Profile

“Paddy” Kirwan, played his first rugby at the local St Mary’s primary school continuing his development at St Anselm’s secondary, before joining Saddleworth Rangers. He joined Oldham in 1979, when the club adopted a progressive youth policy that would produce the all-conquering Colts team. A traditional scrum half, he skippered the Oldham youngsters to success in the league and Premiership Final in 1980 and was twice selected for the Great Britain Colts team. He was also making an impact at a higher level in the “A” team, which he again captained to success in the 1980 Lancashire Shield.

For a place in the senior side he would be in competition with Ray Ashton, although on a number of occasions the two of them would form the half back pairing, with Ray at stand off and Paddy at the base of the scrum. One thing is certain, Paddy never gave less than 100 % effort in the cause of Oldham RLFC and the level of such commitment took its toll with injuries, which would restrict his senior appearances. Indeed in his 1990 benefit brochure there is listed a catalogue of damage sustained by the Kirwan body that would have much earlier curtailed the career of a lesser man.

Paddy, however, continued to bounce back and always with the same enthusiasm for the game. When Ashton was sold to Leeds early in 1987, he made the No 7 shirt his own and would soon after be the hero of one of the most dramatic Oldham victories.

I refer, of course, to his last minute match clinching try against the 1987 Wigan wonder team. Few people gave Oldham any chance on that cold February evening but the side played “out of their skin” and when Paddy sneaked in by the posts, leaving Mick Burke to do the necessary with the conversion, it was no more than the team deserved and earned for Michael Patrick Kirwan an everlasting place in Watersheddings folklore.