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The Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) is the body managing rugby union in the island of Ireland. The IRFU has its head office at 10/12 Lansdowne Road and home ground at Aviva Stadium, where adult men's Irish rugby union international matches are played. In addition, the Union also owns the Ravenhill Stadium in Belfast, Thomond Park in Limerick and a number of grounds in provincial areas that have been rented to clubs.
Ulster Rugby is one of the four professional provincial rugby union teams from the island of Ireland. They compete in the Irish regional pool of the United Rugby Championship and in the European Rugby Champions Cup, each of which they have won once. Ulster were the first Irish team and the first team outside England and France to win the European Cup in 1999.
Ballymena Academy is a mixed gender, voluntary grammar school in the market town of Ballymena in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It was founded in 1828 as a small provincial school for children in the town and surrounding agricultural hinterland.
The Royal Belfast Academical Institution is an independent grammar school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. With the support of Belfast's leading reformers and democrats, it opened its doors in 1814. Until 1849, when it was superseded by what today is Queen's University, the institution pioneered Belfast's first programme of collegiate education. Locally referred to as Inst, the modern school educates boys from ages 11 to 18. It is one of the eight Northern Irish schools represented on the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school occupies an 18-acre site in the centre of the city on which its first buildings were erected.
Rugby union is a popular team sport on the island of Ireland, organised on an all-Ireland basis, including players and teams from both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Its governing body, the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU), was founded in 1879, making it the third oldest rugby union in the world after the RFU (England) and the SRU (Scotland).
Bryn Cunningham is an Irish rugby union administrator and former player. He played fullback for Ulster, making 150 appearances between 1997 and 2010, and was the team's Player of the Year in 2002–2003. Since 2014 he has been responsible for player recruitment at Ulster, initially as Team Manager, later as Operations Director.
Matt McCullough is a former Irish rugby union player, who played in the second row for Ulster and Ireland
Trevor Maxwell Ringland, is a Northern Irish solicitor, former rugby union player and politician. From June 2013 to July 2014, he served as Co-Chairman of the NI Conservatives. After attending Larne Grammar School, he read law at Queen's University Belfast.
Gary Longwell is an Irish international rugby player. His usual position is as a lock, or second row. He spent his entire career playing for Irish provincial side Ulster, making his debut aged 19 in 1991. He was part of the Heineken Cup-winning Ulster team of 1999 in the 21–6 victory over Colomiers at Lansdowne Road in Dublin. In 2015, he was inducted into the Newtownabbey Hall of Fame
Nigel Carr is a former Ireland rugby union international whose promising career was cut short due to injuries sustained in an IRA bomb explosion.
William Iain Henderson is an Irish professional rugby union player who plays as a lock for United Rugby Championship club Ulster and the Ireland national team, and has been selected for two tours with the British & Irish Lions. He has been the captain of Ulster since 2019, and captained Ireland in 2021 and 2023.
John Cooney is an Irish rugby union player who plays scrum-half for Irish provincial side Ulster in the United Rugby Championship and the European Rugby Champions Cup, having previously played for Leinster and Connacht, and has eleven caps for Ireland. Since joining Ulster in 2017, he has been nominated for EPCR European Player of the Year once, been named in the Pro14 Dream Team four times, and been Ulster's player of the year twice.
Alan O'Connor is an Irish professional rugby union player who plays lock for Ulster. He was Ulster's player of the year in 2020–21, and won the United Rugby Championship's Tackle Machine award for 2021–22.
David Shanahan is an Irish professional rugby union player who plays scrum-half for Ulster.
Nick Timoney is an Irish rugby union player, who plays in the back row for Ulster and Ireland. He is regarded as a "hybrid" player, an athletic forward with the pace of a back. He was named in the 2021–22 United Rugby Championship Dream Team.
Claire Small is a women's rugby union player from Bushmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, and a qualified doctor. She plays for Ulster Rugby and the Ireland women's national rugby union team as a back row, having previously played in the centre.
Eric O'Sullivan is an Irish rugby union player who plays loosehead prop for United Rugby Championship and European Rugby Champions Cup side Ulster and internationally for Ireland.
David O'Connor is an Irish rugby union player who plays for Ulster. He plays primarily as a lock, but can also play in the back-row.
The 1995–96 season was Ulster Rugby's first season under professionalism. Brian Bloomfield was in his second season as coach. 35-year-old Malone RFC centre Bill Harbinson, who first played for Ulster in 1986, was captain, in his final season before retirement from the game. They played six representative matches, defeating Griqualand West, New Zealand Federation U23 and New South Wales, and losing to a Côte Basque Select XV, the Combined Services and Edinburgh District.
Jan Cunningham is an Irish former rugby union player, who played centre, wing and fullback for Ulster.
References
- 1 2 McMullan, Peter (11 November 1969). "Ulsterman plays AGAINST Ulster!". Belfast Telegraph .
- ↑ "Ulster, rugby or not rugby?La province accueille ce soir Bègles-Bordeaux en Coupe d'Europe". Libération (in French). 13 December 1995.
