Ireland and England legends set for St Patrick’s Day charity clash in Donnybrook

Gordon D’Arcy, Seán O’Brien, Devin Toner and Delon Armitage will be among the players taking part in the annual Ireland-England Legends Charity match which will take place on St Patrick’s Day at Energia Park in Donnybrook (kick-off 5.30pm).

Ireland will host England in the Six Nations finale the following day at the Aviva Stadium before the countries respective Under-20 sides, who have three wins from three games apiece going into this weekend’s penultimate round, meet at a sold-out Musgrave Park on the Sunday.

This is the first time this game, which is in aid of Rugby Players Ireland Foundation and the IRFU Charitable Trust in Ireland, and the Rugby Players Association and RESTART in England, will take place in Ireland since before the pandemic.

The fixture is the brainchild of Len Dineen and Ireland captain for the fixture, Shane Byrne. “This game began in 2009 after the untimely passing of Stuart Mangan who played for Hammersmith & Fulham RFC in London,” said Byrne.

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“Thanks to the continued support of rugby fans as well as our incredible sponsor, Ark Underwriting Bermuda, we have raised over €1.5 million which goes toward rugby charities both in Ireland and the UK.”

For O’Brien, it will be his first match since tearing his hamstring in his one attempted AIL comeback outing for Naas, and it was put to him this will be different from ‘drilling’ English players in his heyday.

“Who, said I can’t drill one of them?” said a smiling O’Brien mischievously, before revealing the Tullow Tank may have to reinvent himself. “Sure, I’d love to be playing the game that Ireland are playing now, rather than being abrasive. It’s so exciting using your hands, the little out balls and tip-ons and stuff like that. You won’t see me running over anyone in the Legends game. I’ll be using my hands more. I could be playing at 12 yet, so we’ll see.”

Toner, who now works in the world of financial planning with Fairstone Asset Management, confessed he has done nothing since retiring at the end of last season.

“I’m not really looking forward to the day after because we have a box in the Aviva, in the new job, so I’ll be hoping that I’m fine the day after. I’ll be hosting some clients so I can see myself walking around crippled in the box, so I’m going to have to get out in the next week or two to do a jog or something.

“I’ll back myself. Len Dineen was saying that I’m kind of like in the academy of the Legends now, I’m one of the youngest there which will be great.”

Ireland Legends squad

Shane Byrne, Gordon D’Arcy, Seán O’Brien, Devin Toner, Andrew Trimble, Tommy O’Donnell, Isaac Boss, Ian Keatley, James Downey, Gavin Duffy, Michael Swift, Denis Hurley, Ronan O’Mahony, Denis Fogarty, Stephen Keogh, Des Dillon, Alex Dunlop, Fionn Carr, Billy Holland, Chris Henry.

England Legends squad

Jon Phillips, Ben Woods, David Strettle, David Rees, Delon Armitage, Howard Graham, Jonny Barrett, Kevin Yates, Lee Dickson, Paul Doran-Jones, Robbie Morris, Darren Fox, Stuart Turner, Tom Varndell, Matt Banahan, Matt Mullen, Dean Schofield, Rob Cook, Julian Salvi, Matt Jess, James Bucknall, Kai Horstmann, Ollie Smith.

Tickets are available to purchase at €11.40 for OAPs and under 16s or €22.30 for anybody over the age of 16. Tickets can be bought at universe.com.