1st XV Coaches

Born in England. Tony played his Rugby at St. Mary’s Puddletown, Puddletown RFC, Exeter RFC and County rugby at all levels with Dorset and Wiltshire including English schoolboy trials .

Tony came to Trinity in 1998 following three years as Senior Coach at Blackrock College RFC.

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 8 tours to New Zealand /Australia. He also took the USA U19s to their first ever FIRA U19s championships back in 1998 in Toulouse, the same competition that Ireland won with Brian O’Driscoll. That same year he stepped in at the last minute and coached the Irish Women’s XV in the Women’s World Cup in Amsterdam.

In 2010 Tony coached Leinster U19s to an undefeated inter-provincial championship. He has also coached Irish Universities on several occasions over the past 15 years.

2012-13 Tony was the USA Senior Eagles Backs and

Attack coach – coaching in 13 test matches including narrow loss to Ireland in Houston Texas 15-12. He had another season with the Senior Eagles in 2006 coaching six games.

Tony has coached at Willow Park School and Blackrock College School for over 20 years.

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

He has been married to Catherine for over ten years, and they have a daughter Eabha .

Hugh, a qualified Level 4 Coach and has been Forwards Coach at Trinity for many years. Previously he coached and played for St. Mary’s RFC where he coached many Irish Internationals including Denis Hickie, Victor Costello and Trevor Brennan among others.

While a student at UCG (NUIG) Hugh played for Irish Universities on their tour to New Zealand in 1978. He played his representative rugby for Connacht and was capped for Ireland A.

Hugh’s ‘day job’ was Principal at Willow Park School where he taught for over 30 years. He was heavily involved in the Rugby in that school during that period. He is married to Geraldine and has two children in David and Rachel.

Ian is an experienced S&C Coach with a MSc in Strength and Conditioning from the highly rated St. Mary’s, Twickenham.

He featured in the front-row for DUFC for several seasons before moving on to Clontarf, where he won an All Ireland League title. He was awarded a Leinster contract for the 2015/16 season but suffered an unfortunate injury which curtailed his career.

He has worked with the Samoan rugby team, Dublin GAA, Trinity College Rowing as well as being the in house S&C Coach in DUFC. He also works closely with the front-rowers in the club on their scrummaging.

Ian is a key member of the team, also providing the video analysis for team and individual performance review.

Rory, an IRFU Stage 4 Coach, makes a welcome return to Trinity this year, having previously coached our J1s, assisted with our 1st XV forwards and then coached our U20s Premier forwards.

Rory previously guided Newbridge RFC Senior Seconds to Provincial Towns Cup success and went on to be the Head Coach of the club. Rory is also coaching a number of underage teams in his childrens’ home club.

A student of Blackrock College, he went on to play for Blackrock College RFC, Monkstown RFC and then played 12 seasons for Garda RFC. Rory also played on the Ireland Police Rugby team for a number of years.

Rory is a Dublin based Detective Garda, is married to Deirdre and they have three children.

Jonny Butler joined the DUFC coaching team in 2016 as a J1 Head Coach,  and has since augmented this with assisting Tony with the senior backline and also the Manager role.

Jonny is also currently skills coach for the Railway Union Womens AIL team,  a senior coach within the junior cup team in Terenure College and the current manager of the Irish Universities.

Jonny has previously coached his home club of Mullingar, and at youths, winning every available trophy, along with previously coaching Belvedere College, St. Columba’s College and N.U.I. Maynooth along with having 6 years’ experience as a Development Officer within Leinster Rugby.

Jonny is an accredited Stage 4 Coach, an IRFU tutor and has also completed the Canterbury Crusaders High Performance course for Coaches in Christchurch, N.Z.  Outside of rugby Jonny is currently studying to be a P.E. teacher.

Educated in Clongowes Wood College and Trinity College where he graduated with an Honours Degree in Chartered Physiotherapy.

He currently splits his time between St. James Hospital, where he works as a Senior Physiotherapist in the Outpatient Department, and Trinity, where he is the lead Physiotherapist for the High Performance Programme. This role includes his clinical work with D.U.F.C. as well as providing physiotherapy input across all the other focus sports in the college

While studying at Trinity he played for the U20s and 3 years on the Seniors earning his Colours. He completed his Masters in Musculoskeletal Physiotherapy through UCD and started his career in the world renowned Santry Sports Clinic where he gained invaluable experience in dealing with a range of Musculoskeletal injuries working with some of the top Orthopaedic Surgeons and doctors in Europe. He has worked across many sport settings including Trinity Rugby and League of Ireland football clubs. Ciaran is also a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist. A keen sportsman he played for Wanderers rugby club after Trinity and previously played soccer and Gaelic football at a high level.