adult women’s rugby team. That is a milestone worthy of real celebration.
For the first time, the pathway we have been working to create will stretch all the way from a young girl arriving as an U6 Unicorn to the opportunity to play adult rugby in a Terenure jersey. That matters.
It gives our younger players something tangible to aspire to and reinforces the importance of all the work being done throughout Minis and Youth girls’ rugby.
Our first adult women’s team will rightly make its own history, but it will also represent the efforts of the many people who have spent years coaching, organising, recruiting, encouraging and occasionally persuading girls to turn up on freezing Sunday mornings.
The Unicorns now have somewhere to go.
And we suspect they’ll get there quicker than we think.
Building More Than a Clubhouse
Perhaps that is the best way to describe 2025/26.
All season, we have been surrounded by visible signs of change.
CLUB REDEVELOPMENT
The redevelopment of our facilities represents an enormous investment in the future of Terenure College RFC. There were inevitable challenges involved in running a busy rugby programme alongside a major building project, but our Minis and Youth community embraced them with remarkable good humour.
We squeezed in. We moved around. We improvised. We probably ignored a few signs we shouldn’t have. And we played rugby.
The unity shown throughout the season reminded us that facilities are hugely important, but they are not what ultimately makes a rugby club. People do.
The coaches who arrive early to set up pitches. The managers sending messages at hours when no sane person should be discussing gumshields. The parents driving across Dublin – and occasionally to Belfast or Parma. The volunteers who solve problems before most people even realise there is a problem.
And, above all, the young players who arrive every week wanting to play rugby with their friends. The bricks, concrete and steel going into Lakelands will give us facilities of which we can be enormously proud.
But alongside that construction project, another one has been taking place. From U6 Unicorns to U18s, from our Minis to our Youths, from Belfast to Parma, from unbeaten U16s to amalgamated teams reaching across to Templeville, we are building players, friendships, teams and a community.
And with our first adult women’s team about to take the field, one of those pathways is about to become complete.
So when the dust finally settles, the barriers disappear and everyone works out where the new entrance is, we will have much more than upgraded facilities. We will have a stronger club ready for the next generation.
To every coach, manager, volunteer and parent who helped keep the show on the road while the builders were getting on with building the road – THANK YOU, SINCERELY.
And to every young player who pulled on the Terenure jersey this season, thank you for reminding us why we’re building it in the first place.
The future at Lakelands is under construction – and it’s looking very good indeed.
Onwards Terenure
Yours in rugby
Stephen Slattery
Chairman if Mini & Youth Rugby