J2 XV — Season 2016/17

On the 7th of April at 7 30 PM the St Marys J2 team took to the field in Donnybrook stadium to take on the Clontarf J2’s in the Albert O’ Connell cup final. A year of ups and downs and a lot of hard work had culminated in this very talented and youthful side in contention of winning the O’Connell cup. The development of both the players and the coaches from the start of the season to the final game of the year was an immensely enjoyable experience as all involved improved bit by bit every week.

Gavin Thornberry, Rob Ryan and Ronan ‘Ronda’ Doherty had instilled strong attacking instincts in the team early on in the season and gave the lads a free rein to play what was in front of them. This led to some brilliant try’s being scored throughout the year. This was the first year these three young coaches had worked together and have shown great potential in instilling a game plan in a team and executing it.

While a lot of the league games did not go Marys way, it has to be remembered that this is a J2 team playing in a J1s league were more often than not the team was up against senior players on any given game day. Never the less this Marys team went into the cup with a sense of optimism on the back of strong performances against Greystones and Seapoint in the league. They backed this form up with a gritty win over Terenure RFC and a hard fought and very entertaining win over Coolmine RFC. The team was ably led by Captain Fionan Magee who in his second season in Marys was chosen by his peers to captain the team.

Going into the final Marys were hit with a number of setbacks as inspirational second row Sean Tevlin and the hardy outside back Jason Verdon were forced to miss the game. Both had played significant parts during the year and had greatly helped in getting the team to the final. Despite this setback Marys started the stronger in the first half. A barging run from Fionan Magee and massive tackles from Jack Buggy, Robert Beverland and Graham Crawford set the tone quickly. A fast pace and tempo was set by halfbacks Al McPhilips and Ben McAuliffe which Tarf found difficult to deal with.

Marys went 3-0 up after 5 min thanks to a well struck kick from full back Ciaran Murphy. Clontarf were clearly rattled by the adventurism and offloading from all fifteen players and were again knocked back on the ten minute mark. Some brilliant play between backs and forwards resulted in Mark ‘Donners’ Donnelan crossing over for the first try of the game. To compound matters for Clontarf, their blind side flanker was given a straight red card for a reckless and late sliding knee to Donners head in the act of him scoring a try.

However, Clontarf showed they were no mugs and immediately from the restart put pressure on Marys with their powerful tight five. Eventually Clontarf were able to force their way over for a try which also resulted in a yellow card for tight head prop Martin Murphy. Undaunted by this Marys swiftly responded with another flurry of interplay sparked by an intelligent chip over the top into space by Ben and gather by Jack Buggy leading to a try for big winger Conor Sexton. The big Clontarf pack continued to take control of the ball and continued to grind out penalties. The half time score was 18 -13 with both kickers enjoying good strike rate from the tee. The highlight of the half (apart from the tries) was undoubtedly Brendan Shortt’s try saving tackle. For a second row to trackback and make the try saving tackle on the Tarf winger showed great determination and guts.

Inspired by Graeme McInerney, St Marys started the stronger and quickly added on another penalty to make the score 21- 13. The physical pressure began to tell as Tarf brought on some big replacement s to take on a tiring Marys pack. With 20 minutes to go the score was level and Tarf simply would not give the ball back easily to Marys. The introduction of subs Richard Kilcoyne, Ciaran Deegan, Marc McKay and Mark Hayden boosted the pack but by then Tarf were winding down the clock. The game eventually finished 36 – 21 to Tarf who were worthy winners having played 70 minutes of the game with 14 players. Marys never gave up and it was encouraging to see young players like Darragh Foley, Dan Lyons, Eanna Clynes, Martin Murphy and Ronan Kernan all still playing strong right up to the 80th minute.

Overall it was a tough season but with a lot of satisfaction that both the players, coaches and managers can take out of it. A lot of new payers were integrated in and the seeds of a future trophy winning Marys team were planted all the while with a new captain, players and new coaching set up. I look forward to building on this year’s standard and pushing the boundaries for the 2017/2018 J2 season!

I would like to thank all three couches for their hard work and dedication throughout the year, Aaron Hudson for immense effort in getting and organizing a team for every match and training session each week and Alan Shirley for his support during the year.

Until next year

Colm GavinJ2s Assistant Manager

Squad for Albert O Connell cup final

1. Fionan Magee (Captain) 2. Ronan Kernan 3. Martin Murphy 4. Robert Beverland 5. Brendan Shortt 6. Dan Lyons 7. Darragh Foley 8. Mark Donnelan 9. Alan McPhilips 10. Ben McAuliffe 11. Conor Sexton 12. Graham Crawford 13. Jack Buggy 14. Eanna Clynes 15. Ciaran Murphy 16. Mark Hayden 17. Marc McKay 18. Graeme McInerney 19. Richard Kilcoyne 20. Ciaran Deegan

First published on the club website.