Donnybrook Stadium

Nice new stand means not getting soaked at a match. They don’t have a bar though so you must use the rugby clubs at either end of the pitch (Bective /​Wesley) which are extremely old clubhouses in need of modernisation. You can buy burgers /​chips at the van in the car park though … but all of this doesn’t matter if Leinster are winning ;)

Donnybrook Stadium, the spiritual home of Leinster Rugby… it used to be the homeground of the Leinster men’s team. Now you can still watch the Leinster women’s matches here, well when they play at home, but the lads’ matches have been moved to the bigger RDS grounds. Which is a shame really, because Donnybrook stadium was such a big part of the Leinster experience and so much nicer than the RDS.
Great location as well, it’s surrounded by pub such as the iconic– for Dublin ruggerheads anyways– Kiely’s of Donnybrook. Watch the ladies here or the junior teams for a great rugby experience.

This place is a strange one — long the home of Leinster schools rugby the dilapidated old ground underwent a revamp last year at some cost.
Adding to the confusion of non-​rugby folk is the fact that it’s the home of two clubs — Bective Rangers and Old Wesley — who have their clubhouses at either end. Thus it’s also technically home to the ‘legendary’ teen disco — Wesley, so if you want to write a strongly worded letter about teen drunkenness to the Daily Mail it’s best to pass by on a Friday night. Leinster sometimes play here, but mostly they play around the corner at the RDS continuing that fine new Irish rugby practice of playing anywhere you fancy.

Donnybrook Stadium has recently been dragged into the high-​octane modern world of professional club rugby with a brand spanking new stand. The exterior of this futuristic concrete structure is draped with ginormous action portraits of Leinster idols like Leo Cullen or Brian ‘BOD’ O’Driscoll.
Irish rugby has been so ludicrously successful in recent times that burgeoning crowds were causing the old venue to almost burst at the seams when a popular fixture came to town.
As they cannot get hold of the adjacent properties, Stand #2 is nowhere on the horizon, and seeing as the really, really big dates like Leinster vs. Munster are held in Croke Park, and shortly, at the new Lansdowne Road, there may actually be no need for one
The much harangued and ridiculed Senior and Junior School’s Rugby Cup matches are held in Donnybrook each year too. These events are like clinical research into the herd-​mentality and see hundreds of uniformed young males descend into an uproarious fervour of animalistic school pride. Definitely worth a look-​see, as I don’t think you’ll find school spirit as powerful as this anywhere else this side of the Atlantic.

The home of Leinster Rugby. Well, except when they play in the RDS or Lansdowne. The fact that Leinster occasionally use different stadiums is part of the reason Donnybrook is so surprisingly small. The other, and main, reason is that they don’t actually own much land on the far side and therefore can’t build a second stand. Damned Tennis Court!
Still, one stand and two terraces ain’t half bad given the relative obscurity from which club rugby has emerged in the last ten years or so.