As one of the oldest rugby clubs in the country, Tipperary Town’s Clanwilliam F.C has been a major part of the sporting fabric of the town for over 140 years, having been founded in 1879.

After playing in various locations, the club settled and developed their current home at Clanwilliam Park in 1956.

Today, the ground consists of a playing pitch, training area, changing rooms and a large hall with bar and catering facilities. In recent years a second playing pitch and changing rooms have been developed at Collegelands, Tipperary.

A number of players from the club have attained representative honours, the most well-known being Alan Quinlan with 27 international caps, Alan’s cousin David Quinlan has captained the Irish Clubs side while the next generation of Quinlan’s sees Brendan playing in the AIL with Cork Constitution.

Tommy O’Donnell started his successful rugby career in Clanwilliam and another product of Clanwilliam is Seán Walsh who played with the Irish Clubs side in recent years.

John Lacey is kept the officiating side of the club to the fore as an World Rugby International referee before retiring in 2019 to take up the role of High Performance Referee coach and talent identification with the IRFU.

For International Women’s rugby, Aimee Leigh Murphy-Crowe, since making her 7s debut in Guangzhou in 2014, she has gone on to become the top try scorer for the Irish 7s and was named in the World Rugby Sevens Dream Team of the Year in 2019.

Over the years, Clanwilliam have enjoyed a number of notable successes, the winning of the Munster Junior Cup in 1947 being the highlight – a feat almost repeated in 2014. Another great day in the club’s history was winning the Munster Challenge Cup in 1996. Besides the two Munster successes, the club have a number of wins in regional competitions such as the Mansergh, Garryowen and Evans Cups.