Club Notes: Week Ending 24.04.16

This week’s club notes come from Bruff, Newcastle West, Old Crescent and Waterford City rugby clubs.

Click here for Bruff club notes

Click here for Newcastle West club notes

Click here for Old Crescent club notes

Click here for Waterford City club notes

Bruff RFC

Courtesy of:- Seamus Sheahan, Club PRO

Seniors Vs Tullamore

It was a disappointing end to the season for the 1^st XV on Saturday when they came out second best to Tullamore in the league promotion semi-final play-off.

Bruff played with wind in the opening half and went into the break 6-3 up thanks to two Declan Bannon penalties on 36 & 39 minutes, with Tullamore's Penalty coming after 40 minutes with the final play of the first half.
Tullamore kicked their second penalty just after the restart and added a converted try from a driving maul after 45 minutes to race into a 13-6 lead. Bruff didn't panic and kicked a third penalty on the fifty minute mark to reduce the lead to 13-9. Bruff were enjoying longs spells of possession and were rewarded in the 61^st minute with a fine try from out-half Tony Cahill. Cahill dummied to his left and made a clean line break to run in from 25 metres to score to the right of the posts. Bannon converted and Bruff went into a 16-13 lead.

Tullamore drew level with a penalty after 63 minutes before Bruff went in for another great try after 66 minutes. Tullamore bombed a high ball down on top of Bruff full back Brendan Deady who returned it with interest. Deady launched his own high ball which he was able to retake himself. He linked with Mark Cosgrove who broke the Tullamore line before passing off to Darragh Mulcahy for a try in the corner to make it 21-16 to Bruff. With only a few minutes remaining Tullamore went on the attack again and were awarded a penalty close to the Bruff line which they choose to kick to touch. It proved to be the correct decision for them as the resulting lineout was eventually mauled over and a converted try resulted to make it 23-21 to the home side. Bruff had an attacking opportunity from the kick off but it didn't prove fruitful. Tullamore now go on to play Wanderers in the promotion play-off final next weekend.

Bruff Team : 1.Dave Horan 2.Johnny Hogan 3. Keith Laffan 4.Barry Laffan 5.Brian Morissey 6.Cillian Rea 7.Mikey Carroll 8.Paddy Clery 9.Davy O Grady 10.Tony Cahill 11. Mark Cosgrove 12. Sean Darcy 13.Declan Bannon 14.Barry Enright 15. Brendan Deady 16. Keith Laffan 17. Danny Keogh 18. Neilus Keogh 19 Sean Hartigan 20 Darragh Mulcahy 21 Paidi Kilcoyne 22 Jack O Grady 23 Cian Mulqueen

Other rugby
The seconds were in action on Sunday losing 36-24 to Presentation in the semi-final of the Munster Junior Bowl.
The Under 18's had a convincing 41-20 win over Kilrush in the cup, while the u15's were beaten 14-18 by Garryowen in a league play-off.

Bruff's Tony Cahill in action

Newcastle West RFC

Courtesy of:- Martin O'Sullivan, Club PRO

Mini fixtures for next weekend
Mini blitzes are now complete with coaches having training or friendlies to finish out the Month of April

Youth fixtures for next weekend

Lotto

Results from Friday April 15^th Lotto Draw

Numbers Drawn 8, 18, 27 & 30 – NO WINNER

Lucky Dip Winners
Brendan O'Connor, The Shamrock
Ian Cahill, c/o Strand Bar
Anna Scannell, c/o Pallas Foods
Michael Conway, Barna, NCW
Michael Lenihan, 6 Mill Falls, NCW
Marie Keane, c/o Tommy K's Bar
Jer Collins, Cork Road, NCW
Promotors Prize – Rosanne O'Connor

Next week's draw will be in The Ballintemple Inn on Friday 22^nd April, in in Ned Lynch's Bar. The jackpot stands at 16,600.

Old Crescent RFC

Courtesy of:- Frank Larkin, Club PRO


With our senior side resting on their laurals after their comprehensive win over UCC in the Munster Senior Cup and getting ready to face Young Munster in the MSC semi final, the focus in Old Crescent turned to our Under Age players who have very active in recent weeks

For the second year in a row, Old Crescent Under 16's returned from the Corinthians RFC National Youth Rugby Festival in Galway with silverware. After winning the Plate competition last year, a combined Under16 Old Crescent RFC/St Senan's RFC team wanted to go one better and win the Cup competition and after two days of great rugby against U16 teams from all over the country our team succeeded in winning the Cup after a hard fought battle with Clontarf RFC.

Last Saturday, the Old Crescent/St Senan's team were drawn in a group that included Suttonians, West Offaly, Corinthians and Clanwilliam. The first match against the recently crowned Under 16 Leinster League Champions, Suttonians, looked like it would the hardest match of the group, however, we were ruthless from the start and scored a try almost immediately. A shell shocked Suttonians had not recovered from the first try when our combined team went over again. This was the pattern of the game and Old Crescent/St Senan's managed to rack up an impressive score of 46 points in the short format game time of 24 minutes. Suttonians managed to get a consolation try at the end of the game to give a final score line of 46-5.

The game against West Offaly had a similar pattern and Old Crescent/St Senan's ran out 36-0 winners. The hosts Corinthians also had two wins under their belt so it seemed certain that this match would determine who topped the group. From the kick off it was clear that Corinthians were determined to put it up to the visitors and they certainly did that in arguably the best match of the weekend. Neither team managed to score, however, supporters and neutrals didn't care as both teams gave a masterclass in defensive rugby that was riveting to watch. The massive effort seemed to have exhausted Corinthians as they fell to a shock defeat against Suttonians which meant that Old Crescent/St Senan's topped the group and went into Sunday as hot favourites.

After a series of play off matches, Old Crescent/St Senan's found themselves in a semi-final against Corinthians but the game couldn't have been more different than the previous encounter. Old Crescent/St Senan's changed tactics and selected a heavy pack to attack what had been a dominant Corinthians forward unit in the previous game. With some superb ball carrying, the Old Crescent/St Senan's pack quickly got on top and laid the foundation for a 17-5 victory.

An unbeaten Clontarf had managed to get quick revenge on Suttonians after losing to their local rivals in the Leinster league final last week, however, Old Crescent/St Senan's dominated from the start and secured two superb tries. It looked like we would cruise to victory but Clontarf scored a try with their first decent piece of possession and the game really came alive as a contest. Both sides played excellent rugby however Old Crescent scored another try to give us some breathing space. Clontarf did score a try to make it 17-10 but when Clontarf were rightly penalised in front of the posts the Old Crescent players cleverly elected to take their first kick at goal of the weekend rather than run the ball. With the successful penalty making the score 20-10, and time running out, Old Crescent/St Senan's were never going to be caught, in fact, we put the tie beyond question with a final try to win 25-10.

Given that the Old Crescent/St Senan's squad only had their first training session last Thursday, due to Munster Schools Junior Cup commitments, it was an impressive performance and bodes well for the future. Congratulations to all involved!

The Old Crescent RFC Spring League Taggers have been having a great time in UL every Thursday evening and Old Crescent members should get out there to enjoy the action before it ends. Preparations are in full swing in Rosbrien for the Old Crescent RFc Summer Tag League which kicks off on Thursday, 19^th May. Registration is already filling up for our Summer Tag League, so taggers get moving!

Also, for all you taggers out there, registration goes live at noon next Thursday for the International Pig n Porter Tag Rugby Festival which takes place in Rosbrien on Saturday, 9^th July 2016. Now running for 14 years, the Old Crescent organised Pig n Porter international tag rugby festival has grown to be the largest tag festival in the world and a major annual event in the Limerick sporting and tourism calendar. Register your team for both events at TagRugby.ie.

Members should also get out to Rosbrien to see the transformation taking place in our club grounds, with new pitches being developed on the additional lands we purchased at the end of last year. Our Grounds Committee have been at full stretch for the last few weeks and it was some sight last week to see up to ten machines working at the same time in grading and levelling the new pitches.

In the only Old Crescent senior fixture next weekend, our Under 20's will take on Bruff in the North Munster Under 20 Cup at 6.00pm next Sunday on the 4G pitch in UL.

Old Crescent RFC – St Senans RFC combined Under 16 squad, winners of Corinthians RFC National Youth Rugby Festival 2016. Back Row (L-R): Kian Downes, Daryl Makoni, Gearoid Tobin, Shane Donaghy, Kieran O’Shea, Cillian Toland, Ronan Reynolds (Captain) Kayman Birmingham, Paul Buston, Barry Murphy, Brendan O’Brien, Maurice Smith, Darragh Hayes, Maccon Casserly. Front row: Matthew Dillion, Robert Holmes, Ronan Keaveney, Conor Greaney, Ronan Gallery, Eoin Murphy, Mark McCrann, Timothy Duggan, Patrick Kelly, David Hall, Cormac Keating, William Campbell, Jordan Duggan, Patrick Hassett, Ben Carew, Alan Garland

Waterford City RFC

Courtesy of:- Deirdre Barry, Club PRO


Mini's Rugby
Waterford City RFC Minis travelled to New Ross on Saturday for a blitz against our Leinster neighbours. Under 7s, 8s, 9s and 10s were there with the U11s and 12s deciding to have a rest day. In spite of clashes with other sporting events, there was a decent turnout and again well done to the coaches for their continued commitment even at this late stage of the season.
There were good performances across the age groups and the sunshine in this excellent setting lifted the spirits after the difficult weather conditions encountered this season.
Many thanks to our Wexford hosts for the hospitality shown both during and after the games.
Next up Tramore on Sunday the 24th with this away blitz kicking off at 10:30.

Dinner Dance
The annual dinner dance is on this Friday April 22^nd in the Woodlands Hotel. Tickets are still available at €;40 per person. Please contact Jemma Jacob, Club President for tickets. All welcome from Mini's to Seniors and all friends and family of Waterford City RFC. Hope to see you there for dinner and lots of dancing.