IT’S JUST AFTER 3pm on a splendid winter day in Sydney when Clonakilty man Cian Hurley leads his team out onto the pitch at Manly Oval, with Wexford native Jack Stafford following hot on his heels.
The smell of burgers being cooked in one of the pitch-side tents wafts around the place. The big grandstand – dedicated to the late, great Wallaby and Manly man, Tony ‘Slaggy’ Miller – is filling up with people of all ages. Multiple generations of families are here.
There’s a gaggle of kids down on the outer reaches of the oval, already desperate for their chance to get back onto the rugby pitch at half-time. Up on the balcony of the 1883 Lounge, club sponsors and bigwigs get another round of drinks in before kick-off.
In the room behind them are tributes to some of Manly’s legendary players, the likes of Wallabies back rows George Smith and Michael Hooper.
Sydney Uni are in town and players from both clubs who have already featured in the second, third and fourth grade games – which began at 10.35am – are now showered and ready to roar on the first-grade sides in a big Shute Shield game.
“The match days here are really special,” says scrum-half Stafford. “It’s a massive community, and that’s across all clubs in the Shute Shield.
“By the time the first grade game comes around, there’s always a good buzz.”
Lots of the Manly players have gathered on a bank opposite the grandstand, with a large cooler box full of beers to keep them company as they roar on their mates in the first-grade team. This is a particularly enjoyable part of Australian club rugby.
Cian Hurley leads Manly out.
“It’s like a festival of rugby every weekend,” says second row Hurley, who was honoured by being asked to captain Manly despite this being his first season with the club.
“By the time we kick off, there’s lads who can barely even see the game standing on the hill.”
No matter where you go in Australia, there are unexpected connections to Ireland. The first person to say hello upon arrival at the oval a few hours earlier is none other than Jack Regan, the former Ulster and Ospreys lock. The Offaly man is fit and firing with Sydney Uni this season.
Up in the stand, ex-Munster and UL Bohemians scrum-half Chris Delooze is plotting the final pieces of Sydney Uni’s attack, which he coaches. Matt Phillip, the Wallabies-capped Waratahs lock, is helping out with coaching too.
The cameras are standing by, ready to broadcast the game on Stan Sport.
And when the first whistle goes, thrilling Shute Shield rugby ensues under the warm sun.
This is Manly Rugby Football Club. It’s a glorious setting, and it’s where Hurley and Stafford have found a rugby home away from home.
Manly is a beachside suburb, a 25-minute ferry ride northeast of the Sydney Opera House in the city. The boat journeys out in the crisp morning sunshine and back in as the sun sets behind the Harbour Bridge are breathtaking.
As is Manly itself. It’s a little paradise of a place. White sand beaches, crystal-clear water, laid-back cafés, waterside walks. There aren’t too many games days that involve a dip in the ocean just a few 100 metres from the pitch before getting to work.
Manly Beach. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
No wonder former Munster players Hurley and Stafford are loving their time with Manly.
“Where we play, the Manly Oval, everyone here calls it the Village Green,” says 26-year-old Hurley.
“So there’s very much a local feel to the club.”
Hurley lives close to the ground with two other ‘Marlins’ players. He’s working in construction but will head up the East Coast to do his regional work and earn his second-year visa once the 21-week Shute Shield season ends in late August.
Stafford has been in Sydney for three years. Though he lives in Randwick in the eastern suburbs and works in insurance in the city, he has stayed loyal to Manly throughout that time.
The 28-year-old either gets the ferry across for training on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings or navigates his moped across the gigantic Sydney Harbour Bridge.
“A pretty crazy commute,” says Stafford. “Yeah, my mother’s not too happy.
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“But I love it in Manly.”
It was Stafford’s childhood friend, Barry O’Connor, who convinced him to move to Sydney when he left Harlequins in 2023. O’Connor was with the Sydney Swans in the AFL and told him to give it a crack Down Under.
Delooze, who coached Stafford when he was in Glenstal, was with Manly at the time, so the rugby connection was made.
Stafford during Manly's warm-up.
As for Hurley, the link to Manly came through Garryowen, who he played for when he was with Munster. The Limerick club’s president, Jim Fehily, has a son, Harry, who coaches Manly’s defence.
“I came over to Manly to meet Harry and Sam Lane, who’s our head coach,” says Hurley.
“I stepped off the ferry, and it was a sunny day like this, and I was like, ‘This place is beautiful.’ I sat down with them, had a coffee, a good chat and a week later, I signed.”
Shute Shield clubs can pay players and give them match fees, but they are not lucrative full-time contracts. Clubs like Manly help people to find accommodation and jobs, but these players are fending for themselves.
There’s a real mix of players in the Shute Shield, from grassroots club heroes to professional players who drop down from the likes of the Waratahs and Brumbies after the Super Rugby season.
On this particular day, Hurley packs down alongside Reds and Wallabies-capped lock Caderyn Neville for Manly, while the Sydney Uni team includes Waratahs players Eamon Doyle and Joey Fowler, as well as ex-Munster hooker Declan Moore.
Wallabies back row Pete Samu played for West Harbour against Manly recently, while Stafford recalls lining up against Fijian legend Nemani Nadolo a couple of years ago before he retired.
Lalakai Foketi, the Ospreys-bound, Wallabies-capped centre, played with Manly last season. Club legend Hooper even trained with Manly in pre-season.
The Manly club logo.
There are the up-and-coming youngsters who have ambitions of making it professionally, like 21-year-old Manly out-half Joe Dillon, who is attached to the Brumbies.
Then there are the likes of Stafford and Hurley, who have recently come out of the professional game and want to keep playing at a high level as they move into a different working world outside rugby.
Stafford featured for the Ireland U20s, came through the Munster academy – studying business in UL during that time – and played for the province three times before being released in 2020, whereupon Jerry Flannery brought him over to Harlequins.
Stafford was there when they won their Premiership title in 2021 and made nine appearances for Quins before leaving in 2023 and deciding on a new adventure in Australia.
“I still wanted to play a good standard of rugby,” says Stafford. “I wanted to get away from where I was and start making a move into the real world and the next job kind of thing.
“When I first came out, I was doing landscaping and labouring, like so many people do, but then a friend of a friend made a link, and now I’m working in insurance. Very much learning the ropes, but I’m in there a year-and-a-half now.
“Your goalposts shift. You’re still playing rugby at a high level, but you’re much more focused on being in the workforce.”
Stafford at Munster training in 2019. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
Hurley was also an Ireland U20 international who came through Munster’s academy – he studied construction management in UL – and made six senior appearances.
However, Hurley ruptured his Achilles tendon in his first year on a professional contract, then dislocated his knee in a nasty training-ground accident the following season.
“So basically my first two years of senior pro rugby, I spent probably 60 to 70% of it injured,” says Hurley.
“It was tough mentally, being away from the squad. There were the highs of getting in, signing, and then the lows of being injured and rehabbing.”
When he finished up with Munster in 2025, he was wondering whether he even wanted to keep playing rugby.
But he was encouraged to look for something new by coaches he admires, including now ex-Munster man Mike Prendergast, who searched for opportunities for Hurley in France.
Hurley ended up in New Zealand, though. The connection was new Munster forwards coach Jimmy Duffy, who was in touch with ex-Ireland tighthead prop Nathan White, the coach of Southland Stags in the National Provincial Championship.
The Stags needed a lock. Hurley, who was born in South Africa when his parents were working there and only came to Ireland at the age of 13, has always been interested in seeing more of the world.
“So I jump on a flight, and 52 hours later, I’m landing in Queenstown in New Zealand,” says Hurley.
“We flew in over the National Park in the Southern Alps. Everything was covered in snow.”
The Stags are based in Invercargill, right down on the southern tip of New Zealand’s South Island.
“They call it the ar**hole of New Zealand,” says Hurley with a laugh.
Hurley bidding farewell to Munster fans in 2025. Ben Brady / INPHO
Ben Brady / INPHO / INPHO
He loved the place. His family have a sheep farm near Bantry, so he fitted into the farming region of Southland smoothly. And crucially, the rugby was enjoyable.
“They just love rugby down there, and they love like the craic around it,” says Hurley.
“They’ve got a great ability to switch on and off rugby. When you’re on, you’re on. And when you’re off, you’re actually off and go away and enjoy things. It was such a good experience for me.”
The NPC is a sprint of a season involving a maximum of 13 games if you make the final, and Hurley found the quality to be excellent. He played alongside All Blacks wing Sevu Reece at one stage, with a huge number of Super Rugby players and up-and-coming prospects in every team.
Away from rugby, Hurley made friends for life. He loved the outdoors lifestyle, the fishing and the hiking. His parents came to visit for a few weeks, and he jokes that he barely saw them because they were so busy with all the activities.
When the season ended in October, Hurley borrowed an old Holden Rodeo pick-up truck from a team-mate and headed off on a solo six-week trek around the South Island and on up to the North Island, visiting other Stags players in their hometowns along the way.
When his mind turned back to rugby, he considered the MLR in America, before a trip to Sydney to see some old friends who lived in the city. He spent Christmas out in the eastern suburbs, where there is a big Irish community.
Hurley enjoyed it so much that he wondered if his next rugby step should be in Sydney. And that’s where Manly stepped in. One ferry trip out to the stunning suburb was enough to convince Hurley.
He works 7am to 3pm in construction every day, and hopes to move into a bigger role in site management or project management in the future.
Hurley isn’t sure what he will do next season on the rugby front, but he’s loving life.
A view from the ferry back from Manly to the city.
The same is true of Stafford, who points out that more Irish players have come to Sydney and done well in the Shute Shield in recent years. Dan Goggin and Alex McHenry helped Easts to win the competition in 2024.
“I’m very happy with my life,” says Stafford. “I’ve got a great girlfriend, Isabel, and a great friend base here.
“If someone from home was onto me, I would say, Use your rugby to travel.’
“It’s a great experience, even if you come over for a season or two. Even if it’s not Australia, get out and learn more and see different environments. I couldn’t recommend it more.”
Hurley plays a prominent role for Manly in the clash with Sydney Uni, throwing himself into mauls, leading the lineout, playing some crisp passes, and even chipping in with a couple of linebreaks.
Stafford comes off the bench for Waratahs scrum-half Billy Dickens, and nearly helps to inspire Manly to a comeback, but it’s not to be. The Shute Shield lives up to its reputation for free-flowing, all-out attacking rugby in a 48-40 win for Sydney Uni.
Usually after Shute Shield games, each team selects their four fastest beer drinkers and the competition continues with a classic Australian boat race in the clubhouse, but the post-match festivities are cut short this time.
The two Munster men shower quickly and hop in a taxi across town in time for the Wallabies’ clash with Ireland, excited to see some old friends from home.
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The two Munster men playing in magnificent Manly in Sydney
IT’S JUST AFTER 3pm on a splendid winter day in Sydney when Clonakilty man Cian Hurley leads his team out onto the pitch at Manly Oval, with Wexford native Jack Stafford following hot on his heels.
The smell of burgers being cooked in one of the pitch-side tents wafts around the place. The big grandstand – dedicated to the late, great Wallaby and Manly man, Tony ‘Slaggy’ Miller – is filling up with people of all ages. Multiple generations of families are here.
There’s a gaggle of kids down on the outer reaches of the oval, already desperate for their chance to get back onto the rugby pitch at half-time. Up on the balcony of the 1883 Lounge, club sponsors and bigwigs get another round of drinks in before kick-off.
In the room behind them are tributes to some of Manly’s legendary players, the likes of Wallabies back rows George Smith and Michael Hooper.
Sydney Uni are in town and players from both clubs who have already featured in the second, third and fourth grade games – which began at 10.35am – are now showered and ready to roar on the first-grade sides in a big Shute Shield game.
“The match days here are really special,” says scrum-half Stafford. “It’s a massive community, and that’s across all clubs in the Shute Shield.
“By the time the first grade game comes around, there’s always a good buzz.”
Lots of the Manly players have gathered on a bank opposite the grandstand, with a large cooler box full of beers to keep them company as they roar on their mates in the first-grade team. This is a particularly enjoyable part of Australian club rugby.
“It’s like a festival of rugby every weekend,” says second row Hurley, who was honoured by being asked to captain Manly despite this being his first season with the club.
“By the time we kick off, there’s lads who can barely even see the game standing on the hill.”
No matter where you go in Australia, there are unexpected connections to Ireland. The first person to say hello upon arrival at the oval a few hours earlier is none other than Jack Regan, the former Ulster and Ospreys lock. The Offaly man is fit and firing with Sydney Uni this season.
Up in the stand, ex-Munster and UL Bohemians scrum-half Chris Delooze is plotting the final pieces of Sydney Uni’s attack, which he coaches. Matt Phillip, the Wallabies-capped Waratahs lock, is helping out with coaching too.
The cameras are standing by, ready to broadcast the game on Stan Sport.
And when the first whistle goes, thrilling Shute Shield rugby ensues under the warm sun.
This is Manly Rugby Football Club. It’s a glorious setting, and it’s where Hurley and Stafford have found a rugby home away from home.
Manly is a beachside suburb, a 25-minute ferry ride northeast of the Sydney Opera House in the city. The boat journeys out in the crisp morning sunshine and back in as the sun sets behind the Harbour Bridge are breathtaking.
As is Manly itself. It’s a little paradise of a place. White sand beaches, crystal-clear water, laid-back cafés, waterside walks. There aren’t too many games days that involve a dip in the ocean just a few 100 metres from the pitch before getting to work.
No wonder former Munster players Hurley and Stafford are loving their time with Manly.
“Where we play, the Manly Oval, everyone here calls it the Village Green,” says 26-year-old Hurley.
“So there’s very much a local feel to the club.”
Hurley lives close to the ground with two other ‘Marlins’ players. He’s working in construction but will head up the East Coast to do his regional work and earn his second-year visa once the 21-week Shute Shield season ends in late August.
Stafford has been in Sydney for three years. Though he lives in Randwick in the eastern suburbs and works in insurance in the city, he has stayed loyal to Manly throughout that time.
The 28-year-old either gets the ferry across for training on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings or navigates his moped across the gigantic Sydney Harbour Bridge.
“A pretty crazy commute,” says Stafford. “Yeah, my mother’s not too happy.
“But I love it in Manly.”
It was Stafford’s childhood friend, Barry O’Connor, who convinced him to move to Sydney when he left Harlequins in 2023. O’Connor was with the Sydney Swans in the AFL and told him to give it a crack Down Under.
Delooze, who coached Stafford when he was in Glenstal, was with Manly at the time, so the rugby connection was made.
As for Hurley, the link to Manly came through Garryowen, who he played for when he was with Munster. The Limerick club’s president, Jim Fehily, has a son, Harry, who coaches Manly’s defence.
“I came over to Manly to meet Harry and Sam Lane, who’s our head coach,” says Hurley.
“I stepped off the ferry, and it was a sunny day like this, and I was like, ‘This place is beautiful.’ I sat down with them, had a coffee, a good chat and a week later, I signed.”
Shute Shield clubs can pay players and give them match fees, but they are not lucrative full-time contracts. Clubs like Manly help people to find accommodation and jobs, but these players are fending for themselves.
There’s a real mix of players in the Shute Shield, from grassroots club heroes to professional players who drop down from the likes of the Waratahs and Brumbies after the Super Rugby season.
On this particular day, Hurley packs down alongside Reds and Wallabies-capped lock Caderyn Neville for Manly, while the Sydney Uni team includes Waratahs players Eamon Doyle and Joey Fowler, as well as ex-Munster hooker Declan Moore.
Wallabies back row Pete Samu played for West Harbour against Manly recently, while Stafford recalls lining up against Fijian legend Nemani Nadolo a couple of years ago before he retired.
Lalakai Foketi, the Ospreys-bound, Wallabies-capped centre, played with Manly last season. Club legend Hooper even trained with Manly in pre-season.
There are the up-and-coming youngsters who have ambitions of making it professionally, like 21-year-old Manly out-half Joe Dillon, who is attached to the Brumbies.
Then there are the likes of Stafford and Hurley, who have recently come out of the professional game and want to keep playing at a high level as they move into a different working world outside rugby.
Stafford featured for the Ireland U20s, came through the Munster academy – studying business in UL during that time – and played for the province three times before being released in 2020, whereupon Jerry Flannery brought him over to Harlequins.
Stafford was there when they won their Premiership title in 2021 and made nine appearances for Quins before leaving in 2023 and deciding on a new adventure in Australia.
“I still wanted to play a good standard of rugby,” says Stafford. “I wanted to get away from where I was and start making a move into the real world and the next job kind of thing.
“When I first came out, I was doing landscaping and labouring, like so many people do, but then a friend of a friend made a link, and now I’m working in insurance. Very much learning the ropes, but I’m in there a year-and-a-half now.
“Your goalposts shift. You’re still playing rugby at a high level, but you’re much more focused on being in the workforce.”
Hurley was also an Ireland U20 international who came through Munster’s academy – he studied construction management in UL – and made six senior appearances.
However, Hurley ruptured his Achilles tendon in his first year on a professional contract, then dislocated his knee in a nasty training-ground accident the following season.
“So basically my first two years of senior pro rugby, I spent probably 60 to 70% of it injured,” says Hurley.
“It was tough mentally, being away from the squad. There were the highs of getting in, signing, and then the lows of being injured and rehabbing.”
When he finished up with Munster in 2025, he was wondering whether he even wanted to keep playing rugby.
But he was encouraged to look for something new by coaches he admires, including now ex-Munster man Mike Prendergast, who searched for opportunities for Hurley in France.
Hurley ended up in New Zealand, though. The connection was new Munster forwards coach Jimmy Duffy, who was in touch with ex-Ireland tighthead prop Nathan White, the coach of Southland Stags in the National Provincial Championship.
The Stags needed a lock. Hurley, who was born in South Africa when his parents were working there and only came to Ireland at the age of 13, has always been interested in seeing more of the world.
“So I jump on a flight, and 52 hours later, I’m landing in Queenstown in New Zealand,” says Hurley.
“We flew in over the National Park in the Southern Alps. Everything was covered in snow.”
The Stags are based in Invercargill, right down on the southern tip of New Zealand’s South Island.
“They call it the ar**hole of New Zealand,” says Hurley with a laugh.
He loved the place. His family have a sheep farm near Bantry, so he fitted into the farming region of Southland smoothly. And crucially, the rugby was enjoyable.
“They just love rugby down there, and they love like the craic around it,” says Hurley.
“They’ve got a great ability to switch on and off rugby. When you’re on, you’re on. And when you’re off, you’re actually off and go away and enjoy things. It was such a good experience for me.”
The NPC is a sprint of a season involving a maximum of 13 games if you make the final, and Hurley found the quality to be excellent. He played alongside All Blacks wing Sevu Reece at one stage, with a huge number of Super Rugby players and up-and-coming prospects in every team.
Away from rugby, Hurley made friends for life. He loved the outdoors lifestyle, the fishing and the hiking. His parents came to visit for a few weeks, and he jokes that he barely saw them because they were so busy with all the activities.
When the season ended in October, Hurley borrowed an old Holden Rodeo pick-up truck from a team-mate and headed off on a solo six-week trek around the South Island and on up to the North Island, visiting other Stags players in their hometowns along the way.
When his mind turned back to rugby, he considered the MLR in America, before a trip to Sydney to see some old friends who lived in the city. He spent Christmas out in the eastern suburbs, where there is a big Irish community.
Hurley enjoyed it so much that he wondered if his next rugby step should be in Sydney. And that’s where Manly stepped in. One ferry trip out to the stunning suburb was enough to convince Hurley.
He works 7am to 3pm in construction every day, and hopes to move into a bigger role in site management or project management in the future.
Hurley isn’t sure what he will do next season on the rugby front, but he’s loving life.
The same is true of Stafford, who points out that more Irish players have come to Sydney and done well in the Shute Shield in recent years. Dan Goggin and Alex McHenry helped Easts to win the competition in 2024.
“I’m very happy with my life,” says Stafford. “I’ve got a great girlfriend, Isabel, and a great friend base here.
“If someone from home was onto me, I would say, Use your rugby to travel.’
“It’s a great experience, even if you come over for a season or two. Even if it’s not Australia, get out and learn more and see different environments. I couldn’t recommend it more.”
Hurley plays a prominent role for Manly in the clash with Sydney Uni, throwing himself into mauls, leading the lineout, playing some crisp passes, and even chipping in with a couple of linebreaks.
Stafford comes off the bench for Waratahs scrum-half Billy Dickens, and nearly helps to inspire Manly to a comeback, but it’s not to be. The Shute Shield lives up to its reputation for free-flowing, all-out attacking rugby in a 48-40 win for Sydney Uni.
Usually after Shute Shield games, each team selects their four fastest beer drinkers and the competition continues with a classic Australian boat race in the clubhouse, but the post-match festivities are cut short this time.
The two Munster men shower quickly and hop in a taxi across town in time for the Wallabies’ clash with Ireland, excited to see some old friends from home.
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cian hurley Irish Abroad Jack Stafford manly Marlins Munster Sydney