Harry Antony played rugby when the job of the forwards was to give the ball to the backs Harry was one of the infantrymen.
What are your early memories of rugby.
I joined Sundays Well in 1954/55 aged Seventeen, a chap called Mick Heaps introduced me to the club. I had very little knowledge of rugby accept for games I had watched. There was an under Nineteen team at the time and we won the cup twice with Joe Healy prominent at scrum half and Freddie Gilroy a force in the forwards. (He later moved to England with Dunlops). Some Pres Schools players began to join including Finbarr Noonan who also played Hurling with Nemo. Despite this we were still short of players at the time.
When did you get your Senior break.
I went to UCC by day studying classics and worked in the newspaper industry at night. I remember debuting against Highfield and marking International Second Row Mick Leahy. I won the Charity Cup in 58/59 and Munster Senior League. At the time playing Senior Cup was the benchmark and I never managed that due to work and study commitments. I went into semi retirement aged Twenty Seven.
What were the Highlights of your career.
The high points for me were the characters I met and funny incidents in games. In one particular game and our full back Paddy Comerford (later a well known actor) was engulfed by the opposition pack. He was penalised for not releasing “Paddy responded, I would have let it go if you had said please boys”.In another game he was turned upside down and responded” I am not dressed for this boys”.His comments cracked all the players up. We won the Minor Cup with me as captain after three draws with Highfield. In the end we won the cup with a toss of a coin.
Who was your most difficult opponent and who did you enjoy playing with.
Jack Casey of Dolphin was a formidable opponent who dominated the line out. In the Well I loved playing with Joe Healy and prop Dennis Gould. Billy Egar regularly travelled back from the Curragh to boost the Well teams. We had our own Pontypool front row in the club at the time with International Mick Callaghan , hooker Pat Comerford and Paddy Attridge(later referee and Pres Senior Coach) mincing opponents .Additionally John Mannix was a decent outhalf who won many games with the club.
Have you been involved since you stopped playing.
I started off as youth coach in Sundays Well. This resulted in me securing a job with Munster rugby in the development area after retiring from the newspaper business. I spent ten years in this and saw the game develop and expand from the start of the professional era.
