Weekend Rugby Round-up – W/E 09.10.22

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RECENT RESULTS

1st XV 41-34 Malone (H) – Energia AIL Division 1B
U20 XV 3-54 Clontarf (A – Castle Ave) – JP Fanagan Premier 1
Women’s XV 5-55 South East Lions (H) – Leinster Womens League Division 4
J4 XV 22-20 Bective Rangers (A – Energia Park) – Metro League Division 8

YOUTHS: 
U13 boys “A” 35-7 Greystones “A” (H – Kenilworth Square) – Metro U13  Schools Youth Boys Grading Group 1
U13 boys “B” 55-0 Greystones “B” (H – Kenilworth Square) – Metro U13  Schools Youth Boys Grading Group 4
U14 girls 12-42 Ravens Rugby (H) – Leinster U14 Girls Cup
U15 boys 27-12 Kestrels (H) – Leinster Boys School Youth U15 Grading C
U18.5 boys 22-8 DLSP (A – DLSP) – Leinster Boys School Youths U18.5 Cup

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MATCH REPORT BY D. O’BRIEN

St Mary’s College RFC V Malone RFC

41                                         34

Energia AIL Division 1B

Templeville Road

Saturday 8th October 2022.

Overall

On the loveliest of autumnal days, with the Templeville Road resplendent in its pitch finery, honed by Pokey’s earnest efforts, and clubhouse splendour, enhanced by Marie’s tasteful touches, we hosted our first home match of the AIL campaign.  The joyful mood engendered by the bright uplifting scene was subdued by the thoughts of the dreadful tragedy of last night, in Donegal.  President Gareth Roche, thoughtfully and fittingly, approved a respectful minute’s silence before the game commenced.

Our visitors today, were our friends of old from Malone RFC, led by Gerry Gibbons their president and his committee. They were warmly welcomed by Gareth and his group. Gareth reminisced that they had a special place in our history, and so in our affections, being the first Ulster team that we played regularly, going back to the 1950s. These friendships and social contacts are very important in club rugby and make it such and enjoyable milieu.

This was an entertaining game, full of adventure and joy, with a fair competition. It appeared, at 41-13 and over an hour gone, that the home side were clear. It may have so appeared but in fact it became a very close finish in the end. Although the scoreboard tells a story of an open exciting game, it also tells of two teams who can score freely but are less attentive to defence. In fact if you look at the differential (+73, – 62) for Marys over the two AIL games it shows the need to keep concentration and uniformity throughout a game.

All that said, it was an excellent result for St Marys, gaining five points, and showed the progress in the squad. It should be recalled that player/backs coach, influential Conor Dean, Mighty Mick McCormack and Nimble Niall McEniff are still out. There were many good performances.  The scrum again, was ascendant.  There were problems with the lineout and some personal errors, but open play support was impressive. Skipper, Ronan Watters, leads by deeds, and never ceases.  Mick O’Gara looked comfortable, being back at 12, his place kicking was outstanding and he took a superb vector to score a fine try. Hugo Conway too, is coming back to his best; he scored a foraging try and had a fine game. Stephen Kilgallen scored two coruscating tries and again showed what a welcome addition he is.  The replacements too, played their part, with Liam Corcoran and Niall Hurley showing well and Hugh Lane looking eager and active. Conor Hickey deserves special mention as he was instrumental in so many positive aspects of the game and his passing was crucial, especially for the searing first of two tries scored by winger Stephen Kilgallen.  He also timed a perfect intercept and sprint from 40 metres, for a first-rate try. His all-round performance earned him the SoftCo MoM Award.

TO READ MORE PLEASE CLICK HERE

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GIRLS U14’S

U14’s kicked off their first game of the season in the 2nd round of the cup due to a walk over the previous week. This left them facing a strong Raven’s team in their opener. Although they kept their heads up and their spirits high they did come away with a loss. Not an ideal start but a valiant effort on their part. Congratulations to this brave bunch of girls who all played their first ever Youth game together having moved up from u12’s last year. Their next game is League which is yet to be finalized and starts on the 5th of Nov.

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GIRLS U16’S

The U16’s started their cup campaign joining with Barnhall U16’s last week with a game against Portdara where they were unfortunately beaten by a strong travelling side. The Mary’s girls contributed well throughout the game and the Barnhall girls were very welcoming to the group. We look forward to a great season working together and we are looking forward to future successes.

See PICTURES HERE

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WOMENS TEAM

Our senior women’s team fielded for the first time in 5 years – entering a team in Division 4 they played their first home game on the 1st pitch on Sunday. As a group they are still very much building and coming together and hope to welcome back a number of ex Youth players in the coming weeks as well as many of the new players who have recently joined the team. 

Playing a player down for the first half while waiting for a late comer the Mary’s women did well against a very physical South East Lions team ending the first half just a few scores behind. The Lions Continuous rolling subs gave them fresh legs throughout the second half where the Mary’s women’s fitness definitely showed. Lots of learnings and some great play gave the team a lot of heart and even though coming away with a loss there were still lots of smiles and laughs coming from the team throughout. A special mention for three debut players – Genevieve (with just a few hours training under her belt) took on the challenge brilliantly with some superb tackling and a couple of breaks made, Cara (again with just a few hours of training) made a significant impact putting in a couple of try saving tackles and making a number of strong runs as well as being superb in the air at the lineout (really surprising this was her first time playing) also Amy Beck who has committed to the team from early August got on the front foot a number of times, some excellent work in the lineout and tackling. It was so exciting to see a number of players who graduated from youths recently and over the past number of years Aimee Breen, Sorcha (Jaff) Kamph and Liza Gibson return to the club and their old youth coach Sarah Brennan Fallon couldn’t have been prouder than to take to the field with them. A massive nod to Rhya Weafer who has been involved at youths and minis coaching for the past couple of years and made a significant impact to the team. Lastly there were two stand out players on the day – Scholastique (Scho) and Aoife who really led from the front throughout in every piece of the game! The women get on the road next week to Navan on Sunday the 16th.

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JUNIOR RUGBY

The J4’s were the only one of our Junior Rugby teams at the weekend. 

Tries from Dave McGill, Ciaran Murphy and Cian McBrien helped set the lads up to a 22-20 win over Bective Rangers in Energia Park. Great to get the win after a tough 14-0 lose to DLSP in the opening league game on Friday night.

Friday night was also a big night for two brothers. Junior Rugby stalwart Dave McGill showing his younger brother Dan the ropes lining out together for the first time together in a league game for the club (most recently lined out together on the recent Junior Rugby tour to Scotland). We look forward to watching the brother line out together for the club for many years to come!

A busy upcoming weekend for our Junior Rugby sided.

Beginning on Friday night, our J4’s host Navan in Metro Div 8.

Saturday see the J2’s host a derby day battle against Terenure in Metro Div 3. Meanwhile our J3’s are in College Park to face Trinity in Metro Div 6.

Rounding out the weekend, on Sunday are Northside in Clontarf in Metro Div 1 action.

Best of luck to all our teams.

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If you would like add information for your team/group to our Rugby Round-up section any week please email pro@smcrfc.com any week by 10am on Tuesdays.