Kinsale Rugby Club is located just outside the picturesque fishing village of Kinsale and their pitches boast views of both Kinsale harbour and Oysterhaven bay. While it all looks lovely, the big sea breeze can make for difficult rugby conditions in the middle of winter!

Long History

The club was founded in 1982 and has over 500 members from the wider Kinsale area. They proudly celebrated their 40th anniversary last year. However, rugby in Kinsale goes back a lot further, with records showing matches being hosted in town as long as 100 years ago!

There's history everywhere in Kinsale, with the town famous for the Battle of Kinsale in 1601 fought between the British, Spanish AND Irish! Quite the scrum!

Representative Players

Since it's foundation, Kinsale RFC has been a community-focused club. They've welcomed thousands of players over the years and are proud to call current Munster hooker Scott Buckley a former player.

The club has also had many provincial representatives over the years - currently club captain Mark O'Connell is playing for the Munster Juniors, and Ted O'Callaghan, nephew of Ireland legend Donncha O'Callaghan, is representing the club at Munster U20 level.

The Kinsale Sevens

Kinsale RFC is also famous for the annual Kinsale Sevens tournament - one of the first professional Rugby Sevens tournaments in the WORLD. Since 1988, every May hundreds of players and teams, and thousands of fans, travel to the pitches at Snugmore to watch all the fun.

There are many great stories revolving around the Kinsale Sevens, but one of the most famous tournaments happened in the early 2000s when the world famous Fijian professional Sevens player Waisale Serevi came to town. Ronan Kett, former Sevens Director and founder member of our club, has written a great piece recollecting the excitement of the time Serevi Came to the Kinsale Sevens.  

Keith Floyd Association

For a number of years, renowned British celebrity chef (before that was a thing!) Keith Floyd resided in Kinsale and he took an active interest in the club - he played, ran teams and helped create really important fundraising events for the fledgling Kinsale RFC.