FIVE MONTHS AFTER drawing the curtain on a decorated professional career, former Ireland and Leinster stalwart Mike Ross will return to rugby tomorrow night when he lines out in the Ulster Bank League.
The 37-year-old, who won 61 caps for Ireland and made 151 appearances for the eastern province, has taken up a playing/coaching role with Malahide RFC ahead of their first season in Division 2C.
As well as being added to Malahide’s playing panel ahead of the season opener against Bective Rangers, the veteran tighthead prop will also join the north Dublin’s management team as scrum coach.
The Cork native first came to prominence domestically with UCC and Cork Constitution and 13 years after playing in the Division 1 final with the latter, Ross will return to his All-Ireland roots tomorrow night.
Malahide have enjoyed a rapid rise in recent seasons, winning Leinster Junior League Divisions 1B and then 1A over the last two years before securing senior Ulster Bank League status in the round robin series last spring.
“We are not going up for ‘a look’,” Malahide’s director of rugby Rick Evans said. “We think we have the population base and the infrastructure to be one of the top Dublin clubs.”
Ross won’t be the only former Ireland international to have represented the club after Malcolm O’Kelly togged out for two seasons, as well as coaching Malahide’s U20s side, at the end of his career.
After calling time on a professional career which saw him win two Six Nations titles with Ireland and two Heineken Cups, a Challenge Cup and two Pro12 championships with Leinster, Ross announced in June that he was taking up a position with Dublin-based technology firm Wizuda.
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