IT’S NOT OFTEN you get to celebrate a 100oth anniversary, so you’d better do something pretty special to mark the day.
During a week-long celebration to mark a millennium since the Battle of Clontarf next Easter, the coastal town’s rugby club will host the Barbarians.
Both sides are locked in to play the fixture on 24 April, 2014, a thousand years and a day after the battle.
Speaking with TheScore.ie this evening, Clontarf’s chairman of rugby, Jim Stanley, indicated that most of the important logistical factors have already been arranged, with only the make-up of the two teams yet to be resolved.
In all likelihood, it will not be the Division 1A’s regular first XV which takes on the multi-national selection of the BaaBaas. And with the fixture coming in the middle of the club season, the touring side may also have an unfamiliar look.
Never-the-less, as Stanley points out: the Barbarians are a brand recognisable worldwide and their arrival on these shores should be considered a coup for Clontarf with any number of superstars eligible for their ranks.
They’ll certainly be more welcome than Máel Mórda.
