Magic week for Mangan family as Ciaran makes Leinster debut

It’s been quite the week for the Mangan family from Sallins.

Last Saturday, the family were in Belvedere early in the afternoon to watch Ciaran and Diarmuid play for the Leinster A team against Munster A before racing down the N7 in time for another son, Daragh, to be named Man of the Match in the National Electrical Wholesalers Intermediate Football Championship final where he lifted the trophy as captain.

This week, the focus was back on rugby. Diarmuid, who has been in the Ireland senior squad this week, started in the BTK United Rugby Championship (URC) game in the Aviva Stadium against Italian side Zebre.

The day was made even more special when Ciaran was introduced for his Leinster debut in the 50th minute when another Kildare man, Andrew Osborne, received a 20 minute red card.

The younger of the Mangan brothers represented Ireland at both the U20 Six Nations and the World Rugby U20 Championship. But this was his breakthrough for the Leinster team, with Leo Cullen's side eventually won 50-26 - with another Kildare man, Will Connors, also featuring off the bench.

It has been a turbulent start to the season for the Eastern province, winning just one of their opening four games including back-to-back defeats in South Africa. 

The provincial woes went to another level last week as five Kildare men featured in Croke Park where Eadestown's Tadhg Beirne led Munster to a famous bonus-point victory away to Leinster.

Zebre started the season incredibly well by their standards, beating Edinburgh and the Lions in their opening two games before coming unstuck against the Ospreys and the Stormers. 

But the Parma club came to the Aviva with genuine confidence against a Leinster side who were below Zebre in the table and missing over 20 players due to injuries and international duties. 

The current Leinster system is designed specifically for just this occasion, with the province providing the bulk of the Ireland squad. 

As such, Head Coach Leo Cullen was forced to dip into his squad reserves and show off to the rugby world the latest gems that have been unearthed in the Leinster academy.

Hugo McLaughlin (full back) and Jerry Cahir (loose head prop) each made their debut from the start, with winger Joshua Kenny making just his second senior appearance. 

Tight head prop Andrew Sparrow also made his second appearance for the province off the bench having been joined among the replacements by a further four uncapped players - Bobby Sheehan, brother of Dan, big prop Alex Usanov, the latest fly half wonder kid off the production line, Austrian-born Caspar Gabriel, and the aforementioned Ciaran Mangan. 

The Sallins man was had not originally been named in the match-day 23, but was called in as a late replacement when Max Deegan was ruled out.

Mangan came in for the final half an hour with Leinster 12 points up and just in time to see fellow debutant Cahir go over for a try. 

Leinster's bonus-point victory saw them leapfrog Zebre into 7th place in the table, still on just 11 points. 

It is an exciting time for the rugby playing members of the Mangan family, and Daragh will look to add to the excitement on the GAA pitches when Sallins begin their Leinster Intermediate Championship campaign next week.