Club Notes: Week Ending 12.05.13

This week’s Club Notes come from Clonakilty RFC.

Clon To Wrap Up Season With A Party

Courtesy of:- Roy Maguire, PRO

A historic season in many ways draws to a close as the underage celebrate and the senior section regroup. In line with the determination to bounce back from the recent setback the season will not end on a low note, rather it will go out with a bang celebrating all the qualities and achievements of which Clonakilty can be justifiably proud.

The club is holding a Barbecue and Social Night in The Vale on this Saturday night May 11th to mark 35 great seasons of Clonakilty Rugby. The club is also delighted to announce that guest of honour for the evening is Munster and Ireland rugby player, Grand Slam winner Laura Guest. Festivities kick off at 9.00pm.

The presentation of the magnificent prizes to the winners of the Golf Classic will also take place and the club is very grateful to all those who participated in any way. Any team which has not yet booked their tee time please call 086 255 9799. Any player without a team can also call to be included on this Fri & Sat 10th & 11th May.

Thanks to the generosity of Clonakilty Black Pudding, Shannonvale Foods and Scannells Bar, a delicious selection of the best West Cork foods will be served This is a social event, not a fundraiser and will be a raffle free zone to thank everyone who has contributed to the club in any way – and entry is also free.

There will be live music from Ciaran Calnan & Aidan Hayes and no doubt a bit of a sing song if anyone feels like having a go!!! So please come along to The Vale on Saturday May 11th and enjoy a night of craic, caint agus ceol.

LOTTO!

The club Lotto draw for weeks 30/4/13 & 7/5/13 produced no Jackpot winner. The numbers drawn were 8, 9, 17 and 27 and 3, 7, 15 and 23 respectively. Lucky Dip Winners were Noel Clancy, Clonakilty, Rose O’Brien, Clonakilty, John O’Regan, Clonakilty. Marian O’Donovan, Drinagh and Mary O’Neill, Kilgarriffe. Next Weeks Jackpot will be €;9,200.00..

U 17s Wrap Up Superb Season with South Munster Cup Final Win.

Last Saturday week marked the final outing of Munster U17 Champions, Clonakilty and it was in the South Munster Cup Final held in the PBC grounds in Cork. They had already won the South Munster League and so completed a rare double. A great season for any side and great credit is due to all involved, players, coaches, parents and club officals.

At the medals ceremony for both the 17s and 15s, who also had a champion season, club president, Roy Maguire, said both squads were a credit to the club, their town, their families and particularly their coaches Maurice Shanley, Derek Dillon & Barry McAdams for the 15s and in the case of the 17s Paudie O’Connor, Mark O’Connor and Rob Walsh for the skills, discipline and sportsmanship that they brought to their games.

He remarked on the self-belief of the 17s in the Munster semi-final and final as they had fallen behind with only minutes to go against two great sides, Bruff and Waterpark respectively, and defeat seemed inevitable. They had created opportunity after opportunity and saw them all founder at the last moment through mistakes. However they never showed frustration, never turned on each other when the mistakes were made but rather gave encouragement and never stopped trying. And the scores came each time and then they showed immense Munster character by closing out the matches. He was confident that there was a group here between the 17s & 15s that would see senior years in Clon again.

Cobh Pirates 8, Clonakilty 66

Clon opened the scoring with an Eoin Deasy penalty which was quickly equalled by Cobh who started well. Clon created chances but were not putting them away until just before half time when Bobby Smith finished as classy a backline move as you will see to score a try and Deasy’s conversion made it only 10 – 3 at the break. Great work initially from the pack gained ground and when released the skills of the backs were superb before Paul O’Regan in support scored his first try. Again Deasy converted to make it 17 – 3.

The same player added two penalties before a great drive from the pack had the Cobh lads on the back foot and when the ball came back a strong burst from David Jennings was unstoppable as he grounded and Clon were out of sight at 28 -3 with only ten minutes of the second half gone. A Stringer like break from David Walsh caught everyone flat-footed as he streaked in for another try and Deasy’s conversion made it 35 – 3. O’Regan finished off another lavish sweep with a try having started it with a great catch from the restart.

Pirates did not throw in the towel in the face of this overwhelming lead and worked a good try following determined work for over five minutes to bring it to 35 – 8. Clon resumed the offence from the restart and the work of centre partnership Joe White and Andrew Cullinane was mouth-watering as they look every bit as good as David Lombard and Paul Dillon/Darragh Lynch did in their underage days. O’Regan got his hat Trick when on hand to take a sublime pop-up from Jennings as the forwards tore into the Pirates. 40 – 8. Joe White who had consistently broken tackles and carried tacklers with him did exactly that when scoring his first try which Deasy converted to make it 47 – 8.

White had obviously got a taste for it as he wasted no time scoring his second from the restart on the end of a great pass from O’Regan. Deasy’s conversion made it 54 – 8 and it was soon to be 59 – 8 when a great pass from prop Ross O’Connor following good interplay between backs and forwards found Smith who beat the defence to score his second. Jennings got his second following good work from O’Connor, Smith and Conor Madden. Deasy’s conversion made the final score 66 – 8.

The squad was Bobby Smith, Aaron Hayes, Andrew Cullinane, Joe White, Ogie Scannell, Eoghan Deasy, Rob Howick, David Jennings, Robert Kingston, Ross O’Connor, Conor Madden, Paul O’Regan, Mark Lynch, Olan Deane, Philip Poillot (Capt), David Walsh, Tadgh Dignan, Fraser Pock, Shane Scannell, Denis O’Driscoll. Darragh McCullagh and Jason Helen.