2 weeks Ago
THE RED ARMY have arrived in La Rochelle in force. They’ve even got their own supporters zone today, with a full street and square in the Saint-Nicolas quarter right in the heart of the old town dedicated to them. La Rochelle were expecting around 2,000 Munster fans this weekend but there are many more.
They’ve come from Clare, Cork, Waterford, Kerry, Tipperary, and Limerick, as well as other parts of Ireland. But as usual, they’ve also descended from beyond Irish shores, including a big cohort from the London branch of the Munster Rugby Supporters Club. Will Moloney, who hails from the village of Knockanore in County Waterford, is a core member of that London crew.
“It’s some craic,” he says, “everyone is in party mode on these trips.” Stade Rochelais fans are some of the best in the business, so there there will be mutual respect as they welcome the Munster supporters to their home at Stade Marcel Deflandre. Thomond Park is a beloved place, of course, but being at away games is a rite of passage for the Munster faithful.
“The away trips are huge,” says Moloney. “Over in Castres [last December], I met four or five farmers from Kilmacthomas in Waterford and this was their away trip. “They’re all dairy farmers and they go away before the cows start calving at the end of January.
So they’re after doing their big trip with Munster, which is brilliant.” Then there are the surprise Munster fans who pop up. “On that same trip, there were no trains running from Castres, so we got a bus back to Toulouse,” says Moloney.
“A couple of lads got on the bus and saw we were wearing Munster jerseys and started chatting to us. They had come all the way from Portugal for the match. These were young Portuguese lads in their early 20s and they were supporting Munster! “They had come up from Portugal by bus and were heading back the next day.
I couldn’t believe it.” A warm welcome is not unusual for Munster fans. Moloney has countless stories about people he has met along the way, rugby-loving characters wearing red jerseys but also others supporting the opposition.
Speaking of Castres, he recounts how fans of the French club got in touch a few years ago to say they were keen to host Munster supporters in their homes for a Champions Cup game over there. “We flew to Toulouse, this guy came to the airport, picked up us, took us back to his house, then down to the local community centre where they had organised a party for us with a band and everything. They gave us a meal, the whole thing.
“I met them in Castres the last time we were over, we always stay in touch.” Or take the gentleman Moloney bumped into in Gloucester in 2008 when a Doug Howlett-inspired Munster won at Kingsholm. “I was in the Shed end and two women came up to me and told me I couldn’t stand there because their dad comes and stands there,” says Moloney.
“I told them I’d move when he arrived. He was almost in his 80s. I hope my daughter looks after me the way these two daughters looked after him.
They had two hot water bottles for him. Then he pulls out the hip flask and offers me a drink. “I told him I’d move out of the way but he told me to stay.
We ended up having a big chat talking about everything. This man had been at every game they’d played in Gloucester since World War II. Unbelievable.
You just meet the loveliest people.” The 2005 trip to San Sebastien in the Basque Country to take on Biarritz in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals is another standout memory for Moloney. “Oh my God, what a weekend we had.
We had such great craic because we’re welcomed everywhere we go. That’s the thing about being a Munster supporter – I’m sure it’s the same for the other provinces – we get a really great welcome.” Growing up in west Waterford, close to the Cork border, rugby wasn’t initially in the picture for Moloney.
“It was GAA or Irish dancing, that’s all we had in Knockanore!” But there was rugby in Youghal - ”enemy territory,” he jokes – and Moloney’s brothers-in-law all played there, so he got the bug when he was in his mid-20s and started joining other locals on bus trips down to Thomond Park for Munster games. The pints and the craic were impossible to resist. Moloney soon found himself following Munster everywhere.
Glory days in the Heinken Cup followed. He worked in the pub business but moved to London in 2010 following the financial crash in Ireland. Moloney might have left Munster soil but he needed his rugby hit.
He took to Facebook and learned of a group of supporters forming a club in London. Back then, it was still tricky to find places showing Munster games but they discovered a pub in the St Paul’s area that welcomed them in. Their numbers soon grew to the point that up to 40 of them would travel together for Munster’s Heineken Cup games.
The lockdown in 2020 was a big ”turning point” for the London supporters club, with Moloney taking on more responsibility at the encouragement of Mark Meehan, a central figure in the main Munster Rugby Supporters Club in Ireland. They’ve never let up since, meeting in pubs like the Sheephaven Bay in Camden, the Claddagh Run or the Bodhran in Hendon, and Connolly’s in Chiswick, with plans to venture to south London where lots of young Irish people are now living in Clapham. And the numbers of this London crew travelling to Munster games have continued to grow, with more than 100 of them at the Northampton game at Franklin’s Gardens in January.
“We’re going so long now that we’re after getting friendly with people like Mrs. O’Callaghan, Donncha’s mother, and she’s a ticket, telling us yarns about when Donncha was a young fella,” says Moloney. “And Alan Quinlan’s mother, all those folks who travel with the team.
The gas thing about it is we’re shouting mad passionately for Munster together one week and the next week, we’ll all be shouting for Cork, Waterford, or Tipperary.” It’s a family vibe and that’s one thing that Moloney is keen to underline. He is part of one ‘family’ in the London branch of the supporters club, and there is a similar feeling when Munster fans mobilise for the big away games.
But Moloney also cherishes how well Munster have treated his kin. “Munster have been so good to us as a family,” he says. “My son Daniel was their mascot on three separate occasions and has always been so welcome.
Daniel has a facial disfigurement where you can see he has an issue, whereas with other people you might not know they have an issue. “Daniel is working over here in London now and he doesn’t go to that many games but when I go, there could be 20 people asking me how Daniel is doing.” Moloney’s brother-in-law bumped into Paul O’Connell in County Down last year and happened to mention Daniel and Will.
O’Connell recognised the names and said he had only recently seen Daniel at a game, while Ronan O’Gara has come over to the Moloneys at matches to ask how they’re doing. Declan Kidney has always been good to them, while Moloney says the late Garrett Fitzgerald and Jerry Holland were too. “That all means a lot to us,” he says.
Moloney has also enjoyed being part of Munster Rugby’s annual London Dinner, which has raised hundreds of thousands of euros that Munster sink into improving the player pathway in the province. They’re fun evenings featuring Munster players past and present, while the Richard Harris Patrons’ Award – first presented in 2014 – goes to people who embody Munster’s values. This year, Howlett accepted the award, and the likes of Keith Wood, JP McManus, and Kidney have followed in Harris’ footsteps as recipients.
There are similar Munster Rugby dinners in New York and Dublin, helping the province to improve its player pipeline and maintain the family feeling even outside the Munster region. But today, it’s all about the big challenge in La Rochelle as Munster come up against one of their biggest legends in Ronan O’Gara, with Donnacha Ryan and Sean Dougall also in the Stade Rochelais camp. “There’s so much hype about O’Gara, so it’s going to be a family weekend away,” says Moloney.
“They’re not playing so well. But you can be sure he’ll be waiting for Munster, he won’t want to be beaten by Munster even if I’m sure he’s sympathetic to Munster in a lot of ways. You look at the names they have, but they’re not as good as they were.
If we can get fellas firing, we have a few names back that we were short of.” Win or lose, this will be another trip to remember for Moloney, the London supporters, and the entire Munster family. willmoloney.
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