Longford RFC Club Notes 04/04/2022 lrfconnects@gmail.com 

Jack Carty at Longford RFC

Longford RFC hosted a special event on Thursday last when Connacht/Ireland Out Half and Athlone native Jack Carty visited the club to conduct a coaching clinic and present jerseys to our U14/U18 Squads.  Jack was a great coach and showed all the players how to play fast skilful rugby, the Connacht and Ireland way.  Thank you very much to Michael Moore motors and Chris Parker Carpets who sponsored new training tops for the event.  Jack received a great welcome from Youth Chair Gerry Carthy, Longford RFC CCRO Aoghan Clarke and all the Coaches, Players and onlookers and he was very impressed by our facilities, especially our new state of art 4G pitch.  Thanks to Jack and best of luck for the rest of the season with Connacht and Ireland.  Check out this weeks Longford Leader for pictures.

Senior Rugby Round Up

Longford Men edge thriller to go through to the Plate Semi-Finals 

03/04/2022 Provincial Towns Plate Longford 33 Edenderry 31

Longford Senior Men came back from a very poor start, where they went 14-0 down in the first twenty minutes to edge out Boyne winning through to the Semi-Finals of the Provincial Towns Plate.  Boyne who won Longford’s division, Leinster 1B this season, are familiar opponents for Longford, where Boyne edged out Longford twice in the league, in matches that Longford possibly should have won.  There was definitely a sense of owing Boyne one.  Boyne like to play a brand of ‘wide-wide’ rugby where they try to tie in defenders with carries up the middle following by getting the ball wide.  They immediately came at Longford, with the match quite even in the first 15 minutes.  However, Boyne capitalised on two Longford mistakes to go in for two converted tries in quick concession.  On both occasions, Longford knocked the ball on while in possession and Boyne quickly transitioned to attack, scoring two relatively soft tries.  It would have been very easy for Longford to pack up their tents at this stage and let Boyne run riot but Longford had other ideas against an opposition whose confidence border lined on arrogance at times.

Longford looked very dangerous especially when they got the ball out the back line and it was winger Joe McGowan who went in for Longford’s first try after 22 minutes when the ball was worked through the hands on the left, with Ryan McHugh knocking over the conversion.  Longford were largely on top at this stage but could not find a way over the Boyne try line even with Boyne down to 14 men for 10 minutes courtesy of a tip tackle by the Boyne 14.  However, they did mange to cut the deficit to only one point at the half time break with two penalties from Ryan McHugh 13-14. 

The second half was a thrilling helter skelter affair where scores were traded right up to full time.  First up was a try by scrum half Finbarr McGowan after a brilliant turnover and offload behind his back by loosehead Podge O’Farrell to McGowan who then showed great gas to burn the cover for an unconverted try.  Next up Longford extended their lead with another McHugh penalty.

However, just when Longford had their tales Boyne struck back with an unconverted try to leaves the score at 21-19.  Next up for Longford was Mark McHugh who scored for the home side after great team pressure to leave the score at 26-19.

The breathless end to the match played out with Boyne then replying with a converted try to bring the match back to a 26-16 draw with 10 minutes to go.  Longford then struck again, with the touch down by flanker Packie Molloy, who scored courtesy of a great follow up following a block down by No. 8 Aaron Beirne.  Crucially Ryan McHugh nailed the conversion.  However, that was not the end as Boyne came back up the pitch and crashed over for a try with five minutes to play.  It looked to the crowd that we were heading for extra time, however Boyne missed the conversion to leave Longford with a narrow 33-31 lead.  Boyne tried to come back at Longford but could not breach Longford’s defence again with Danny McHugh to the fore in the tackle count, in what was a man of the match performance.

So onwards and upwards to the Semi-Finals, which will probably be played on Easter weekend as the other quarter finals will not take place until next weekend, when Longford will learn their opponents.

Longford: L Brady, P Dardis, P O’Farrell, D Geelan, B McManus, J Geelan, M McHugh, A Beirne, F McGowan, D McHugh, J McGowan, P Molloy, C Hughes, S Moorehead, R McHugh, J Murray, F Davis, A Beirne & D O’Brien.

Post Match Reaction from Longford RFC Head Coach Glenn Baskett

2^nd XV

The Senior Men’s 2^nd XV travelled to Naas on Saturday for the Provincial 2nds Cup ¼ Final clash.  Longford gave a good account of themselves versus a strong Naas team but unfortunately succumbed to a 31-19 defeat.  We will have a full match report next week.  Well done to the side for getting so far in the competition.

Senior Women

Longford Senior Women lost out to Wicklow in the 2^nd round of the Paul Flood Cup 14-19 on Sunday in a match they probably should have won.  That is the end of a great season for Longford Senior Women where they won the Paul Flood Plate in Pre-season, reached the Midland League Final and were just edged out in the race for promotion to Division 2.  Well done to Nuala McGoey and all the Senior Womens squad.  Thanks to everyone who came out to support.

Sin Bin

Superb food and drink are available across the weekend (Friday to Sunday) and lunch on Wednesday/Thursday in the Longford RFC’s Sin Bin. 

Phone 087 346 4914 for bookings or email sinbinbookings@outlook.com.  Check out the Sin Bins Facebook page for update, specials and updated opening hours;  www.facebook.com/sinbinlongford/