History Made At Killarney RFC

Killarney RFC took on Killorglin in an epic encounter in Division 3 of the Munster Junior league last Sunday and the game lived up to the hype associated with such a hotly contested derby.

Report courtesy of Liam Murphy, Killarney RFC PRO

The match took place in the Community Field in Barraduff for the first time ever, where our seniors and U16s have been training. The pitch is truly a credit to the people of Barraduff, and was in fantastic shape following torrential rain the previous day. A lot of work had gone into preparing for this historic day in Barraduff, from lining pitches to putting up the posts and making sandwiches.

Both teams arrived to warm up in the shadow of the famous Paps, and before the 2:30pm kick off, the car park was well and truly full as a bumper crowd came to watch the match. The match started with the home side kicking into the wind and the opening exchanges were nervy with both sides making errors early on. Killarney won the opening lineout following a Killorglin kick out to relieve pressure and the home side were camped in the opposition 22 early on. However, a Killarney knock on led to a Killorglin scrum with 8 minutes on the clock. The visitors showed their power in the scrum with an excellent push on, forcing the error and Killorglin were first on the board with a penalty on the 12 minute mark.

The game ebbed and flowed before Mike Henderson crossed the line for a well worked try to make it 5-3 to the homeside but the conversion was missed. A few minutes later Killorglin scored and converted to leave the score 5-10 with half an hour on the clock. The final 10 minutes saw captain Peter Kelly cross for a try and Hillary McCarthy, who was having a cracking game, replaced by T.J. Brosnan due to injury. The score at half time: 10-10.

The second half proved much more one sided as Killarney stepped up a gear early on with Brendan Fuller scoring the first of two tries on his return to the side from injury. Brendan put in some fantastic tackles right across the pitch and was at the end of a passage of play started by Aaron Jones on the left wing. A few minutes later Brendan got his second, while Paul O’Sullivan scored a try within 2 minutes to effectively see off the game. A tough game saw a forced changed with Ian Roche coming off just as his brother (the East Kerry star) Darragh scored to earn the bonus point.

This win puts Killarney joint top of Division 3 with Tralee, after 7 matches played on 29 points. With only 3 matches to go in the league, the lads will be pushing hard for promotion. Next up they head to Dungarvan on 13th of January.

Thanks to everyone who came along to Barraduff to support the lads, it was great to see so many people put their shoulders to the wheel and help in any way they could. Thanks to everyone involved at Barraduff Community Field for their huge support.