U17 Plate Final Report, Girls Rugby Give a Go, Mr Boots Award and more...

By Padraig Murphy Longford RFC PRO Ph: 087 6063587 Email:  lrfconnects@gmail.com

Youth Rugby, sponsored by MLC, Midlands Language Centre. 

U17 Leinster Plate Final Longford U17’s 7 – Mullingar 24

For the final game of the Longford U17’s 2022/23 season, Longford took on Mullingar in the Leinster Plate Final. It was a wet and slippery day in the North Kildare club grounds which would usually suit the Longford game.  In front of a large crowd of supportive parents, family, and friends, both teams went at it right from the start, with Longford playing downhill in the first half. Longford took to the task like ducks to water, keeping their defensive line and capitalising on the opposition mistakes. The game went from end to end with some great tackling and some good strategic kicking. We were dominant in the pack and needed to be, as there were sixteen lineout’s and eleven scrums in the first half. One of these lineout’s was a result of a brilliant tackle by Caelum McGee to drive the Mullingar winger into touch. Mullingar looked to spread the game out to the wings, where they believed they might do damage. In fact, it was Oran Lyons who made the first burst up the wing, out of his half and was just brought down inside their twenty-two. In another attack, Mullingar kicked the ball, Caelum caught it, he kicked and chased after it, a fumble by the collecting Mullingar winger, hacked on by Caelum into the five-metre line. However, Caelum was unable to gather the ball and it was knocked on. At half time it was still scoreless, in a typical cup game, with neither team wanting to concede.

In the half time talk by Ronan to the lads, he said that this game was going to be won by the team who made the least mistakes. As Mullingar had the benefit of the hill in the second half this put the young Longford men under pressure. Points were going to be precious in the game and Mullingar missed a penalty and a minute or so later tried for a drop goal. The men in black held out for a further 10 minutes, but one missed tackle on the wing let them in for the first try of the game. After the introduction of Cathal Byrne to the front row, Leinster U18’s panellist, Yaw Appiah moved out to the centre. The lads were still under relentless pressure and 20 minutes into this half after defending four rucks on the wing, the ball squirted out for Mullingar centre to go in under the posts. With Mullingar now twelve points in the lead, and Longford now chasing the game, the heads dropped somewhat.  In an effort to inject new energy Cian Gavin was introduced for the tiring Sean Molihan. The team’s overall focus wilted.  After a long season, and some having only a few hours’ sleep after their foreign travels, they found it hard to concentrate. Straight from the drop off the ball was gathered by the Mullingar centre who broke through three tacklers and, when Alex Forde down brought him, he had support runners to off load to and they ran under the posts again.

The constant defence was taking its toll on players with scrum half Conor Mulligan and then second row Jack O’Hara having to come off injured, being replaced by Cathal Ghee and Christopher Trautt.  After the drop off, the ball was kicked back and as Longford tried to break out from defence the ball was knocked on, gathered by a Mullingar player for them to run in at the corner. The game was now beyond Longford with 4 minutes left, but the lads did not give up and wanted to show our fellow midlanders that we have matured as a team since we last met 6 months ago in the league. After getting a penalty just inside the Mullingar half, Ciaran Heffernan picked and went, took the ball into contact and the ball was passed to James Grehan who carried twenty metres. After another few phases, Alex made a darting run up along the wing, offloading to Yaw, who took it into contact in the midfield, passed to James, who drove straight for the line, to be stopped inches short, then for Cathal Byrne to pick and drive over the line for the try. Out-half Rian Browne, kicked the conversion to a rousing cheer of the Longford supporters. This spurred the lads into life and there was now some great strong carries by Stephen Oates, Cathal Ghee, Ciaran, James, and Cathal Byrne to cross the gain line, and, with Diarmuid Glennon kicking into the Mullingar 22 being last play, Mullingar were delighted to kick the ball out and take the victory. Congratulations to our neighbours on winning the Leinster U17’s plate for this season.

The forwards did some great work, our jumpers in the lineout, Olan Bracken, and John Sheridan, secured our own ball and disrupted the opposition line out. We were also dominant in the scrum’s and drove the opposition back in every scrum with Sean and Jack in the engine room, giving us forward momentum. Our half backs, Conor & Rian, managed and controlled the game under exceedingly difficult conditions. Centres, Diarmuid Glennon and Alex, had a difficult day with the pacey opposition running at them all the time. Wingers, Oran Lyons and Diarmuid Rawle had the hard task of trying to mark their opposite numbers as Mullingar’s tactic was to spread the ball wide, but we kept them at bay for two thirds of this game. Caelum at full back had been best game of the season, putting in try saving tackles and the kicking from hand and, if he had the rub of the green, the ball would have bounced up for him to score a try in the first half. It was great to have strength on the bench in the two Cathals (forming their own comedy show, to compete with the two Johnnies), Cian and Chris, and to be able to spring them from the bench at vital times.

This season was a great journey for this bunch of young men. After a slow start we started to gain momentum in November and were in good shape, morale wise, coming into the Christmas. Ronan’s game plan was starting to work, and the results continued to show in the New Year, with only defeats to Athy (in the League Final), Edenderry in the cup (who were the ultimate winners of the Leinster Cup – congrats to them), to our final game against Mullingar in the final of the plate. The young men can now rest for the summer but can look forward to a next season playing as the Longford U18.5’s side, the senior youth’s team for the club. After this season’s U18.5’s having a brilliant win in the plate, also in North Kildare, we would hope that we will be able to emulate their success. Thanks to all the parents & supporters who travelled. But special thanks to Ronan, Danny, and Michael for their coaching this season and for Eamon, Jimmy & Kevin (we missed your photographic skills) helping in the organising of the team. Also, thanks to the parents who helped out in catering for the teams during the home games and for ferrying their men into training and matches during the season. Most importantly, thanks to the players for this year’s memories.

Mr. Boots Award Night

Longford Rugby Clubs Derick Turner will be presented with the Mr Boots Award at a dinner in Longford Rugby Club on Friday 26th May.

The Boots Award is a prestigious award presented by the IRFU to someone from across the Island who has made an incredibly significant contribution to Junior rugby. 

Tickets for the event are €50 and given Derick’s massive contribution to Longford RFC over more than half a century we think it only fitting that we honour this great achievement.

To purchase tickets please contact one of the following

David Bird 086 6002704

Karen Lennon 087 7449228

Tony Headon 086 0618614

Donagh McDonnell 086 2668822

Youth Rugby awards presentation 

The youth’s awards presentation evening will take place on the Friday 2nd of June, bank holiday weekend.

It Is hoped to have the Triple Crown and Six Nations trophies at the club for the awards, courtesy of former IRFU President and Longford club man, Pat Fitzgearld. Please check out our social media accounts for updates and further information.

Clubman and former IRFU President, Pat Fitzgerald presenting Ireland and Leinster Rugby's Robbie Henshaw with his B&I Lions cap recently 

Girls Rugby - Give it a Try

Longford Rugby Club are  hosting a girls rugby Give it a Try series over the coming weeks.  The training sessions will run from 6.00pm. . This is a perfect time to try out a new sport, meet new people and make new friends.  For further information please contact Karen on 087449228.

Link to Leinster league and Midlands’s area competition fixtures and results can be found on the following link.

https://www.leinsterrugby.ie/domestic-rugby/domestic-fixtures-results/

Youth’s training 

Training for all youths teams has now finished for the season. 

Age group, coach contact details and in season training schedule as follows:

Please contact the coaches below ahead of next season for updates.

Girls’ teams

U14 girls - Mags McKenna  087 6309653

Wednesday 7:00-8:15pm

U16 girls – Eugene Larkin 086 6015325

Wednesday 7:00-8:15pm

U18 girls – Declan Smyth 085 1375973

Wednesday & and Fridays 7.30pm

Boy’s teams

U13 – Pauline Marlowe 087 632 3373 schedule TBC

U14 – Lisa Brady 087 6119960

Monday 7.00-8.45pm

Saturday 10.30-11.30am

U15 – Declan Elliott 086 8125363

Wednesday 7.00-8.15pm

U16 – Aoghan Clarke 087 6727002

Monday and Wednesdays 7.00-8.30pm

U17 – Padraig Murphy 087 6063587

Thursdays 6.30-8.30pm

U18.5 – Freddie Forde 086 1727145

Tuesdays and Thursdays 7.00-8.30pm

U18.5’s – Jimmy Murphy 086 2555621

Thursday 7.30-9.00pm

New players welcome at all age groups.  Just turn up with a gumshield.

Please follow club social media for updates on our Instagram & Facebook profiles - Longford RFC

Mini Rugby

And that’s a WRAP.  The book has closed on the 2022/2023 Mini’s Season and what a way to finish. The final training session saw over 130 children attending training on a showery Sunday morning.  

We would like to say ‘Thank you’ to all the coaches for your time and patience, the parents for trusting us with your little darlings and the children for making all the effort worth while. 

Minis player Micheala Marlowe presented with her Certificate of Participation from club President Donagh McDonnell 

A special word of thanks to our wonderful Minis Coordinator, Pauline Marlowe, for another superb year of organized chaos management, job well done.  Without such a stellar job, the activities of the Minis section would not have been possible.

SEE YOU ALL AGAIN IN SEPTEMBER!!!

#overandout #shouldertoshoulder

#minisrugby

The minis section requires assistance each year from positive and proactive people to help with the development of the teams. If you are interested in helping, please contact Pauline Marlowe or chairperson, Gerry Carthy. 

For further information please contact Pauline Marlowe, Mini Co-ordinator, Longford RFC.  Mob - 087 632 3373

Please follow club social media for updates on our Instagram & Facebook profiles- Longford RFC.

Boot room

Parents - Why not check out the hugely popular Boot room here at Longford rugby club where we have a self-replenishing stock of replacement boots. You drop in a pair you no longer need and replace it with a pair that fits your child. That way your pair of boots does not go to waste and someone else gets to benefit also, thus also helping someone else save a few Euros. 

If you have any boots that you wish to donate or exchange, please bring them into minis training and drop off the office for the attention of Gerry Carty or Pauline Marlowe who will assist with selecting the replacement pair. Boots should be clean, laces intact and no missing studs. No blades will be taken in.

Please note it is not possible to guarantee there will be a suitable replacement available however we have rarely not had some to choose across a wide range of sizes.

For all Longford RFC club correspondence please contact 

Ph: 087 6063587 Email:  lrfconnects@gmail.com