This past year has seen the beginning of an incredible journey for young Westport RFC club man Kacper Palamarczuk, who packed his bags and moved to Poland to represent his country of birth. Since March of last year he has represented Poland as a senior international and last Sunday, he made his professional rugby debut for his new club Budowlani łódź.
Last August Palamarczuk made the decision to follow his dreams of becoming an international rugby player. To do this he would have to pack up his things and move 2,200km away, leaving behind his friends, family, and teammates.
He says: “There have been a few obvious obstacles, not being able to see my family or my girlfriend being the main ones, but everyone around me understands that this an opportunity not many people get, and if I don’t take advantage of it now it might never come around again.”
Although he left many friends behind in Ireland, he has found a family in the Polish National team.
“There have been so many great people that I have met, and relationships that I have made over the last few months especially my coaches, Chris Hiit the Polish National team head coach, Morgan Stoddart former Welsh player, and our backs coach and all the players.”
Palamarczuk isn’t the only national team player to have packed up their things and moved to Poland to represent their country. He says that having others around that are in the same position as he is, has made the transition a lot more seamless: “Some of them are now my best friends and it really means a lot. It makes it a lot easier to be away from home for so long”.
Since March 2021 the 20-year-old has represented the Polish national team a total of five times with his debut helping the side qualify for the European Rugby Championships for the first time. He received his first cap against Lithuania and more recently went up against the rugby World Cup-qualified Portugal, who he says has been his toughest opposition yet: “Portugal put a serious amount of pace on the ball, they gave us no chance to rest at all, they were difficult to contain. But for our first year in the championship, we’ve learned a lot and next year we’ll bring a lot more to the table.”
Palamarczuk was born in Poland and moved to Ireland with his family at the age of five. One of the main difficulties he faced as a young Polish kid was attending school in Achill. Having grown up with no English before coming to Ireland Palamarczuk recalls some troubles he had in school:“I remember coming home crying because I didn’t have any English to ask if I could go to the bathroom.”
Having grown up outside Westport the Polish native took to the Irish way of life – sports of all kinds, from Gaelic to soccer and then rugby. He began playing rugby following in his dad’s footsteps, and quickly began to excel. By the age of 13, he had been introduced to the Connacht Rugby youth academy setup and from then on worked his way up through the ranks.
Palamarczuk played his first Inter Pro season with the age group above his own, winning the tournament that year. The following year he went on to captain the Connacht Inter Pro team for his own age group.
Although now a Polish International the young Westport man has represented Ireland at an underage level. He earned his first cap in the green jersey for the Irish U18 school’s team, when they played Italy in Venice. The following year he was selected for the Irish U19s Six Nations squad but due to Covid 19, the tournament never went ahead.
He never let his dreams of playing international rugby fade, so when Poland came calling after being cut from the Connacht sub academy Palamarczuk decided that this was the best option for him to continue his rugby career.
“It’s always been a great honour to represent Poland”, says Palarmarczuk stating the importance of representing his country of birth. He takes huge pride in singing the national anthem for he knows the importance of it to his family, especially his great-grandmother who survived the World War, “when she sees me on tv singing the national anthem, it means so much to her, and to the rest of the family watching me represent our country”.
Since representing the country on the international stage, the youngster has attracted a lot of attention from the top clubs in the Polish national leagues. With big offers coming from many first-division teams the 20-year-old went against the odds in deciding to sign with Division 2 side, KS Budowlani, because of what the club stands for, “It’s a club that I like a lot, an up-and-coming club. I really like what they stand for. They’re a very young team and the management put a real emphasis on young player development and that’s something I’m interested in.” The club is one of the most historically successful clubs in Poland winning the national title five times. They also have one of the largest youth systems in the league.
On Sunday Palamarczuk made his debut for Budowlani łódź, “it was very different to what I had initially expected. It was a very high level of rugby”. Palamarczuk managed to cross the whitewash twice to help his new club to a 36-13 win. They face league leaders Sparta Jarocin and a bonus point win would see them top the table and in a prime position for promotion.
