View source for County Carlow Football Club

{{Short description|Rugby team in Ireland}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Use Irish English|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox rugby team |
  | teamname = Co Carlow Football Club|
  | image    = Carlow_rugby.PNG|
  | fullname = Co Carlow Football Club|
  | founded  = 1873
  | union    = [[Irish Rugby Football Union|IRFU]]<br>[[Leinster Rugby|Leinster]]|
  | countryflag = IRE
  | countryflagvar = rugby|
  | ground   = [[Oak Park, County Carlow]]
  | capacity = ~400|
  | president = Muireann O'Toole Brennan
  | coach  = Dave Barron 
  | Senior Men's Captain = dan crotty
  | 
  | league  = [[Leinster League]]|
  |pattern_la1=_black_hoops|pattern_b1=_blackhoops|pattern_ra1=_black_hoops|
  |pattern_so1=_orange_halfhorizontal|
  |leftarm1=FF9933|body1=FF9933|rightarm1=FF9933|shorts1=000000|socks1=000000|
  |pattern_la2=_borderonwhite|pattern_b2=_bowonwhite|pattern_ra2=_borderonwhite
  |pattern_so2=_orange_halfhorizontal|
  |leftarm2=FF9933|body2=FF9933|rightarm2=FF9933|shorts2=000000|socks2=000000|
  |url= www.carlowrugby.ie
}}

'''County Carlow Football Club''' is a [[Rugby union|rugby]] club in [[Carlow]], Ireland, playing in Division 1B of the [[Leinster League]]. The club was founded in October 1873, and is one of the oldest rugby clubs in Ireland. As was usual in the days preceding the development of Gaelic football and soccer and prior to the foundation of the Rugby Football Union, the earlier clubs were known simply as "football clubs" with no mention of rugby in the title. The County Carlow club was formed, therefore, (and is correctly known) as ''"County Carlow Football Club."''

==History==
The club was constituted at a meeting in the Club House Hotel, Carlow in October 1873. It was to be known as the County Carlow Football Club. The founder, Colonel [[Horace Rochfort]] of Clogrennan, County Carlow, was elected the first president. The club colours were registered as black and amber.<ref>Fennell, Harry - The Carlow Rugby Club. ''Carloviana'', Vol.2, No.11, 1962</ref> Colonel Rochfort, a landowner of approximately {{convert|3000|acre|km2}} in counties [[County Dublin|Dublin]], [[County Laois|Laois]] and [[County Carlow|Carlow]], was a keen sportsman of the time. He was also the founder of the County Carlow Cricket Club in 1831, and the founder and first secretary of the [[All Ireland Polo Club]] in the [[Phoenix Park]], [[Dublin]], in 1873, having founded the County Carlow Polo Club in 1872.<ref>O'Toole, Jimmy – ''The Carlow Gentry, What Will The Neighbours Say!'' [1993]</ref>

County Carlow Football Club played unofficially for the first 25 years of its existence, with Trinity ([[Dublin University Football Club|Dublin University]]), [[Wanderers F.C. (rugby union)|Wanderers]] and Kingstown providing the most frequent early opposition. Fixtures with [[Bective Rangers|Bective]] and [[Lansdowne Football Club|Lansdowne]] were recorded in the 1880s, and in the late 1880s the formation of [[Athy Rugby Club|Athy]], Baltinglass, [[St. Patrick's, Carlow College|Carlow College]] (1882)<ref>[http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~irlcar2/cricket_1.htm Ecclesiastics at Carlow College play rugby. Carlow College Rugby Club formed.] Chronology of Carlow Cricket.</ref> and Portarlington College provided an alternative opposition to the Dublin clubs and heralded the early days of provincial rugby.<ref name="history">O'Brien, Thomas J. (Editor) - ''County Carlow Football Club, Rugby History 1873 - 1977'' [c1977]</ref>

Affiliation of County Carlow FC to the [[Leinster Rugby|Leinster Branch]] of the [[Irish Rugby Football Union|IRFU]] was achieved on 1 December 1899 when it was proposed by T.Thornhill of [[Wanderers F.C. (rugby union)|Wanderers]] and seconded by J.B. Moore of [[Lansdowne Football Club|Lansdowne]].<ref name="history"/> Hence the club became eligible to compete in the [[Leinster Junior Challenge Cup]], which they won in 1904, becoming the first provincial club to do so. County Carlow FC won the Junior Cup on four subsequent occasions before the competition was restructured to become the [[Leinster Towns Cup|Provincial Towns Cup]] in 1926.<ref>[http://domestic.leinsterrugby.ie/index.asp?locID=799&docID=-1 ''Leinster rugby - History.''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071119025837/http://domestic.leinsterrugby.ie/index.asp?locID=799&docID=-1 |date=2007-11-19 }} Accessed 9 April 2008</ref>

County Carlow FC have appeared in 16 finals of the [[Leinster Towns Cup|Provincial Towns Cup]] and were victorious on 12 occasions - (the most appearances and the most wins by any club). In 1997, they became the first club ever to achieve the Provincial Cup and League double.<ref>[http://domestic.leinsterrugby.ie/index.asp?locID=799&docID=-1 ''Leinster Rugby - Statistics''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071119025837/http://domestic.leinsterrugby.ie/index.asp?locID=799&docID=-1 |date=2007-11-19 }} Accessed 1 May 2008</ref> The Provincial League win of that year earned them a place in the All Ireland Round Robin qualifier competition with [[Midleton RFC|Midleton]] (Munster), Connemara (Connaught) and Omagh Academicals (Ulster). County Carlow won the play off, and became a senior club for the first time in its history for the 1997/1998 season.

In 1997/1998 - their first season as a senior club - County Carlow FC won Division 4 of the [[AIB League|All Ireland League]]. Promotion to Division 2 was achieved two years later, and by the end of the 2000/2001 season they attained Division 1 status, finishing second in Division 2 to [[University College Dublin RFC|UCD]].

Historically, County Carlow FC won the [[Leinster Club Senior Cup|Leinster Senior Cup]] in 2003, becoming the only club to have won both the [[Leinster Towns Cup|Provincial Towns Cup]] and the [[Leinster Club Senior Cup|Leinster Senior Cup]].<ref>[http://www.irishrugby.ie/6855_2737.php ''Irish Rugby : Co Carlow Create History''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071121192746/http://www.irishrugby.ie/6855_2737.php |date=2007-11-21 }} 16 May 2003 Accessed 15 April 2008</ref> The win in 2003 was also the first time in the 120-year history of the competition that the [[Leinster Club Senior Cup|Leinster Senior Cup]] was won by a non-Dublin club. This historic win was repeated in 2004 when County Carlow FC recorded back to back wins, beating [[De La Salle Palmerston|DLS Palmerston]] in the final on both occasions.

County Carlow FC played for 5 consecutive seasons in Division 1 but were relegated to Division 2 for the 2006/2007 season and subsequently to [[AIB Division Three|Division 3]] for the 2007/2008 season. The club currently{{when?|date=January 2023}} plays in Division 1B of the [[Leinster Senior League (rugby)|Leinster Senior League]].

==Club honours==
* [[Leinster Club Senior Cup|Leinster Senior Cup]] (2) 2003, 2004
* [[AIB League]] Division 4 (1) 1998
* Navan 10-a-side (1) 2002
* [[Leinster Junior Challenge Cup]] (5) 1904, 1912, 1913, 1919, 1922
* [[Leinster Towns Cup|Provincial Towns Cup]] (12) 1929, 1931, 1933, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1977, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997
* Provincial Towns Plate (4) 1964, 1968, 1971, 1973
* South East Cup (8) 1975, 1976, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1996
* IRFU Award	Top Club in Leinster 1993
* IRFU Award	Top non-league club in Ireland 1997

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20190514141300/http://www.carlowrugby.ie/ County Carlow Football Club]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071117034105/http://www.carlowcountymuseum.com/sport/rugby/index.html Carlow County Museum]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110818162839/http://irishsportingheritage.com/featured-sites/october-2010-county-carlow-football-club/ Irish Sporting Heritage]

{{Leinster League (rugby union)}}
{{Irish rugby links}}

[[Category:1873 in Ireland]]
[[Category:Rugby union teams in Ireland]]
[[Category:Rugby clubs established in 1873]]
[[Category:Rugby union clubs in County Carlow]]
[[Category:Sport in Carlow (town)]]