Young Munster

Paul O'Connell came up through Young Munster before Munster Rugby and Ireland ever knew his name, one of a line of players the club has fed into the professional game alongside Calvin Nash, Josh Wycherley and Peter Clohessy. It is a small measure of what Tom Clifford Park, in Rosbrien on the edge of Limerick, has quietly produced for a game that only turned professional decades after the club itself began, in 1895.

The Cookies, as they are known around Limerick, measure themselves against one season above all others. In 1992–93 they won the inaugural All-Ireland League Division 1, beating St Mary's College 17–14 in a final at Lansdowne Road watched by a crowd put at somewhere between 17,000 and 23,000. Before that, an earlier final left its own mark: the 1980 Munster Senior Cup win over Bohemians is remembered inside the club as the moment things turned.

The Cup has since become something of a specialty. None of it means as much locally as the fixtures against Garryowen and Shannon, grouped together as the Limerick Derby.