MRFC Feb 2nd Weekend Match Reports
U18.5:
On Sunday last we made the journey to Waterford to take on the local City team in the final group stage game of the Munster League Bowl. We got off to a slow start and allowed City in for an early try, however we made up for this almost immediately with a superb try from our centre Oden van der Werff who broke a number of tackles with direct hard running. Quickly after that a brilliant solo effort from our outhalf Riley O’Hanlon started with him receiving the ball within our own 22m and going the distance beating 5/6 players on the way to touching down under the posts. These scores gave us confidence and a lot of good work on the wings forced them to work hard in defence. This paid off nicely in the 2nd half as we took advantage of them tiring with Will Murphy, Jack O’Brien and Tommy English all adding tries. Having dominated the game throughout we finished up 17-29 winners brining us through to the knockout phase of the tournament. This was a particularly pleasing away win with a number of players unavailable and sets us up well for the upcoming quarter final.
Team from: Remo Chialastri, Conor Dooling, Tommy English, Ben Cooke, Eoghan Kelly, Will Murphy, Jack Kelly, Darragh Casey, Ryan Nolan, Jack Twomey, Divino Da Silva, Oden van der Werff, Jack O’Brien, Dylan Spillane, Riley O’Hanlon, Lorcan Murray
U14’s:
Our under 14s squad travelled to Kanturk for a 11am kick-off on Saturday. The weather on the morning in question was always going to play a strong part in how the game was going to be played, with a strong wind going straight across the pitch and persistent rain throughout the team that played the smartest was going to win this one. Mitchelstown came out fired up despite the conditions and this showed in the first few tackles of the game with Kanturk trying to get their big ball carriers going, our lads stopped them in their tracks. It was a first half played mostly in the middle of the pitch until shortly before Kanturk got a try in the corner. The half ended shortly after 5-0 to Kanturk but our lads were confident they could win it in the 2nd half.
This was very much the case as our lads while continuing to defend confidently in the tackle, with Liam Drake front and centre every time a tackle needed to made. Cathal Meade and Isaac Keneally started to put pressure on Kanturk with some booming kicks and it was from there we started to get the upper hand. Camped on the Kanturk 5 metre line, a bit of quick thinking with a crossfield kick to a wide open Darragh Finn allowed him to score his try of the season! Our dominance would continue and before long we scored 2 more tries, one from Joe Gallagher, who picked a gap and went through and under the posts for an easy conversion for Cathal. To finish the game Isaac would get over the for the finally score of the match to make it 17-5 to Mitchelstown. Our Squad on the day was as follows: Tom O’Regan, Josh Keane, Killian O’Grady, Finbarr Danne, Liam Drake, Tom Walsh, Dean Slyne, Isaac Keneally, Aaron Horgan, Cathal Meade, Joe Gallagher, Zack Wims, Darragh Finn, Oisín Heaphy, Luke Walsh, Mark Williams, Evan Holland, Harry Finn, Anthony Flynn.
Thanks for all the support from the parents as always. We train every Thursday night at 7pm at Currabowen any new players welcome. Our next game will be February 22nd away to Mallow.
Minis:
Our under 9’s & 11’s made the short trip to Mallow on Saturday morning where a very enjoyable blitz morning was had, some fantastic rugby was played and fun was had by all.