Weekend Round up 18-19 February

Weekend Round up 18-19 February:

• U14 Boys West Munster League – Tralee RFC 12 Killarney RFC 24
• U16 Boys Munster Cup – Playoff – Killarney RFC 8 Midleton 7
• U14 Girls Friendly: Killarney RFC 74 – Midleton 53

Review:

U14s Boys: Our U14 boys team extended their unbeaten run with a win over Tralee at O’Dowd Park. A third victory on the road in consecutive weeks. The match had an early start at 10h30, so we were all in Tralee for 09h30. Despite this, Killarney opened with a bang – with Tralee on the attack, Cian Stack read their intention to go wide early and picked off a pass to run half the length of the field to score. He convcrted his own score to leave us 7-0 ahead. Our second score followed soon after a defensive muddle from Tralee following a kick and Cian Stack scored in the corner. His conversion left us 14-0 to the good. A third try followed before halftime when Mikey Moroney spotted a gap in the defence from a ruck. Breaking the defensive line – he ran half the length of the pitch chased – unsuccessfully – by the home defence. We went into the break 19-0 to the good.

Tralee – as expected – came back into the game in the second half. We defended well against their big ball carriers from a number of 5m scrums, but finally they were able to score in the corner. The try was well converted by Tralee. Our fourth try ffrom Ryan Vickers put the game away as a contest – leaving us 24-7 up. Donncha Murphy scored from the kick off, receiving the ball in his own 22 before evading all and sundry to score under the posts. Tralee managed a second try late on. Tralee having kicked their kickoff dead, the referee insisted on a Killarney goal line drop out – we were unable to get much distance into the strong wind and Tralee exploited the good field postion to get another score. This was not converted. No further scores ensued in the few remaining moments and U14s emerged winners 24-12.

U16s Boys – Saturday brought a case of déja vu as the draw for the Munster Cup playoff brought another visit from Midleton RFC. There wasn’t much deja vu in the match that followed. Unlike the 39-0 blowout of the previous week this was a tense, and close affair. Midleton opened the scoring midway through the 1st half with a converted try to lead 7-0. Killarney clawed this back – with a try and a penalty – to lead 8-7 at half-time. Midleton made use of the wind by kicking long hoping to trap Killarney in their own half. Midway through the 2nd half, Midleton got a penalty in a good position but were unable to add the 3 points. The game was probably finished by a red card to a Midleton player for a tip tackle. A missed penalty from Brtyan Walsh made the last few minutes nervous and a great opportunity for a try to finish the game on a high was lost when the final pass from Mark Kennelly to Cathal Sugrue just failed to go to hand. Even so, on the final play Killarney won the ensuing scrum against the head and Bryan Walsh was able to kick to touch to end the game. Final score – Killarney 8 Midleton 7

U14 Girls – Midleton/Youghal got off to the better start with a good try early on in the game.  However, Killarney recovered quickly and Emma Looney took the ball down the side line to score a neat try in the corner.  Shortly after that a penalty to Killarney allowed Nessa O’Donoghue to go over for another try which she duly converted.  Midleton/Youghal got a penalty and created a try  off a strong lineout.  They were unfortunate not to convert, the ball hitting the crossbar denying them the extra 2 points. Again, Nessa O’Donoghue and Emma Looney took 2 tries in quick succession, both successfully converted by Holly Burke.  Killarney gave 2 easy penalties to Midleton/Youghal but they converted neither into points thanks to big tackles made by Nell Thompson and Harriet O’Sullivan.  However, Midleton/Youghal were persistent and their persistence finally paid off despite tenacious tackling by Sorcha O’Sullivan and our no. 4 Lucy Guiney.  The score at this stage was 26-20 to Killarney who had the edge with the conversions.  Towards the end of the first half the coaches put in some new players, and Izzy Hilario along with Ruby Breen started their first game with Killarney and got stuck in.  However, with the end of the first half in sight Midleton/Youghal got back on track with 2 unanswered tries.  A last minute try by Orla Murphy and conversion by Holly Burke had Killarney trailing by 1point at halftime.

The second half started like the first half with Midleton/Youghal scoring the first try and successfully converting it.  Killarney kept up with them with scrum half Brooke O’Sullivan cleverly supplying Sarah Mangan who was the next player to score with Holly Burke again converting.  Not long after that Nell Thompson made a break and found the try line.  She also converted the try which added 7 more valuable points to the scoreline.  Orla Murphy added another 5 and a penalty gave no. 10 Ciara Eager her opportunity to get a score with help from Brooke Sullivan who made a cute dart off the scrum.  Meanwhile, Midleton/Youghal weren’t giving up that easily and Killarney gave up 2 tries one after the other making the match a 1point game in Killarneys favour.  However, Killarney finished the stronger with 3 final tries, 2 from Nessa O’Donoghue and another from Orla Murphy bringing their tally for the day to 4 tries and 3 tries respectively.  The game ended with a victory to Killarney in what was a tough, hard fought and highly entertaining match. Many thanks to the Midleton/Youghal team, coaches and supporters for making the long journey to play.  To our own supporters thank you for cheering on the girls and for the food and help given afterwards.  A word of thanks to the coaches who were pacing up and down the side line encouraging the girls as always.  Last but not least, a special thanks to the girls themselves who gave us a wonderful display of rugby.  Well done to you all!