U20 XV v Terenure (A) by Mick Flats 12.11.2017

On a cold and windy Sunday our U20s travelled to Lakeland’s for this JP Fanagan Premier 1 fixture.

Our U20s have been competitive in all league games so far and we were looking for a win against our D6W neighbours. The game kicked off at 4 pm due to the fact that a number of players from both teams had attended a Debs the previous night and needed the extra few hours to
catch up on their sleep.

Our selected right wing Conor Smyth pulled up with a back injury in the warm up and was replaced by Craig Kennedy just before KO. Craig who had started for our 1st XV the previous Friday, wanted to play his part for the U20s. He did so with aplomb and was to score our first try of the game. Conversion missed we were 5-0 after 10 mins.
The game was being played at a ferocious pace, Terenure could not live with us as our classy full back Eamon Byrne cut through their defense for our second. Again conversion missed. 10-0 to the star.

Our pack were dominating the rucks , with strong clear outs from Michael McLoughlin and Niall McNiff . Our back row of Watters, Curran and O’Gorman started to take Terenure on with strong ball carries into the Terenure 22 with Watters eventually getting over for a converted
try . Score now 17-0. We then slotted a penalty over from the boot of Myles Carey.

The Terenure team were in shock , but fought back to get a score in the corner , conversion missed. Score now 20- 5 to the star.

Half time.

The second half was the total opposite of the first half. Terenure took the game to us. They gradually started to get points on the board. With 10 minutes to go the score was 20-15 to the star, this is when under pressure we were firstly issued a yellow card to our hooker Jamie Coolican, shortly followed by a yellow to our back row Ronan Watters. Down to 13 players we manfully tried to keep Terenure out, big hits were put in , but they eventually broke us to score under the posts, score 22-20, final whistle blown.

What we showed today is that when we take teams on at pace we are a very good team. When we sit back and let teams come at us, it is a different story.

There is a break this weekend before we travel to UCD. We are improving every week and look forward to getting a win under our belt as we deserve it for all the hard work that has been put in by everyone involved.

Squad

1-Niall McEniff
2-Jamie Coolican
3-Brian Mannion
4-Michael McCormack
5-Liam Corcoran
6-Niall Curran
7- Jack O’Gorman
8-Ronan Watters
9-Darragh McDonagh
10-Tom Murray
11-Conor Kavanagh
12-Myles Carey
13-James Brannigan
14-Conor Smyth
15-Eamon Byrne
16-Ruadhan Fanning
17-Ciaran O’Meara
18-Higuelma Mulema (Ish)
19-Ben Rock
20-Alex Dix
21-Craig Kennedy
22-Brian McMahon