UL Bohemians add Tom Hayes To Coaching Ticket

UL Bohemian RFC has today announced that Tom Hayes will be their Senior XV Head Coach ahead of the 2019/20 AIL Season.

Hayes will take up his new role with The Robins after leaving Shannon RFC, having coached their Senior team since January 2017. During his time as Shannon Head Coach, the club gained promotion to Division 1A of the All Ireland League after being crowned Divison 1B Champions. However, last season saw Shannon get relegated from the top flight and return to Divison 1B.

Hayes career began at Bruff RFC as a 14-year-old, before he joined Shannon. He won his first Ulster Bank League Division 1 title with Shannon in 2001/02 and later captained the team to two consecutive All Ireland Leagues in 2003/04 and 2004/05 during a very dominant and successful time for Shannon RFC.

Off the back of that 2004/05 AIL Title with Shannon, Hayes made the move to English Championship side Plymouth Albion for three seasons before switching to Exeter Chiefs in 2008 Hayes was appointed Exeter Captain in 2010 and led the club to promotion to the Premiership that same season. He played 136 games in total for the Chiefs and retired through injury in 2013.

In other news for UL-Bohemians, the club’s Chairman of Rugby, Graham Burns, confirmed on Tuesday evening that Munster’s head performance analyst George Murray would be joining their impressive coaching team next season, along with Tom Hayes, while the rest of their backroom team will be made up of Christy Nealon, Daragh Frawley and Cathal Sheridan along with Anthony Murphy.

It was also announced that former Ireland international Niamh Kavanagh will work with Chairman of Rugby Graham Burns to further develop the game within adult and underage sections at UL-Bohs.