Killarney RFC News – 24th of February, 2015:

Minis:
Minis continue to train at Knockreer, every Saturday between 10:30 and 12:00. Thanks to all who bought tickets for the 6 nations raffle. I’m sure that you will agree that two tickets to watch the Ireland V England game, at the Aviva is a fabulous prize. This game has the potential to be he game of the 6 nations! Let’s hope that the kids are enjoying watching their heroes in the green and can see what they are learning each week, being put to use by the boys in green!

U16’s: West Munster U16 league.
Killarney-Castleisland- 27 – Listowel 12

Killarney-Castleisland maintained their second position in the table following an impressive victory over Listowel at Direen last Saturday. Played in very tough conditions, both teams fought manfully and showed no lack of endeavour and skill despite the appalling conditions.

Killarney-Castleisland started brighter with early pressure from Moss O Callaghan and Dylan McCarty leading to great progress up the middle by the forwards. Listowel over extended their defence and scrum half Luke Ring fed the back line beautifully culminating in Alan Lynch crossing the line. Listowel replied quickly with a fortunate try following a kick block down and an effective kick ahead and chase catching Killarney-Castleisland asleep. With the game delicately poised Killarney-Castleisland’s forwards again got on top with hard work at the breakdown from Jack Scanlon, Mike Healy and debutant hooker, the impressive Robert Campbell. In a very similar move to the first try, Alan Lynch again crossed the whitewash. Having scored 6 tries in 2 weeks Lynch’s hair raising achievements have to be witnessed.

The second half saw sustained pressure from Killarney-Castleisland and despite hard working defence from Listowel it proved unsuccessful; With Patrick O Connor dominating the lineout Killarney-Castleisland started to make this count with vital turnovers leading to tries by Mike Healy and Com Hickey.

Near the end supers-sun Nial Moynihane made an instant impact almost scoring what would have been try of the season only tripping himself up with the line at his mercy. Lynch again came to the rescue to save Nial’s blushes and score his hat-trick.

Killarney-Castleisland began to tire near the end leaving Listowel in for a late disappointing try. However the score board probably fairly reflected Killarney-Castleisland’s dominance. Best on the day for Killarney-Castleisland were Scanlan, O Connor, O Callaghan, Mc Carthy, Campbell and captain and team marshall Oisin O Shea. The 1/4 finals of the Pan Munster cup now await this side.

U18’s: South Munster U18’s League – Phase 2
South Kerry V Cobh Pirates:

South Kerry hosted Cobh Pirates on Wednesday the 18th of February in Killarney. The game was played in good weather conditions. South Kerry kicked off and dominated the early stages resulting in a fine try on the right wing by Tiarnan Clifford after 5 minutes. The game was closely fought from then on until Neil O’Brien pounced on a loose ball on the away 22. Neil gathered the ball expertly and dove over the line for a try which was converted by Jesse McCormack. Shortly afterwards Cobh Attacked strongly to cross for an unconverted try. In the last play of the half South Kerry came close to scoring but the halftime score remained 12-5 to South Kerry.

Both sides started the second half in determined fashion. SK introduced two subs whose fresh legs helped. After 20 minutes a quick tap penalty was moved well through the hands resulting in a second try for Tiarnan. South Kerry now had the upper hand and dominated the rest of the game, aided by further substitutions. Two more tries were added by Fionan O’Sullivan and Cathal Doyle, both of which were converted by Jesse. This left a final score of 31-5 in favour of South Kerry. This was a very strong team display with everyone contributing strongly. We next play Skibbereen on Feb 28th in a top of the table clash in Killarney. Many thanks to the growing band of supporters and we look forward to seeing you all on the 28th!

Senior XV:
Our seniors were on the road again last weekend and travelled to Limerick to play Presentation RFC, in the penultimate round of the Munster League. After a very tough season, Presentation did us no favours and our boys went down 42 points to 5 on the day. Our try was scored by Brian O’Sullivan, on a day when our lads were very weak in numbers and the football seems to have impacted on players availability. It has been a very tough and one more game awaits – Bandon at home in Direen on the 15th of March next. Let’s get out and support the boys on their last game of the season!

Concussion Awareness Workshop:Mad mentioned last week, we in Killarney RFC are looking into organising a Concussion Awareness Workshop. Concussion is a huge topic of conversation at the moment, and more often than not its for the wrong reasons. We are aiming to educate people about concussion and will have an expert from Aquired Brain Injury Ireland come along on the night. They will give a talk on the consequences of concussion. This talk will be open to all. We would like all coaches and older players to attend and would like to issue an invitation to all parents interested, to come along to learn more also. We will finalise the date over the next few weeks and will communicate this as soon as possible.