Promising young players sign pro contracts with Connacht Rugby
Connacht Rugby have announce that academy graduate Matthew Devine and promising centre Hugh Gavin have signed their first professional contracts with the club.
A product of the Connacht pathway system, scrum-half Devin came through the ranks at Ballinasloe RFC and Garbally College, where he won two Connacht Senior Schools Cups in 2019 and 2020.
He becomes the latest Garbally alumi to join the professional ranks with Tiernan O’Halloran, Colm Reilly, Oisín McCormack and Shane Jennings.
Devine also played a major role in Ireland winning a Grand Slam in the 2022 Under 20 Six Nations, scoring four tries across the five games.
The 22-year old made his senior Connacht debut away to Lyon in the Investec Champions Cup in January, and was also named in the matchday 23 last week in the Challenge Cup win over Pau.
Gavin, meanwhile, made headlines earlier this year with his performances for Ireland in the 2024 Under 20 Six Nations, where he was named player of the match in the squad’s opening round win away to France.
This came on the back of his involvement in the 2023 Under 20 Grand Slam-winning team, and as a finalist in the Under 20 World Rugby Cup.
The 20-year old Galway native plays his club rugby at Galwegians RFC and represented Coláiste Iognáid at school level.
Commenting on the signings, Connacht Head coach Pete Wilkins said: “Matthew is an extremely talented scrum-half who is a great fit for the style of rugby we play here in Connacht, and I know he’ll only continue to get better over the coming seasons. Credit must go not just to him, but his coaches and wider network in the Connacht Academy, Garbally College and Ballinalsoe, who helped develop him on his rugby journey.
“We’re incredibly excited by Hugh’s potential. During his age grade rugby we have seen him develop into an incredibly physical and well-rounded centre, and he will be a great asset to our senior professional squad. We have all seen that talent on display in Ireland’s last two Under 20 Six Nations campaigns, and I want to congratulate Eric and our Academy coaches, as well as Hugh’s coaches at Galwegians and The Jes, for the role they played in his development.”
Commenting on the wider Academy integration this year, Wilkins added: “This year we introduced a new approach with the Academy department on how we grow our up-and-coming talent. By increasing the integration between both set-ups, all of our Academy players have trained alongside our Pro squad and kept to a similar weekly schedule.
“The benefits have been enormous, not only for the Academy players in exposing them to a professional environment, but also for both sets of coaches and management to work so closely together.
“News of Matthew and Hugh moving to pro contracts next season was helped massively by how we’ve approached the last year, and it will always be a major aim of Connacht’s to continue developing our homegrown players.”