Players and members who have represented Thomond on the international and club rugby stage since the club was founded in 1944.

Irish Internationals

Keith Earls

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Keith Earls was born in Moyross, a council estate in Limerick, and where Thomond R.F.C played their rugby.

Earls first began playing underage rugby for Thomond, as an openside flanker, and started secondary school at St Munchin’s College, before moving to St Nessan’s Community College, which was closer to home. A move into midfield led to Earls being convinced to return to St Munchin’s, and he won the Munster Schools Rugby Senior Cup with the college in 2006.

Earls went on to play for Munster as early as 2007 against Ospreys and Ireland a year later against Canada in 2008 in Thomond Park scoring a try on his debut, and a year after that making the British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa in 2009.

Keith went on to win the 2007 John McCarthy Award for Acamedy Player of the Year, along with many more such as Munster Young Player of the Year in 2009 and Munster Player of the Year in 2018 and in the same year he won the Rugby Players Ireland Player’s Player of the Year.

Keith won many trophies with each of his teams including the under 16s trophy for Thomond and many more , 3 URC titles in 2009, 2011 and 2023, 1 European Rugby Champions Cup in 2008, u20s 6 Nations Grand Slam in 2007 and the holy trinity of the Six Nations, Grand Slam and Triple Crown in 2018 and finally his second Grand Slam in 2023.

Keith Earls finished his illustrious career retiring after the 2023 Rugby World Cup following a 16 year career with 202 caps for Munster with 64 tries and 101 caps for Ireland with 36 tries making that 100 tries for club and country.

Peter Fitzgibbon

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Peter Fitzgibbon is an Irish international rugby union referee. He has been on the IRB Elite panel since 2009.

He works full-time for the Irish Rugby Football Union as referee development officer in the Leisure Rugby department, which deals with casual play and the IRFU’s tag rugby events.

He is a member of the Munster Association of Referees and also played rugby for Thomond R.F.C.

Peter has refereed over 40 professional games including international tests.

Pa Ryan

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Patrick Ryan started with Thomond R.F.C playing underage, and went on to join Shannon R.F.C winning the Men’s AIL Division 1B Rising Star Award at the 2020 Virtual AIL Rugby Awards.

While playing for Shannon he went on to play for Munster ‘A’ lining out against Connacht Eagles and also getting selected for the Irish Clubs XV in 2020 winning both matches and getting named Man Of The Match in the second leg retaining the Dalriada Cup with a 22-17 win.

Ryan then went on to play for Young Munster R.F.C winning the Bank Of Ireland Munster Junior Cup in 2022 before returning to his old home Thomond.

When Ryan made his long lasting return to the Sodacakes he added a few more trophies to the cabinet with the J1 League and Transfield Cup in 2023.

Currently in the 25/26 Season Pa Ryan plays for AIL Division 1A side Terenure College in Dublin.

Daniel Okeke

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Daniel Okeke currently plays for Coventry in the 2024/25 season and has played for the U20’s Ireland Rugby team and 3 pro games for Munster.

He started out at Thomond RFC before playing rugby with his school Ardscoil Rís, producing some standout moments in the 2019 Schools Senior Cup campaign.

He advanced through the National Talent Squad programme and lined out for the Munster ‘A’ team in December 2020 as well as being included in Richie Murphy’s Ireland Squad for the 2021 Six Nations Championship.

Okeke started playing rugby at the age of 12 for Thomond RFC for a couple of years, then he moved on to play for Ard Scoil Rís, who he played with for 5 years.

Okeke then went on to play age-grade rugby with Munster for a few years, progressing on to play for the senior squad and even the Irish 20s team in 2021. 

Daniel ended his Munster career in 2023 and moved to Coventry for the 2024/25 season playing 10 games for the English side.

Daniel is currently signed with Spanish side Getxo for the 2025/2026 season.

Eddie Halvey

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Eddie Halvey now retired has played for Thomond RFC, Shannon RFC, Munster, London Irish, Munster again and finally Ireland.

Halvey made his debut for Munster against Swansea in November 1995, a game that was also Munster’s first ever Heineken Cup appearance.

Halvey made his Ireland debut against France in March 1995, during the 1995 Five Nations Championship.

 He earned three caps at the 1995 Rugby World Cup in South Africa, against Japan, Wales and France. The first of his two international tries came during the Japan match, and the second came four days later during the game against Wales.

Halvey’s last appearance for Ireland came against Canada in November 1997 with a total of 8 Irish Caps.

He then went on to join London Irish in 2000, and made his debut against Harlequins in August of that year. He started in the 2002 Powergen Cup Final at Twickenham, as London Irish defeated the Northampton Saints.

In 2002 Halvey rejoined Munster having played 34 times for the London side, and went on to play a further two season with his home province, making his final appearance against Cardiff Blues in April 2004 to make that a total of 50 Caps for the province.

Jim Tydings

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John Joseph Tydings (26 June 1945 – 24 August 2019) was an Irish international rugby union player.

A native of Limerick, Tydings played his rugby with Thomond, Young Munster and Munster, with a one-off Ireland appearance in 1968.

His call up for the Irish team came after he scored a try against Connacht when playing for Munster the previous week.

He featured on the wing in their win over Australia at Lansdowne Road in 1968, a match which resulted in a seven-point win for Ireland.

Tydings was also a football player for our neighbours Ballynanty Rovers and Limerick FC, as a Centre-forward and outside-left.

Maurice Hartery

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Declan Cusack is an Irish rugby union player, who is currently a player–coach at English North 1 East club York. He normally plays as a fly-half but has occasionally played as a centre.

He made his debut for Munster against Connacht on the 18th of April in 2010, starting at fly-half.  He was also a part of the Munster ‘A’ team that lost to Cornish Pirates in the final of 2009–10 British and Irish Cup in May of 2010. 

On the 27th of April 2012, Cusack came off the bench for Munster ‘A’ in their 31–12, British and Irish Cup Final victory against Cross Keys in the 2011-12 season.

Then moving up in his career on the 5th of May 2012, Cusack came off the bench for Munster in the last league fixture of the 2011–12 season against Ulster and scored his first points for the province and a conversion of Munster’s fourth try.

It was announced on the 3rd of May 2012 that Cusack would leave Munster at the end of the 2011–12 season playing 5 games for the Senior Team.

Cusack then went on to play for many teams including Gernika RT, Cusack made six starts for the Basque side in the 2012–13 European Challenge Cup, scoring 50 points.

He then went on to play for Plymouth from 2013-2015 scoring 250 points in 37 appearances.

Then he went on to Doncaster at the beginning of the 2015-16 season during his stay he played 1 game for Leicester Tigers on loan. He accumulated 149 points in 64 appearances for Doncaster before going on to coach the side for a season in 2018.

Currently Cusack is player/manager for York scoring 204 points in 33 appearances to the creation of this post in the 2024/25 season.

Ger Earls

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Ger Earls played for Thomond up until he was 21 when Young Munster boss Tony Grant who also spent time at the club asked Earls would he come out to training in the Greenfields.

Earls is known around Limerick and further afield as the best player never to play for Ireland, but back then in 1989 he was a young fella playing for Thomond. Leaving his home club was a big deal, Thomond R.F.C were one of the best junior clubs around, having just won their fifth Junior Cup, but Earls was too good not to be playing senior rugby.

He nodded to Grant and said he’d give it a go with Young Munsters, himself and fellow Thomond man Ger Copley switching at the same time.

Within 2 years Ger got called up to the Munster side that beat World Champions Australia in 1992 with a scoreline 22-19 down in Virgin Media Park or Musgrave Park as it was known at the time.

Just over a year later, Earls and ‘the Cookies’ were All-Ireland champions as they marched to the club’s first and only title in the glory days of 1993.

Earls stayed on and played for Young Munster until his early 30s when he returned to Thomond when they were promoted into the AIL in 2000.

Even in his 30s Earls was still a class act as a player-coach and helped his home club to the AIL Division 3 title in 2001.

Earls planned on only playing for a season but kept at it till he was 36, which gave him the opportunity to play alongside his son Keith for one game when the young Earls had just left school.

Earls took to the game naturally said his Thomond coach from u16s to u20s Sean McInerney.

Ger himself was doing his best to give back as head coach of junior club Newcastle West up unitil the 22/23 season, where he coached alongside Aidan O’Halloran.

Junior Interprovincials

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Youth Representatives

Ireland

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Munster

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