Donal Lenihan

Last updated

Donal Lenihan
BornDonal Gerard Lenihan
(1959-09-12) 12 September 1959 (age 66)
Cork, Ireland
Height1.95 m (6 ft 5 in) [1]
Weight108 kg (17.0 st; 238 lb)
School Saint Patrick’s
Christian Brothers College
University University College Cork
Rugby union career
Position Lock
Amateur team(s)
YearsTeamApps(Points)
UCC
– Cork Constitution
Senior career
YearsTeamApps(Points)
Munster 50+
International career
YearsTeamApps(Points)
1981–1992 Ireland 52 (4)
1983–1989 British and Irish Lions

Donal Gerard Lenihan (born 12 September 1959) is a retired Irish rugby union player and manager.

Contents

Early life, family and education

Lenihan was raised in a sporting background. His father, Gerald Lenihan, was an All-Ireland heavyweight boxing champion and Gaelic footballer of distinction, and played in the same team as Jack Lynch. Donal attended primary school he attended Saint Patrick’s on Gardiner's Hill and afterwards went to Christian Brothers College, Cork. He captained his school to Munster Junior and Senior Schools titles and also captained Irish schools. [2] He was a student at UCC and played for the rugby team while studying there.[ citation needed ]

Rugby career

Player

Lenihan played his first test match for Ireland on 21 November 1981 versus Australia at the age of 22. Famous for his aerial skills in the line-out, the second row was ever present in the Irish team for over a decade which saw two Triple Crowns and three Five Nations Championship victories. It was his break off the back of a line-out that set up Mike Kiernan's championship clinching drop-goal against England in 1985.

Lenihan played four matches in the inaugural 1987 Rugby World Cup where he was the Irish captain and played three matches in the 1991 Rugby World Cup. The Munsterman captained his country 17 times (3rd highest of the amateur era, 7th all-time). He was selected for three British and Irish Lions tours - 1983, 1986 (IRB Centenary Match), 1989 - and captained the Lions on a number of occasions during their victorious tour of 1989. [3] His 52nd and last Irish cap (6th highest of the amateur era) came against Wales on 18 January 1992.

Manager

After retirement from playing rugby, he took over as manager of Ireland in 1998, alongside coach Warren Gatland. [4] He stepped down as manager at the end of the 2000 season [5] to take over management of the British and Irish Lions for their 2001 tour to Australia with coach Sir Graham Henry. [6]

Later career

Lenihan appears regularly as a commentator on TV and radio for rugby matches and writes for the Irish Examiner newspaper. He also works as a financial consultant in Cork.

Honours

Lenihan was inducted into the Munster Rugby Hall of Fame in April 2019. [7] He was inducted into the Rugby Writers of Ireland Hall of Fame in November 2013. He was adjudged Irish rugby’s ‘Player of the Decade’ for the 1980s by the Irish Times. Lenihan was elected President of Cork Constitution Rugby Club for 2020–21.

University College Cork R.F.C.

Cork Constitution

Ireland

British and Irish Lions

References

  1. ↑ "Donal Lenihan". world.rugby.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. ↑ Scally, John (1996). Giants of Irish Rugby . Mainstream Publishing Company. ISBN   1-85158-834-5 – via Internet Archive.
  3. ↑ "History of the Lions New Zealand 1993". BBC Sport. 18 May 2005. Retrieved 1 May 2010.
  4. ↑ "Former captain and ex-Lions player to take over as national rugby manager". Irish Examiner . Archived from the original on 19 March 2008 – via tcm.ie.
  5. ↑ "Ireland's Lenihan to step down after visit of Wales". Independent News.[ dead link ]
  6. ↑ "Brian O'Brien is the new Irish Manager". rte.ie. 28 April 2000.
  7. ↑ "O'Mahony Named Munster Player Of The Year". Munster Rugby. 23 April 2019. Retrieved 24 April 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.