Fantastic Day For Munster Youths In Thomond

Last Sunday was a fantastic occasion for youths rugby in Munster as two superb finals were played at Thomond Park in front of a very large, vocal crowd.

Newcastle West-Estuary scored a late try to defeat Bruff in the U-18 final before another dramatic finish saw Waterpark retain the U-16 title with a win over Young Munster.

Check out match highlights and the best action shots from the U-18 final here and the U-16 final here.

The four sides all played magnificent rugby and were a credit to their clubs.

Thomas Darcy's late try gave Newcastle West-Estuary a thrilling 22-20 win over Bruff as the combined side claimed their first ever Munster Youths U-18 title.

Newcastle West-Estuary Co-manager John Liston said afterwards: “It’s an historic day for the clubs as we had never won a Munster Youths competition before. We couldn’t be happier and both clubs are obviously ecstatic.

"The families of the players have followed them through thick and thin so it was nice for all of them to end up with a bit of silverware at the end of it.”

Having suffered a number of narrow defeats at the hands of Bruff, the management team feared the worst when they fell behind late on. But the young players from Newcastle West, Shanagolden and Abbeyfeale showed admirable spirit to snatch a famous win.

“The heads of the management were down in disappointment when we went behind,” said Liston. “We thought it was gone but the players are a superb bunch with a never-say-die attitude and they kept plugging away and got their reward. Tommy Darcy went over in the corner and the rest is history.

"It looked like déjà vu, we played them in an U- 16s final and an U-18s final and lost by the narrowest of margins and it looked like it was happening again. The players were monumental.”

There was another incredible finish in the U-16 final with Waterpark centre Gary Healy (below) scoring a late breakaway try to retain the title for the Waterford club.

Waterpark coach Billy Leslie was thrilled that his side were able to keep hold of the title on a great occasion for the club.

“It was fantastic,” said Leslie. “Everybody down here is delighted to be able to retain that trophy. Myself, Dave Dawson and Derek Healy took this group at U-8 and they’ve been successful at each age-group in the east. We’ve been playing Young Munster in friendlies since U-13s and they put 60 points on us in November 2013. That’s when I got an eye as to what the standard needed to be.

“Nigel Daly came on board and his input into preparing the forwards made a huge difference to us, he used to be the U-18s coach and is a former Shannon and Munster player.“

The day will live long in the memory of the Waterpark players, as Leslie explained: “You can’t put into words how delighted and appreciative they are of being able to play at Thomond Park. You don’t get a chance very often to even get onto the pitch and you could see from how long they stayed on the pitch afterwards – they didn’t want to go in! The whole day was a great experience for them. They’ll go away hurling for the summer happy!”

The side was captained by Nick O’Donoghue and he followed in his brothers’ footsteps by picking up a winners’ medal to keep an incredible family tradition going.

“I don’t know how many families can say they’ve won five Munster Youths medals,” said Leslie. "His eldest brother David won two, his other brother, Munster Academy player Jack won two and now himself. They’ve got five medals between them, it’s absolutely phenomenal.”

The O'Donoghue brothers outside Thomond Park after Sunday's final