President, Vice President and Club Officers 2021/22

Johnny is a past player and captain (1986/87) of DUFC from the 1980s where he played in a stellar backline which included Paul Clinch, Brendan Mullin and Fergus Dunlea. His teams were coached by Roly Meates and played a style of rugby that was open and exciting for both the players and supporters. He believes DUFC affords the opportunity for elite and junior players to develop and grow as rugby players, and people, while creating life-long friendships.

Johnny studied Mechanical Engineering and extended his stay in college through undertaking a post-graduate research project. He was educated at Moyle Park College, a non-rugby playing school, and represented Leinster U20s, Irish Universities, Leinster and won his first Irish international cap while in Trinity. Following college, he joined Lansdowne FC  where he won 3 further international caps, won 2 Leinster Senior Cups and was club Captain in 1993/94.

Johnny has spent 30 years in IT Consulting mainly in enterprise selling, sales management and business leadership. His experience has been with both multinational organisations and smaller businesses where he was both a director and shareholder. He is currently Business Development Director with Kainos in Ireland and is married with 3 adult children.

John attended Trinity College Dublin between 1979 and 1983, graduating with BA (Legal Science).  While playing with DUFC, John captained the Freshman team, toured Japan in !981, and got his colours in 1982 and 1983.  He was also Treasurer of DUFC in the 1982/83 season.

A past player and captain of the Club in the early 1970’s, John now lives in Saintfield Co. Down. He played for Campbell College, Ulster Schools and N.I.F.C. but his strong association with Trinity and Leinster rugby is reflected in his having played in four “Colours” and represented both the Combined Universities XV and Leinster at U.19 and U.21 levels. After Trinity he completed a rugby scholarship at U.C.L.A., where he played for the inaugural USA Cougars but a severe knee injury originally suffered in a Colours match finished his playing career. He had some success as a trophy winning coach at Ballynahinch Rugby Club. He considers it his privilege to have been a player, captain, President and now Chairman of the Club – living out the maxim, “D.U.F.C. – a Club for Life”. A BESS graduate, after a career as a Chartered Accountant and in Banking John is now retired with a couple of Director roles.

Details on the way

Peter played in the back-row for DUFC in the early 1970’s and between training sessions attended lectures for an Engineering degree. His work as a Civil Engineer and Project Manager has taken him the length and breadth of Ireland and to East Africa. On leaving college he played for Ballina RFC and represented Connaught A. A spell with Wanderers FC followed where he was a regular 1st XV member with other Trinity stalwarts Mick Fitzpatrick, Brendan Hyland and Val Cosgrave. Peter always maintained contact with DUFC and served as team manager in the 1990’s and Club President in 1998/99. He is the older brother of Michael, a former DUFC captain and Irish International in the 1970’s. He now has more time and is happy to be back as Hon Sec exemplifying the DUFC adage “a Club for Life”.

To follow…….

Born in England. Tony played his Rugby at St. Mary’s School, Puddletown; Puddletown RFC; Exeter RFC; and County rugby at all levels with his home county Dorset and Wiltshire  -including English schoolboy and Colts (U19s)trials .Previously Tony lived and coached in Seattle, USA for ten years. While in the USA, Tony founded the USA U19s program in 1992 whom he coached on 7 tours to New Zealand  and Australia. While in the USA he coached the Redmond High school team and his club Seattle RFC for 10 years (player/coach for six years) – finishing 2^nd and 3^rd in the USA HS National championships in 1993 and 94.

Tony came to Trinity in 1998-99 following three years as Senior Coach at Blackrock College RFC (1995-98), coaching the 1^st XV in the AIL Division One. He coached the club’s U20s during the same period winning two back to back All Ireland Championships.

Tony coached the USA U19s to their first ever FIRA U19s championships back in 1998 in Toulouse. That same year he stepped in at the last minute and coached the Ireland Women’s squad in the Women’s World Cup in Amsterdam.

In July 2007, Tony helped coach an undefeated tour to South Africa with Leinster Schools.

In 2010 Tony coached Leinster U19s to an undefeated inter-provincial championship. He has also coached Irish Universities on several occasions over the past 22 years.

2006-07, while still coaching in Trinity, Tony was the USA Senior Eagles Backs Coach.

He had a second spell with the US Eagles in 2012-14 as Attack Coach.  Overall he coached in 13 ‘Tests’. These games Included a narrow loss to Ireland in Houston Texas 15-12.

Tony has coached at Willow Park School and Blackrock College School for over 25 years.

He is an IRFU Level 3, stage 5 IRB qualified coach, the highest coaching qualification an Irish coach can achieve.

During the past 22 years Tony has coached over 400 Trinity 1^st XV games (including 350 AIL games) winning four AIL championships at different levels:

Division 4 in 2000-01; Division 3 in 2002-03; Division 2 in 2004-02; Division 2A  in 2011-12;

Trinity 1^st XV have also achieved runner up in two other seasons:

Division 3 – runner up in 2001-02 to Barnhall – not promoted; Division 1B – Runner up in 2015-16 to St Marys College – promoted.

Trinity’s highest placing in the AIL was in 2017-18 where they took 4^th in 1A and qualified for the semi-final of the All Ireland Championship, losing away to Cork Con .

He coached roughly the same number of games in that period with Trinity U20s squad (on Sundays) where Trinity has qualified for seven U20s All Ireland Finals (Frazer McMullen Trophy) in 22 years winning four Championships in 2004, 2006, 2017 and 2018 including the last two completed Championships.

Tony and his wife Catherine have a daughter Éabha.

Educated at Gonzaga College in Dublin, Mick entered Trinity in 1969 and played for DUFC until he graduated in 1973 and then again for one further season in1975/6. He joined Bective Rangers FC in 1973 and, apart from the one season above, played for that club for the following ten years at every level between first XV and third B XV. In 1985 Mick turned to coaching with DUFC thirds and continued as a coach for DUFC working with the Freshman and the 2nd XVs over the next five seasons. Mick was elected President of DUFC for the season 1990/91. In 1992 he was appointed Hon. Sec. of the Club and served in that capacity for the following three years. During that period he also served as Manager of the first XV in conjunction with Roly Meates firstly and, after that, with Dermot Strong. Since 2004, Mick has represented DUFC as its representative on the Leinster Branch Executive Committee. He has been a member of a variety of committees both within the Branch and the IRFU, currently sitting as Chair of the IRFU “Spirit of Rugby” Committees Committee. He has been Chair of Discipline in the Branch for a number of years and carries out disciplinary duties for the IRFU, the Guinness Pro 12, the 6 Nations and the IRB (now World Rugby). Mick is now a retired Judge of the District Court and continues to live in Dublin. He feels that he has already enjoyed a full lifetime of rugby as a member of DUFC but has been stimulated by the energy and renewal in DUFC to continue to enjoy the “Club for life” experience.