MEMBERS of the Iveagh Branch of The Pony Club were more concerned with rugby than equestrian matters on Friday night as former member Reuben Crothers led the Irish Under 20s team to a record 53 to 5 points hammering of Wales down at Musgrave Park in Cork.

The 20-year-old, whose try two minutes into the second half secured the bonus point, excelled at Tetrathlon, a discipline now being competed in with the Iveaghs by his younger sister Connie (18), the reigning Area 17 girls’ champion, while their father, Owen, is on the Area Tetrathlon parents’ committee.

Owen and Connie were among the 7,000-plus spectators at the match on Friday evening as were Reuben’s mother Lisa, his older sister Jasmine (who used to compete with Eventing Ireland as did Connie) and his girlfriend, Megan Bell. All were due to attend last night’s second round match at the Stade Maurice David in Aix-en-Provence where Ireland faced France.

Reuben, who is studying law at Queen’s, wasn’t the only former Pony Club member on the scoreboard at Musgrave Park as Ireland’s fifth try came from James McNabney. The latter was a fantastic games player when a member of the Mid Antrim Branch and represented Northern Ireland at the home international mounted games championship at the Royal Windsor Show in 2016.

Interestingly, Rob Kearney, the former Leinster and Ireland full-back who retired last year, was once a member of the Louth Branch of the Irish Pony Club – as were his brothers Dave and Richard. Rob is now joint-owner of The Very Man who won a handicap hurdle at Navan last month. Hopefully the Jessica Harrington-trained gelding will run at some of the Festival meetings in the next few months.