Ballinrobe winger wins Irish cap

Ballinrobe winger wins Irish cap


Rob Murphy

BALLINROBE RFC winger Patrick Daly made a little bit of history last Saturday in Italy by becoming the first player from the south Mayo club to earn a cap for his country. The Connacht under-18 winger played for the Ireland under-18 club side which beat Italy 26-9 in Colorno.
Daly has represented Ballinrobe at under-15 and under-17 level. He played football for the GAA club in the town in recent years and is now part of the Connacht under-18 panel, having represented the province during the youth inter-provincial series last September. His father Joe is a coach in the south Mayo club.
“We’re very proud of his achievement,” he told The Mayo News. “It is great for a player from the club to receive such an honour. We travelled to Italy over the weekend to watch the game and the team got great support and a really good welcome from the home club.”
There were three Connacht players in the starting line-up, with Sligo’s Matthew Consgrove scoring a try and Buccaneers centre Colin Kenny also involved. The journey from Ballinrobe under-15s to Ireland under-18s is a long one and Daly has had to work hard.
“It is a very busy life for a young athlete and takes a huge amount of dedication,” said Joe. “Last year when he got called into the under-17 regional side, he had to make a decision to focus on rugby and give up football. That is not an easy decision for a young person to make, but with sports overlapping it was unavoidable.
“He was training with the west Connacht under-17 panel in Castlebar each week under the guidance of Paul Jennings and Russell O’Brien and he progressed to the Connacht under-18 panel. He didn’t start the first two inter-provincials back in September but started the final one.”
In October, Patrick got the call to come to the Irish under-18 training camp. It was a huge surprise, as Joe says his main focus at that point was merely to maintain his form with the under-18s at Connacht level with an eye on making this summer’s under-19 squad. That is still very much the goal now, even after the fillip of international honours.
Daly was back to the grind yesterday (Monday) with the provincial under-18 squad in training action and he’ll be hoping to continue his progression towards Ireland’s next action in March. It has been an eventful journey through the underage ranks in Ballinrobe which included a French tour last year and culminated with international honours in Italy.