Connacht Rugby
The Sportsground on College Road, now the Galway Greyhound Stadium, holds 12,000 after its redevelopment and still runs greyhound meetings every week around the rugby. It is the home of Connacht, the smallest of Ireland's four professional provinces, representing a region with just over eight per cent of the country's people and playing in the United Rugby Championship and the Champions Cup in green.
Checked against the source on 2026-09-19.
Connacht Rugby Gym, Pearse Stadium on the 3D model; tap a pin for its page and directions.
Six clubs in a Dublin room
The Connacht Branch of the IRFU was founded on 8 December 1885, ten years after Leinster, Munster and Ulster had teams, at a meeting of six clubs: Ballinasloe, Castlebar, Galway Town, Galway Grammar School, Queen's College Galway and Ranelagh School Athlone. Galway Grammar and Ranelagh have since closed; Galwegians grew out of Galway Town in 1922. The crest is a version of the provincial flag, a halved eagle and an arm holding a sword.
Going professional
On 26 August 1995 the International Rugby Board declared the game open, and in Ireland the four provinces were the only teams to turn professional. When Michael Bradley took over in 2003 the average crowd was 600 and the IRFU budget was less than half of any other province, yet that season Connacht reached the semi-final of the European Challenge Cup, its best run to date. Eric Elwood, the former Connacht and Ireland fly-half who had coached Ireland Under-20s to a grand slam in 2007, succeeded him in 2010. In 2011 to 2012 the province played in the Heineken Cup for the first time, taking the extra Irish place earned by Leinster's win in the 2011 final.
Pat Lam and after
Pat Lam, the New Zealand-born former Samoa international, was appointed in January 2013. His first game was a 25-16 home win over Zebre, a long run of league defeats followed until a 14-11 win over the Dragons on 21 December 2013, and a four-match winning streak in early 2014 was the team's longest in eleven years. Kieran Keane of the Chiefs was named to replace him in February 2017, though his Super Rugby commitments kept him away until the end of that July. The Connacht Rugby gym and the stadium sit on the east side of the city, pinned on the model with Pearse Stadium across the bay road.
Questions people ask
Where do Connacht Rugby play?
When was Connacht Rugby founded?
When did Connacht first play in the Heineken Cup?
Written from Wikipedia, "Connacht Rugby" (CC BY-SA 4.0), read on 2026-09-19, and from the OpenStreetMap places on the model. Nothing has been added from memory; follow the source for its footnotes.