Queen’s Rugby Academy Scholars 2019-20
#TAKETHENEXTSTEP WITH US
Queen's University Rugby Football Club was founded in 1869, originally fielding Queen's College, Belfast and have won the Ulster Senior Cup a record 21 times.
In 1993 when the AIB League was expanded to four divisions with forty six senior clubs, five university clubs, including Queen's, joined the league. Queen's entered Division Four and have played in every division since then.
In 2000 they were relegated to the Ulster Senior League but returned to the AIB League two years later. The men’s senior team will play in Division 2A of the Energia All-Ireland League after a late run for promotion in 2020 under Head Coach Derek Suffern was cut short by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The women’s game has grown significantly at Queen’s in recent seasons are our women’s firsts were unbeaten in league rugby in the 2019-2020 season.
QUB aims to provide opportunities and incentives for prospective students to excel and aspire for greater academic and sporting success, to enjoy an enriching experience and provide opportunities for learning and development across a broad range of disciplines and degrees whilst allowing the students to combine their sporting aspiration and responsibilities within their academic requirements.
The Rugby Academy at Queen`s University was established in 2002, not only to provide a high-performance culture for rugby, but also to support the wider strategic objectives for sport at the University in promoting recreational and community initiatives and contribute to the overall development of all aspects of University Rugby.
Students can avail of a range of support structures which include end-of-year bursaries based on performance, clothing, complimentary gym access, sports psychology, high-performance coaching, and a bespoke strength and conditioning programme from renowned practitioner Mike McGurn at our first-class Upper Malone facility. Queen’s Sport has also recently teamed up with Kingsbridge Private Hospital to provide the very best in physio and injury rehabilitation, through our Academy physio Shea McAleer.
For more information contact our Rugby Development Officer David Chambers: d.chambers@qub.ac.uk
The QUEEN’S RUGBY ACADEMY supports our best and most promising rugby players in both the men’s and women’s codes. It is supported by a foundation named in honour of the Queen’s, Ireland, and Lions great Jack Kyle (1926-2014), who studied Medicine at Queen’s, graduating in 1951. Kyle was capped 46 times by Ireland, winning the Five Nations Grand Slam in 1948. He starred in the 1950 Lions Tour to Australia and New Zealand, scoring tries in the first test against New Zealand and in a 24-9 win over Australia.
Brian O’Driscoll with Jack Kyle in 2009
“He [played] club rugby for the North of Ireland club in Belfast until the early 1960s when he went to Indonesia for a short time, thence to Chingola, Zambia where for several decades he was the sole surgeon in a hospital of several hundred beds. Some people him knew him speculated as to why he did this; one view is that during Lions tours he was affected by serious poverty he witnessed, while another source reported him as saying that he was known as a rugby player but wanted to do more than just that. He retired and returned to Ulster where he settled in Bryanstown, County Down.
He was held in the highest esteem and not alone by his fellow players. A man who could plausibly challenge him as the greatest fly-half, Cliff Morgan of Wales, reckoned that Kyle was the best opponent he ever faced – a compliment returned by Kyle. Bob Scott, the great All Black, against whom Kyle scored a famous try at Dunedin on the British Lions tour of 1950, said: “Of all of them there has never been, nor ever was, anyone to touch him.” However, in a perverse tribute, Kyle was singled out by the All Blacks for especially rough treatment, once being kicked mercilessly in front of the stand in the Auckland Test.
His honours included an OBE, an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University, membership of the International Rugby Board’s Hall of Fame, and a lifetime achievement award from the Royal Academy of Medicine of Ireland. In 2002 the Irish Rugby Football Union voted him in a poll the greatest-ever Irish rugby player, a considerable compliment, elevating him above such giants as Mike Gibson, Willie John McBride and Brian O’Driscoll.”
Richard Froggatt, ‘Jack Kyle’ in The Dictionary of Ulster Biography (2020).
