Rugby in Connacht, and especially in Mayo has come a long way. Next Saturday, history will be made, when MacHale Park Castlebar, the cathedral of Mayo GAA, will be the stage for a professional rugby match for the very first time.

Connacht take on Munster in the United Rugby Championship, in a match, that might well decide over success or failure of the entire season as both teams are looking to make it to the top eight of the table for a spot in the play-offs.

READ: Rugby fans to enjoy pints for Connacht game at home of Mayo GAA

But the efforts from the male professional Connacht team aside, rugby in the province has made considerable strides recently, as Gerry Casey, IRFU committee member, explains: “The age grade has come on leaps and bounds for girls' and women's rugby. I think the whole profile of rugby in Connacht, when you see that match coming up in MacHale Park, being sold out 25,000 in three or four days, shows a phenomenal development.”

READ: Spectators warned not to enter pitch during historic MacHale Park rugby game

RUGBY IN THE 80s

Indeed, it's plain for everyone to see, in the streets, or when you go to a pub in the Mayo, the characteristic green Connacht hats, jerseys, jackets and tracksuits are a constant feature. And people will shout for Bundee Aki, Mack Hansen and Dave Heffernan when there's a match on.

Rugby for most involved was a totally different animal, for example, in the 1980s though. Gerry Casey remembers his playing days with Castlebar RFC.

“When I started playing in the early 80s, they started me on the wing, but I certainly wasn't a winger anyway, so I gradually moved into the pack where it was probably more suitable for my temperament and my ability.”

Castlebar didn't have their own facilities back then. They were playing at the airport field, which was basically just a field.
“Before the match, you'd take the cattle off the field, put them over to one side, so it was pretty rough.

No floodlights, no dressing rooms, we used to tog out at the back of the Welcome Inn, where they stored the barrels of Guinness and that, and put up the shower. That was it, and out to the airport pitch, take the cattle off the pitch, and you'd play your match.”

"I WOULD HAVE HAD SORE JAWS!"

It all changed utterly in 1984 when the club finally opened their own clubhouse in Cloondeash. A Connacht player selection togged out against an Irish selection. There were some internationals taking part that day, one of them Des Fitzgerald.

A great occasion for a player like Gerry Casey: “It was great playing with the internationals, because they just brought you on. They were obviously way more capable, but it was nearly infectious, the abilities that they had, so you'd definitely raise your game to try and keep up with them.”

Casey distinctly and painfully remembers the local derbies he featured in. Castlebar had a reasonably good team in the 1980s, they might not got a lot of silverware during those years, but they were always one of the top teams in the province:

“I would have had a couple of sore jaws after some of the boys in Westport, but Ballina used to be a ding-dong as well. It was a battle royale there as well. If we had had mobile phones back then, we'd all have been banned. That was kind of the way it was back then, but after the match, you had a pint together.”

READ: Dave Heffernan says it was always a ‘dream’ to play in the home of Mayo GAA

Casey will be there at the historic occasion, when the first professional rugby match will be played at MacHale Park. This clash promises to be a 'ding-dong' as well, as Connacht and Munster fight for every point to secure a place in the play-offs.

Keep an eye out on our website for more coverage for the historic first ever rugby match in Hastings Insurance MacHale Park.

FIXTURE:
United Rugby Championship
CONNACHT V MUNSTER
in MacHale Park, Castlebar
March 29, kick-off 2.30pm