Portarlington native, Keith Kavanagh and his club side, Shannon RFC, claimed the AIL Division 1B title last weekend and in doing so they clinched promotion to the top tier of club rugby in the country.
Kavanagh has played at scrum half all season and has been in great form, and at the weekend he ran in one the tries for Shannon in their 40-17 win over UCC.
Shannon are the most successful team in Irish club rugby, winning nine AIL titles, but they slipped down to the Division 1B after a very poor 2012/13 season.
After 5 seasons of rebuilding, they managed to dominate the league this year, winning 13 of their 18 games, being the highest scorers and the best defence by a long way.
Shannon have had some very big names play for them down the years, including the likes of Alan Quinlan, Jerry Flannery, John Hayes as well as the late Anthony Foley.
Closer to home, Laois men Andrew Thompson and Brian Rigney both played for Shannon in the 90s, both winning a number of AIL titles.
Portlaoise man Alan Kingsley also had a good weekend with his side Navan.
Last year, Kingsley was the head coach of the Navan side that got promoted to AIL 2B, and last weekend his side secured a spot into the top four, where they will now face Greystones in hopes of reaching the play-off final.
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