Bantry teen Dylan Hicks to join Munster Academy

BANTRY teenager Dylan Hicks is the latest rising rugby star to fly the West Cork flag in the Munster Rugby Greencore Academy.

Hicks (18) is one of the new recruits for the Academy for the 2023/24 season, and will join straight out of school.

His club, Bantry Bay RFC, where he started when he was just five years old, is rightly proud of Hicks’ continuing rise in rugby. He is following in the footsteps of two more former Bantry rugby players, Fineen and Josh Wycherley, who were part of Munster’s URC-winning squad.

‘Hugely proud of Dylan and everything he has achieved so far. Great to see him take the next step on his rugby journey, everyone at Bantry Bay RFC is behind you Dylan,’ the club tweeted.

Hicks is joining the Academy off the back of an impressive campaign for club and school. He was a key part of the Bantry Bay team that won the Bank of Ireland Munster Clubs Boys U18 Cup in March while he also helped his school, Coláiste Pobail Bheanntraí, turn heads when they won their first-ever game in the Munster Schools Senior Cup. He also won two Mungret Cups with the school.

The highly-rated outhalf also featured for the Munster U18 Boys Clubs’ team that competed in the 2022 interpros, captaining the team in all three games, and he played for the Ireland U18 Clubs’ team in November 2022 and the Ireland U18 Schools’ side in the 2023 U18 Six Nations Festival.

In The Southern Star’s Next Generation feature earlier this year, which marked the Bantry teen out as one to watch, Hicks was described as: ‘an extremely good tackler and strong defensively, has a great worth ethic and brings huge energy on and off the field. Dominant, hard tackles are a trademark of his game, too, and in attack his footwork is extremely good.’

Off the back of West Cork’s starring role in Munster’s URC final win, Hicks’ inclusion in the Greencore Academy is another boost for rugby locally.