Club Notes

This week’s Club Notes come from Thurles RFC and Newcastle West RFC.

Thurles RFC
Courtesy of Brian Scanlon

Thurles U18 Girls v Ballina-Killaloe – Munster Womens U18 Shield semi final
On Saturday last, Thurles RFC welcomed the U18 Girls Team from Ballina Killaloe RFC to Loughtagalla in the Quarter Final of the Munster U18 Shield. It was a bright fresh morning with the front pitch in tremendous condition for the time of year, and this set the scene for what promised to be a close encounter between two very similar teams, with both sides fielding a mixture of youth and experience.

The opening quarter of the game saw Thurles shoot into a lead of 10-0, following excellent tries from Jane Ryan and Holly O Dwyer, with both conversions being narrowly missed by O’Dwyer from difficult angles. Both scores came from great combination play and patience from the backs and forwards.

The remainder of the half saw the home side increase their domination at the breakdown and in open play. The powerful second row partnership of the Woodlock sisters, Megan and Niamh, were playing their best game of the season so far, and were involved in most of the forward moves of the first half. Thurles Captain Jane Ryan, once again was immense at the base of the scrum and time after time, set up another platform for attack in the centre of the field, which eventually resulted in a try for in-form out half Emily Lane who touched down under the sticks giving and easy conversion opportunity to Holly O’Dwyer, which she easily slotted over to bring the score to 17-0

The Thurles Girls were by now in complete control of the game, with a new looking front row of Julia Heiden, Rachel Ryan and Ciara Nyland putting pressure on the opposition at every scrum, creating a perfect platform for another team try before the half time whistle came. This time the back row partnership of Aoife Flanagan and Kate O’Dwyer combined to release O ‘Dwyer to cross the line for a fine score, bringing the first half to a close at 22-0.

The second half started as ferociously as the first, but this time it was Ballina Killaloe playing all the rugby, playing a very narrow game and putting all the pressure on Thurles. It seemed the 22 point advantage had lulled the home side into a false sense of security and this may have allowed the Ballina Killaloe Girls to score an early try after several attacks eventually penetrated the Thurles defence. The loss of O’Dwyer at 9 and a ten minute break in the sin bin for Jane Ryan was a welcome boost for the visiting side and Thurles knew they were back in a game.

Thurles weathered the Ballina Killaloe storm and went on to control the second half with Ballina-Killaloe failing to score again and with Thurles stopping any attack in its tracks with some great defending from the centre partnership of Sophie Sheehan and Christine Coffey. Thurles had a number of try scoring opportunities during the second half with Amy McGrath , Melanie Deveraux and the flying full back, Annabelle Wynn Jones, all coming close. The introduction of substitutes, Caoimhe Wixted, Siobhan Quinlan, Layla O Connor and Giulia Brevigliero allowed Thurles to keep the pressure on with fresh legs boosting the attack which after a long period of sustained pressure on the Ballina-Killaloe line resulted in Jane Ryan scoring her second try of the day, and sealing a 31-5 victory for the home side

Thurles now advance to the semi finals where they will travel to Ballina-Killaloe’s pitch in Co Clare to play Newport Vixens for the second time in 3 weeks, and hoping for a second win to advance to the final in Tralee in February. The players and management would like to thank all those who turned out on Saturday to support the team. Training continues Wednesday and Friday nights as usual, 6:15 to 7:30pm sharp.

Thurles U18 captain Jane Ryan breaks the Ballina-Killaloe defence to score the first of her two tries in Thurles RFC's 31-5 win on Saturday.

Thurles U16 v Cork Con U16
Thurles travelled to the famous Temple Hill in Cork city, a rare experience for Thurles teams and one which turned out to be a tough day at the office for our lads. Playing against a physically big and strong Con team Thurles struggled to deal with the hard direct running of the opposition and their relentless recycling game. Bar one excursion to within 5m of the Con line after excellent approach play by the backs, the rest of the half saw Thurles struggle to maintain possession and spend most of it on the back foot. Thurles also had to cope with the loss Jack McGrath who was filling in at loosehead admirably before having to leave the pitch with a bad ankle injury after 15 minutes. This resulted in uncontested scrums for the rest of the game due to an already long injury list.

The highlight for Thurles was a dogged defence of their line in the closing minutes of the first half with a bone crunching tackle by Andrew Bourke and swift counter ruck by his teammates turning over possession close to the Thurles when Con looked like adding to their total of 20 points to nil at half time. It seemed like being a very long second half when Con again crossed early in the second half to push the score out to 27. Thurles through an Ed Connolly intercept stopped a certain try for Con and his 90 yard sprint was just hauled in a metre from the Con line. The Thurles back row arrived and secured for Peter Wall to crash over for a try for Thurles excellently converted by James Devaney.

This was temporary respite as Thurles again conceded this time in trying to run the ball out from their own line and after that from a close in tap penalty and drive. From the restart Ed Connolly regathered his own drop out and set up a scrum for Thurles on the 10 metre line. A backrow pick and excellent kick through by scrum half Jack Lillis set up a penalty 10 metres from the Con line due to late tackle. Thurles made several drives through the pack before securing another penalty 5 metres out. A penalty tap and feed to Peter Wall saw him barrel over for his second try with the conversion narrowly missed. As the picture shows Thurles finished muddied but not bowed. Thurles 12 Cork Con 39.

Fixtures 3rd, 4th & 5th Feb 2017
1st XV v St Mays Sunday 2:30 (h)
2nd XV v Carrick on Suir Friday 7:30 (h)
Women's XV v Tralee Sunday 1:00 (a)
U18 Boys v Kinsale Saturday 11:30 (h)
U18 Girls v Newport Saturday 12:30 (a)
U16 Boys v Nenagh Sunday 11:00 (h)
U14 Boys v Clanwilliam Saturday 12:30 (a)

Newcastle West RFC
Courtesy of Martin O’Sullivan

Munster Junior Cup – Cashel 19 Newcastle West 8
A long trip to Cashel on Sunday last brought us no luck in the quest for the prestigious Munster Junior Cup. A super first half saw us lead 3-0 from a Sean Herlihy penalty however the strong home side ran in 3 tries in the second half and managed to convert two of those for a 19-3 lead going into the last few minutes. James Kelly managed to stop the tide with a Newcastle West try. A good away performance against a strong Cashel side but we bow out of this year’s competition
Scorers: James Kelly, try. Sean Herlihy, 1 penalty

League Fixture

The big one. We travel to Clonmel on Sunday Feb 5th to take on the league leaders in their back yard. With only 3 points separating the teams it’s a very important fixture. We're hoping our brilliant supporters will travel in numbers as usual. See you all in Clonmel on Sunday. Kick-off is at 2.30pm

Minis and Youths
Minis training continues in Killeline on Sunday morning as usual @ 10.30am
The U18's play Dolphin in Cork on Saturday 4th Feb @ 2.30 in Group 3 of the Munster U18 Club Cup

U16s Pan Munster Plate – Nenagh RFC 7 Newcastlewest-Estuary RFC 5
We travelled to Nenagh on Sunday morning last with a long injury list but we had a strong side and were looking to bounce back from defeat the week before. The weather and conditions can only be described as horrid for rugby. But in spite of this a great game of rugby ensued with both sides adapting well to the conditions. We had a great start with Killian Collins retaining our kick off but unfortunately as he came to ground we knocked on. With great harassing by Jack Grimes on their out half they got poor ball and had to kick away possession. A good carry by Tom Murphy and aided by John O Connor we retained the ball. David Massey and Diarmuid O Flynn worked well in carrying the Ball. Not much was given by either side and that remained the story of the first half. With Bobby Donovan carrying a ball forward with Jack Corkery covering the ball in the ruck it came out fast. Turlough O Connor kicked cross field as Daniel Normoyle ran onto a clear try was there for the taking but the ball took a wicked high bounce unfortunately we knocked on. From the resulting scrum Nenagh kicked straight to Daniel who launched a garryowen and in trying to retrieve the ball was deliberately blocked with 3 minutes left in the first half we attempted a kick at goal it dropped short. With a minute to go Nenagh touched down in the corner from a lineout which was a little controversial we thought but ref said there was no wrong doing they was converted to leave Nenagh leading 7 to 0 at the break. We remained in Nenagh’s half for a lot of the second half with good ball work by Bryan Hartigan Oliver Lynch and Robert O Grady all contributing to good go forward ball. Two forced substitutions saw E'ounn Ferron and Liam Callanan coming on for Bryan and Oliver. We worked the ball into their twenty two and we stayed there for ten minutes with a great drive by our forwards we were parked on their line with pick and goes to left and right of the ruck Aiden Shanahan went right set up a lovely free ball for Christopher Walsh crashing over from 3 yards to get our try. Alan Mcgrath was in hard luck with conversion just dropping short the kick was not made easy by the underfoot conditions. We recieved the kick off and tried to work up field but we turned it over with that the final whistle went. The boys had given there all throughout the game we deserved a draw if not the win we were lot better than scoreline suggests. Subs not used Cian Doody Sean Bourke Keith Begley. Team was as follows: 1. Booby Donovan 2. Bryan Hartigan 3. Christopher Walsh 4. Killian Collins 5. Aiden Shanahan 6. Jack Corkery 7. Diarmuid O Flynn 8. David Massey 9. Jack Grimes 10. Turlough O Connor 11. Daniel Normoyle 12. Oliver Lynch 13. Robert O Grady 14. John O Connor 15. Tom Murphy 16. Cian Doody 17.Keith Begley 18. Sean Bourke 19 Liam Callanan 20. E'ounn Ferron 21. Alan Mcgrath

Lotto
Numbers Drawn 12, 18, 24, 27 – NO WINNER
Lucky Dip winners
Conor, Andrew & Dan, c/o Ballintemple Inn
Bobby Nicholson, c/o Whelans Bar
Theresa Lynch, c/o Tom Corbett
Declan Moloney, Kileedy
Bridget Liston, Carrigkerry
Johnny O'Sullivan, c/o Tom Corbett
Jackie Erswell, Ferndale, NCW

Promoter’s Prize: Pat Bourke

Next week’s draw will be in The Snug Bar on Friday 3rd February. The jackpot stands at €;10,000.