Club Notes

This week’s Club Notes come from Bruff RFC and Thurles RFC.

Bruff RFC

Courtesy of Seamus Sheahan, Club PRO

AIL Round 2

The seniors made the trip to Dublin on Saturday to take on Bective Rangers in Round 2 of the AIL. The game was played at the later time of 6.30pm in the evening on the all-weather pitch in Donnybrook to accommodate an event which was taking place earlier in the day. This meant the journey started and finished a lot later than usual for a trip to Dublin. Luckily the bus trip home was a happy journey thanks to a 33-21 bonus point win.

It was a terrible start for Bruff who were down 8-0 after ten minutes conceding a penalty and a try early on. Discipline was a big issue for Bruff on the day who conceded numerous kickable penalties and picked up two yellow cards.

Bruff reduced the deficit after fifteen minutes scoring a converted try under the Bective post thanks a Johnny Clery touch down. Bruff added a second try from Davy Horan after half an hour and went in leading 11-12 at the break with Bective kicking a penalty shortly before half time.

The second half started brightly for Bruff with Conor Fitzpatrick going in for Bruff’s third try which Davie O Grady converted for his second two pointer of the game. Bective added another penalty after forty six minutes to make it 11-19 to Bruff. Tony Cahil went in for the bonus point try which O’Grady converted on fifty five minutes which made Bruff look comfortable with a 26-14 lead on the score board.

But Bective weren’t finished yet and went in for another converted try with ten minutes remaining and two Bruff players in the bin. But it was Bruff who sealed the win with just five minutes remaining on the clock thanks to a try from back rower Maghnus Collins. The game finished 21-33 to Bruff who picked up their first win of the season after an opening day defeat to Omagh.

There was AIL debuts for Ordhan Ring and Cian Clifford who gave good accounts of themselves on the quick surface in Donnybrook.

Bruff: 15 Graham Whelan 14 Eric Finn 13 Conor Fitzpatrick 12 Jack O Grady 11 Mark Cosgrove 10 David O Grady 9 Tony Cahill 8 Ordhan Ring 7 John Clery 6 Cillian Rea 5 Sean Hartigan 4 Brian Morrissey 3 Keith Laffan 2 John Hogan 1 David Horan 16 Mike Cooke 17 Brendan Keogh 18 Cian Clifford 19 Maghnus Collins 20 Cian Ryan

Bruff are at home to Sligo this Saturday with a 2.30pm kick-off time in Kilballyowen.

Thurles RFC

Courtesy of Brian Scanlon, Club PRO

Clonakilty RFC vs Thurles RFC – Munster Junior League

Clonakilty RFC 20 – 18 Thurles RFC

Thurles First XV faced into their opening game of the league campaign with the long trek down to Cork to face league newcomers Clonakilty, following their relegation from Division 1 last season.  The game was played in near perfect conditions with a slight breeze blowing into the bottom right corner.

The game started at a very fast pace with the home side looking to spread the ball wide from every area of the field but once Thurles came to grips with the opposition game plan, they started to mount a series of attacks on the home line themselves with Ciaran Ryan and Eoghan O’Dwyer making some great yardage in attack.

The opening score of the game came from the boot of the Clon kicker from a penalty, this was shortly followed by a try for the homeside, the ball was booted high into the shining sun, a failure to deal with the high ball and a lucky bounce of the ball saw it land in the hands of a Clonakilty who raced in under the posts, the conversion was added for the maximum, 10-0.

Thurles continued to put pressure on the home side by forcing a number of excellent turnovers in quick succession, with Mark Cummins, Aidan Dwyer and Luke Kelly setting the tone.  Thurles were rewarded for their hard work with a penalty which John Lillis slotted over excellently to make it a one score game as the half time whistle was signalled, 10-3.

As Clonakilty got the second half underway, Thurles received and went on the attack from the off, with some powerful running from Luke Kelly & Ciaran Ryan, Thurles made their way up the field in search of scores.  Thurles were successful in their search, an excellent pass from Mark Cummins to John Lillis set Thurles down the left wing before the ball made its way back to Aidan Dwyer who cut out two Clon defenders with a pass to Luke Kelly who in turn executed a one-two with Kevin Maher with Luke finishing excellently in the right hand corner to reduce the deficit to 10-8.

Thurles were well on top at this stage in all areas of the field and within 10 minutes they had added another excellent score, following some great work from the forwards, Conor O’Hagan marked his league debut with a try in the left hand corner to push Thurles in front for the first time, Lillis added the difficult conversion for the full complement, 10-15.

Clon started to slowly make their way back into get game, getting through a number of phases and themselves being rewarded with a kickable penalty before Lillis for Thurles followed up a 50 metre kick which hit the upright with a kick well inside his own half which sailed over with metres to spare to extend Thurles’ lead once again with less than 10 minutes remaining, 15-18.

Clon kept digging as the minutes ticked down and they found their gap as their fullback found space between two Thurles defenders to slice through and proceeded to offload excellently to an oncoming support runner to sail over to the left of the posts.  The kick was added to nudge the home side in front once again with only minutes remaining: 20-18.

Thurles were patient and put pressure on the Clon exit and regained possession, Thurles went on the attack and were awarded a penalty in the right hand corner of the field, with the referee advising it was last play of the game, Thurles pointed towards the posts, but with the breeze and angle against the right footed kicker, the kick narrowly sailed past the posts with the home side sneaking an opening day win.

Thurles can be very proud of their performance in this game; with a number of teams in the division splashing the cash with recruitment drives over the summer, Thurles had the pleasure of calling on the locally produced talent making the step up to the First XV, with Conor O’Hagan and Seamus Telford starting from the off and Seamus Holohan impressing from the off the bench in their league debuts.  Thurles have a number of players still to come back into the fold from injuries and others still splitting the workload with other sports, a bonus point following a difficult away opener is a positive result to start the season with and will give the team a good platform for the next few weeks.

Thurles are out again next week at home to Killarney at 2.30pm, all support would be greatly appreciated.  Many thanks to all those who travelled the long distance to support the team on Sunday, it was greatly appreciated by the players & management.

Thurles Scorers: Luke Kelly & Conor O’Hagan (1 try each) & John Lillis (1 conversion & 2 penalties).

Thurles Starting XV vs Clonakilty: 1. Ger McCormack 2. Shane Nugent 3. Seamus Telford 4. Luke Kelly 5. Shane McHugh 6. Mark Cummins 7. Paddy Phelan 8. Ciaran Ryan 9. Ollie Delaney 10. John Lillis 11. Conor O’Hagan 12. Aidan Dwyer 13. Eoghan O’Dwyer (c) 14. Tommy Connolly 15. John Coman. Replacements Used: Seamus Holohan and Kevin Maher.

Thurles Senior Women v St Marys RFC, Limerick

Thurles travelled to Limerick to play a challenge match against St Mary’s RFC Limerick on Sunday.  Thurles were missing a couple of their players but travelled with a squad of 17.

Thurles had a bad start to their day when one of their team mates Marie Whelan went over on an ankle in the warm up and was ruled out of the match.  However when the match started Thurles dominated in nearly all the areas with a very strong scrum and line out.  It had been agreed to play four x 20 mins.

Thurles’ Holly O’Dwyer peeled a quick ball off the back of the scrum to pass to Aisling Byrne who gave a terrific quick offload to Aisling O’Hagan.  Aisling then showed her strength and pace to place the ball down for Thurles’ first try.  Megan Callanan narrowly missing the conversion.  At the end of the first 20 it was agreed for safety reasons that the scrums would go uncontested.

Thurles then suffered a blow when recently returned powerhouse Ruth Purcell was injured and had to leave the field. However, Catherine Kearney was well up for the job and it was Thurles all the way for the next twenty.  St Marys were on the back foot with Ciara O’Dwyer, Laura Carroll and Nicola Sweeney causing all kinds of trouble with hard tackling and great ball carrying allowing Aisling Byrne and Aisling O’Hagan to combine to create a great switch move and an intelligent pass out to Jane Ryan.  Jane scored a superb try running the ball from a long way out to score.  Megan Callanan duly converted.

The next passage of play saw Megan Callanan kicking for touch with a strong and accurate kick making great ground.  From the ensuing line out with Joanne Harrison securing the ball nicely, Holly O’Dwyer made a terrific break powering up the field by passing three of St Marys players and with Megan on her shoulder Holly was able to offload beautifully and Megan made sure it was a try.

Laura Carroll took a bad knock and had to come off with Helena Bermingham called from the bench to replace her.  This meant a few Thurles positions being switched up and could have caused some upheaval however Maria Woodlock stood up making some huge tackles immediately and carrying great ball.  St Mary’s were playing with a new purpose though and made a great break threatening the Thurles line but Stephanie Moore caught a difficult pass and popped it to Jane Ryan who took the ball on.  St Mary’s turned it over and attacked once again but a solid tackle from Aisling O’Hagan dented their chances. Katie, a newcomer to Thurles this season had a brilliant opening game catching a difficult ball under pressure from St. Marys who were advancing towards her at pace.  Cool as cucumber Katie passed a great ball out the line to Megan Callanan.

Following from a ruck, Maria Woodlock snapped her chance when she saw St Mary’s had no pillars yards out from the try line and took the space on with determination and placed the ball between the posts to score.

Thurles scrums were solid with Jean Ryan powering through St Mary’s forwards and allowing a great move from Holly O’Dwyer off the back to touch down for her try which Megan converted well.  Both Niamh Coman and Ciara O’Dwyer made hard tackles to keep St Mary’s from breaking the line.

St Mary’s in fairness never stopped competing and kept challenging right to the end but when Aisling Byrne started a lovely quick move passing to Niamh Coman on to Aisling O’Hagan and into Jane Ryan’s hands there would be no stopping Jane Ryan as she touched down for her second try of the day which Megan also converted.

The players would like to wish their injured team mates a speedy recovery back to the pitch and to thank John Shaw for travelling and for all his support and advice.  Lots more work to do to achieve what you want to achieve!   Final score 34-0 Thurles.

Training continues every Wednesday and Friday. New players always welcome.

Thurles U16 Boys

Thurles RFC U16 Boys (pictured above) were The Plate winners recently in the Adam Burke 7s at Clonmel RFC. Well done coaches and players.