Abbeyfeale Girls U-15s Win More Silverware

The Abbeyfeale U-15 girls travelled to Galway for the National Youth Festival in Corinthians RFC earlier this month for a fabulous event with the sun shining brightly on both days.

The event raised funds for Autism and the Temple Street Children's Hospital, it hosted approximately 15 teams of U-15s boys and 6 teams of U-15s girls over the two days. As an extra bonus on the Saturday the girls got to meet international Ireland player Maz Reilly with the Six Nations trophy.

The first day saw the Abbeyfeale girls succeeding in winning all their three games. They first played Ballina where the only tries were Aoife Rigter and Amy Cullinane, final score 10-0. The second game saw the Abbey girls play Shannon with tries coming from Aoife Rigter and a fantastic run from Maria Power to make the score 10-0. For the third match which was against Portuma the girls were well warmed up with two tries from Abbey’s wingers Ailish Wrenn and Eilish Cotter. One came from Abbey’s Katie Lane who crashed through Portuma defence and one from Abbey’s captain Sophie Moroney making the final score 20-0.

The second day saw Abbeyfeale up against Mullingar who had also won their three games the day before, so they were focused on winning again and it was Abbey’s Maria Power to put the first try over. Mullingar came back for a try and a fantastic run from their winger. Then as the game went on they were unable to break the Abbeyfeale girls down as Abbey’s Katie Lane ran through tackles and crashed up the middle to get the next three tries. Abbey’s Amy Cullinane got the last try of this game making the final score 25-5.

Their second match saw them up against Listowel who are neighbours and were the team Abbeyfeale won against in the Munster Final in Tralee RFC on the 28th February to become the 2015 Munster Champions. So again these two teams played on a sunny Sunday afternoon with the score this time being 10-5 showing how competitive rugby is in the West of Munster.

The final was to be Abbeyfeale and Mullingar, so with both teams ready as the hard tackles went in and brilliant runs, the level of rugby from both teams was fantastic as the crowds gathered around to cheer them on. After a few minutes into the first half it was Abbeyfeale’s Eilish Cotter who was the first to score in the left corner close to the post. Diane O’Connor was the second girl from the Abbeyfeale team to score in the left corner, making the score of the first half 10-0.

In the second half the Mullingar team came back hard to get two tries both in the right corner and as the intensively between the two teams was getting high with time coming close to an end. It was to be Abbeyfeale’s Katie Lane who rocketed through the Mullingar defence in the last few minutes to score the third try to make the final score 15-10 and Abbeyfeale the All-Ireland Champions 2015.

The representatives of Corinthians RFC Kieran Browne and John Fitzmaurice presented Sophie Moroney (Abbeyfeale Capt) the Joe Tighe Perpetual Cup, which in turn making their coach John Moloney, assistant coach Mary Teahan, their families who travelled up also on Sunday morning very proud indeed.

Words cannot describe the happiness and excitement of the girls, their coaches and their families as they travelled back to Abbeyfeale that evening with another cup. A special thanks to Hannah Broderick (Abbeyfeale Coach of the U-18s) who helped out on both days.

Lastly a massive thank you to all the parents that have supported us by carrying the girls to and from training, to their matches and have helped us in any and every way on this incredible journey from Munster Champions and now All-Ireland Champions. Congratulations to one and all.