Longford RFC Club News 28/01/2019

Senior Men/Women Update. U14/U13/U12/U11 Match Reports, AIL Debut...

By Tommy Butler Longford RFC PRO tommylbutler@gmail.com 

Senior Men

It was a great day yesterday in Tullow with Longford earning a great four try bonus point win to move back into second place in the league.  Longford have two more matches in the league to play, a home fixture against champions elect, Suttonians on February 17th and an away match versus bottom placed, North Kildare on March 3^rd.  However, the Late XVs next match is an exciting second round fixture away to Boyne on Sunday February 10^th.  It will be a tough match as Boyne ply their trade in Division 1A but one Longford will be going into with a lot of confidence after a great performance in the league so far and a moral boosting win against Tullow. 

Attention this week turns to Longford’s Early XV who play in the first round of the Provincial Towns Seconds Cup away to Athy at 3 PM.  Longford’s Early XV is a youthful side comprising many players from last years highly successful U18 side.  They have scored some good wins in the league and have played some great rugby at times.  They will be travelling to Athy in a quietly confident mood.  However, they know they need to train hard this week as there is a number of work-ons from the Tullow game and travelling away in the cup is never something that can be taken for granted.  Your support in Athy on Sunday would be appreciated.

Upcoming Fixtures

Sunday February 3^rd Provincial Seconds Cup Athy (Away).

Sunday February 10^th Provincial Towns Cup 2^nd Round Boyne (Home).

Sunday February 17^th Leinster League Suttonians (Home)

Longford Women (Warriors)

The Women had a day to forget in Portlaoise.  It was one of those matches where no matter how hard they tried, just did not work on the day.  However, there are still two more league matches and the Cup to look forward to for what is a developing side.  A match report from the game will be published tomorrow.

The Warriors train every Tuesday and Friday night at 7.30 PM. New players of all fitness levels are welcome, even if they have not played before. Contact Nuala on 082482005.

Upcoming Fixtures:

Sunday February 3^rd Leinster League CYM (Away).

Sunday February 17^th Leinster League (Home).

All Kick Offs are at 1 PM.

Longford Mini/Youths

It was a busy weekend of rugby for our Minis/Youths.  It is not too late to start playing Mini rugby.  Longford RFC welcome new players at all levels both boys/girls with no previous experience necessary.  Training times and Fixtures can be found on www.longfordrugby.com or at https://goo.gl/qAVBPv

Fixtures:

Saturday February 2^nd  

U17 v Enniscorthy (Home)

U15 v New Ross (Away)

U11/U12 v Carrick on Shannon (Away)

U9&U10 Blitz (Home)

Sunday February 3^rd 

U14 v Wicklow (Away)

U14 Girls v Terenure (Home)

U7/U8 Training

Match Reports

U14

The first match in U14's Youth Cup vs North Meath/Athboy in Kells resulted in a 55 to 32 win to Longford. The match kicked off at 1pm in windy conditions and was played on a well prepared pitch. Longford got off to a 21 to nil start in the first half and were then met with equal skill by the combined team. This allowed NM/Athboy to post three tries in each half. Three unanswered tries to Longford at the end of the game stopped NM/Athboy from taking victory.  Player of the day; Sam Mills.  Also, Top effort during the match from stand-in Captain Odrhan Gray as well as Ryan D'Arcy, the O'Rourke Brothers, Adam Reen and Oisin Gallagher. It was an overall great team performance in defence.  Longford Squad:

(Try scores in brackets) Ronan Corcoran 15, Jude O'Rourke 14, Ordhan Gray 12, Luke McManus 11, James Gilheany 10, Sam O'Rourke 9 (1), Sam Mills 8 (3), Joel Gilanders 7 (1)

Ryan D'Arcy 5 (3), Oisin Gallagher 4, Leo Temple 3, Ciaran Flaherty 2 & Adam Reen 1 (1).

Areas to improve will be tackling/ structure of attacking and defensive line.  Out next game is away to Wicklow in the Metro League.  It was an extra special win as we only had 13 players available for the match.

U13

Longford Under 13's had their first competitive match of the season on Saturday when they made the 3 hour journey down to Carlow. There was heavy rain on the way down but thankfully the rain cleared just as the match was about to kick off. Unfortunately, Longford fumbled the ball right from the start and Carlow went in to score in the corner. Longford regrouped and defended well, but Carlow were good at recycling the ball and with that amount of procession they went in to score another two tries before half time.

Longford improved in the second half but tired towards the end after taking some heavy knocks and with Carlow's fresh legs being sprung from the bench, they went in to score another 2 tries. So, Longford lost 29 - 0 and Carlow go on to meet Gorey while Longford await the draw for the plate competition. We would like to thank all who travelled especially the parents and families to see the lads putting in so much effort and not to have at least been rewarded with a try. There was some great tackles put in and good ball carrying, but we need to be quicker in support. But this will come in time as the lads get used to playing with each other. A special mention to Diarmuid Glennon who having started on the bench, had to come in and cover 2-3 positions during the game, so it showed how important the bench is. We would like to wish Carlow well in the next round and thank them for the refreshments afterwards. Our next game is in the Leinster League next Saturday.

TEAM: Sean Molihan, Ciaran Heffernan, Killian Mc Givney, Daniel Galvin, Jack O'Hara  Rian Browne, Olan Bracken, James Grehan, Cahal O'Hara, Conor Mulligan, Jack Mc Weeney, Dylan Vance, Jack Reilly, Alex Forde, Rian Macken, Diarmuid Glennon. 

Longford U13s in action

U11/U12

Our U11 and U12 teams headed to Mullingar on a chilly Saturday morning for the latest round of games in the Midlands Blitz series.  Both squads joined together for the warm up to keep the bitter cold at bay beforehand.

Our U12’s took on West Offaly Lions from Ferbane in the first meeting of the two sides.  Both teams were well balanced with the Lions having more power in their pack. What we lacked in bulk and strength we made up for in clever play and application of our drills work from recent training sessions. The game was very even and out boys won out in the end five tries to four. The winning Try was a well taken effort by Tadgh McCauley who drove over for his first match day try. His efforts in training and recent matches is notable and this vital score is just reward for those efforts.

Our next game was against Mullingar. This was a very one sided affair. The Longford team worked good as a unit, with good work from Darragh Nash, Danny Kenny, Shane McGuigan, Mitch Clarke and Sean Ginty at breakdowns. Quick ball off the back of rucks and good work passing through the hands from Derek Belton, Donnacha Golden and Tom Murray was essential in creating the overlaps and opportunities.

One thing for us to work on is to push on with ball in hand and make more ground in attack. Ryan Spollen driving on directly at the opposition and offloading created a lovely try for Jamie Donohue. We continued to push hard with some excellent attack running resulting with tries from Harry Byrne, Jamie Donohue, Daniel Corr, Senan Murphy and none other than Tadgh McCauley who again drove hard at the defence with the support of Sean Ginty and James Cosgrove. The Mullingar lads really had no answer to the effort the Longford boys brought to the game.  All in all it was a proud day for the team, parents and coaches.

The team performance today was excellent all round and no more than this great bunch deserved.  Back for training on Thursday and next Saturday we are away to Carrick on Shannon.  Longford U12 team: Shane McGuigan, Tadgh McCauley, Sean Ginty, James Cosgrove, Danny Kelly, Daniel Corr, Derek Belton, Donnacha Golden, Mitch Clarke, Ryan Spollen, Harry Byrne, Tom Murray, Senan Murphy, Darragh Nash, Jamie Donohue.

Tadgh McCauley who scored two tries for the U12s.

Club News

All Ireland League Debut

Congratulations to Ruadhan McDonnell who made his competitive debut in the All Ireland League Division 1B for Naas on Saturday in their 23-23 draw win City of Armagh.  Ruadhan played for Leinster Underage teams and was also on the Longford Senior panel that won Division 2A a few years ago.  We hope to see Ruadhan back in the black and white of Longford in the future.

Steak Night/Six Nations Rugby

Make sure to keep the afternoon/evening of Saturday March 16^th free as we are hosting our famous steak evening to coincide with Irelands Six Nations match with Wales in the Millenium Stadium.  This could well be the Championship decider and promises to be a great night.  Tickets will be available soon, so don’t miss out.

Great Food/Events & Six Nations Rugby at Longford RFC

The Sin Bin at Longford RFC serves great quality and value food on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday from 12-3 and 12-7 on Saturday and Sunday.  It is also the best place to watch all this year’s Six Nations matches if you are not lucky enough to have a ticket. Booking for events such as birthdays, christening, confirmations, communions, weddings and funerals are also available.For bookings and information phone Kris on 0872872357.

4G All Weather Pitch Rental

Our state of the art floodlight Mel Diffley 4G pitch is available for rental.  It contains shock absorption so that players can play contact sports/fall over without hurting themselves.  It is also perfect for 5 a side soccer.  If you would like to book it phone Damian on 0862757103.