SMURFIT SCHOOL UCD WINS THE INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS SCHOOLS RUGBY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
Sunday, 3 April, 2000
Smurfit School of Business, UCD has won the International Business Schools Rugby World Championship, in Duke University, North Carolina, USA, beating Duke University in the finals by 8: 0 and INSEAD Business School in the semi-finals (the title holder from last year’s event).
1st row: Frank Purcell; Jasper Walshe; Hugh Coughlan; Ian
Hunter (Captain); Graham Jones; Donal Flavin
2nd row: Robert Moore; JaneO'Mara, MBA Programme Manager, The Michael
Smurfit School of Business, UCD; Mark McNamara; Stephen Keating; Eoin Gilhooly;
Professor Philip Bourke, Dean, Faculty of Commerce, UCD; Enda Kelleher; Emmet Hogan;
Philip Cooney; Ross Ryan
3rd row: Robbie Freeman; Frank Manahan; Johnathan Skerritt; Mark
Richardson; Marius O'Reilly: Brian Morris; Conor McCafferty; Trevor Larkin; Ian O'Hora
28 teams representing the top graduate business schools across 5 nations congregated in the small city of Durham in the US to compete for the coveted Dean Thomas F Keller Trophy. This year saw the tournament in its Silver Jubilee 25th year. The line up included Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Wharton and Cornell from the USA, McGill University from Canada, INSEAD from France and London Business School and Cranfield from England.
Ian Hunter (Captain); Professor Philip Bourke, Dean Faculty of Commerce, UCD; Mark Richardson ( winger who scored penalty and try in final)
Commenting on the success Professor Philip Bourke, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce UCD said "
"We are very proud of the success of our rugby team in this prestigious International Rugby World Championship. The energy and commitment that they have shown in this tournament demonstrates once again the high calibre of MBA students studying at Smurfit School. We see this as an important part of the team building process, an innate part of the academic experience of the Smurfit School MBA. Besides the important camaraderie built up through this success, our students will have been networking with the future global business leaders of the top international business schools."
According to James Egan, Smurfit School MBA student from Connecticut, and Team Organiser:
"It’s no secret throughout Europe that Smurfit School is academically competitive with the world’s leading business schools, but we felt it was time to display our sports prowess as well!"
The squad for Smurfit School UCD included Ian Hunter (Captain), Hugh Byrne (Captain), Ian O’Hora, Donal Flavin, Owen Gilhooley, Fergal Marrinan, Mark Richardson, Steven Bradley, Tony McDrury, Marius O’Reilly, David Quinlan, Mark McNamara, Ross Ryan, Jasper Walsh, Emmet Horgan, Johnathan Skerritt, Philip Cooney, Derek Walsh, Robert Freeman, Conor McClafferty, Frank Manahan, Brian Morris, High Coughlan, Steven Keating, Trevor Larkin, Daniel McCarthy, Frank Purcell, Fintan Slye, Brian Williams, Enda Kelleher (Manager), and Robert Moore (Manager).
Among those sponsoring the Irish team’s inaugural trip this year were Goldman Sachs International and Bord Failte. The team’s official airline was Delta Air Lines and many other contributors helped make this resounding success possible. The tournament ran for three days, with each team playing a minimum of seven matches.
Smurfit School of Business, UCD, is the leading graduate business school in Ireland. Recently ranked 1st in the world for return on investment by the Financial Times survey of Top International Business Schools, Smurfit School was also ranked 9th in Europe overall, 10th in the world overall, outside of the US, 3rd in the world for MBA Career Progress and 7th in the world for MBA graduate aims achieved. The School has a global perspective, driven by a 113 strong faculty with over 1,000 students and a global network of 9,000 alumni.
For Further Details Contact:
Niamh Boyle, Director of Marketing, Ph 353 1 706 8800, Fax 353 1 2788 241
Email niamh.boyle@ucd.ie, Mobile 087 248 1476 OR James Egan, 087 248 9399
Copyright �, 2000 University College Dublin
UCD, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Tel : +353-1-7067777
http://www.ucd.ie