Depleted Kilfeacle gave it everything against league champions Richmond in cup semi

Munster Junior Challenge Cup Semi-Final

Kilfeacle & District 31 Richmond 45

Last week’s Munster Junior Cup Final defeat caused a lot of damage to a Kilfeacle’s first team squad that had already been impacted negatively by injuries. Suffice to say that six of the previous week’s squad were not fit to start the Challenge Cup semi-final on Sunday last.

Kilfeacle and District RFC is a small community based club with limited resources and a pool of players that is a tight knit but small group numerically. This amount of injuries at the end of a long season has stretched the very committed squad to the limits. Having said all that what ‘the little club on the hill’ lacks in resources and financially it more that makes up for in loyalty, skill and heart.

After the endeavours against Garryowen, no one would dare to question if the remaining squad members would give their all. The questions that needed to be answered were would a team that contained so many young inexperienced players be able to match their opponents, the new Munster Junior League champions?

Would a team with so many players playing with injuries last a full 80 minutes? Would this game be a bridge too far and end up being a demoralising defeat to such a young team and maybe setback their progression.

Prior to the game all the home fans recognized that the work that was done by the developmental committee during the year meant that Kilfeacle were able to field a team missing so many first choice starters that was still able to compete at this level at this stage of the season.

On Sunday last the weather was good with a strong breeze blowing down the pitch which favoured Richmond for the first half. Kilfeacle’s supporters knew that this was going to be a tough game and many feared the worst. With the strong breeze at their backs Richmond started the game with an intensity that had to be admired. They were in top in every aspect of the game and had a very disjointed Kilfeacle on the rack.

In the first 22 minutes Richmond had scored three tries. Nigel Clancy scored two and James Reeves scored the other. Tadhg Bennett kicked two of the conversions. All this meant that Richmond had raced into a 19-0 lead and to add insult to injury Kilfeacle lost two more players to injury with James Ryan and Darragh Kennedy both having to be substituted.

In the 27th minute Kilfeacle finally got to show their potential when after some good phases of play Bobby Purcell crashed over to score Kilfeacle’s first try. Luke Heuston was unable to convert against the wind so the score was now 19-5.

Richmond were stung into action straight away and crushed any hopes of a first half revival with a converted try in the 30th minute scored once again by James Reeves and converted by Tadgh Bennett. The score was now 26 -5 in favour of the visitors.

It looked like Kilfeacle might crumble but some fine carries, in the 38th minute, by Adam Crowe, Rian Doody, Cormac Ryan, Tom Fogarty and Bobby Purcell brought the backs into action and they struck back with a converted try of their own scored by Ben White and converted by Luke Heuston which meant that the score at half-time was 26-12.

At the end of the first half Kilfeacle had gained the upper hand and some of the younger players were starting to win their duels with their counterparts. Kilfeacle were losing but at least they were playing better after a shaky start and their supporters were optimistic that the home-side would be able to compete better in the second half with the strong breeze at their backs.

Another forced substitution at half time saw Adam Crowe going off and the pack once again had to be reshuffled.

The forced substitutions seemed to hand over the impetus to the visiting side so at the start of the half Richmond immediately used their immense pack to gain the advantage and soon scored their fourth try via Jeffrey McNamara and converted by Tadgh Bennett.

The vast majority of the next eight minutes were played in the Kilfeacle 22. The fear with the home supporters was that Richmond were creating too many chances and had too much territorial advantage and the home side were unable to break out of their own half.

Things got even worse for ‘the boys in blue’ in the 54th minute when Tadgh Bennett scored and converted Richmond’s six try to bring the score to 40-12.

There was a break in play after this try as a Richmond player suffered a head injury due to a collision with one of his own players. Kilfeacle used this time to re-adjust and steady the ship. This stoppage and some subsequent substitutions by their opponents meant that Kilfeacle were slowly coming to terms with Richmond’s very large pack and subsequently started to push deeper and deeper into the opposition’s territory.

On their first visit into the opposition’s 22 Kilfeacle duly punished them for it by converting it to seven points, when Rian Doody touched down and with Jamie Heuston kicking a conversion to cut Richmond’s lead to 40-19.

From here on Kilfeacle started to come into the game more and began to look menacing with some sustained possession and good phases of play.

After 63 minutes of play the home side got on the scoreboard again when Rian Doody broke off the back of the scrum to feed the on rushing Shane Farrell who scored a try under the posts which Luke Heuston converted to reduce Richmond’s lead even further to 40-26 points.

In the 69th minute after some more good work by Darren Lowry he passed the ball to Tom Fogarty, who was facing three defenders. To everyone it seemed as if the ball would be taken into contact and another phase created everyone that is except Tom Fogarty who with a change of pace and lightning quick side steps evaded and spun out of four tackles to make it over for a try which Luke Heuston was unfortunate not to convert.

Suddenly with 10 minutes remaining Kilfeacle had reduced the lead to 40-31 after scoring three tries without reply. It was now that the inexperience of the home side showed again and they let their concentration drop after scoring and Richmond, as all good sides do, punished Kilfeacle for when Brian Mullins scored an unconverted try in the corner against the run of play.

Richmond had now increased their lead again to 45-31 and had also dealt the killer blow from which this Kilfeacle side never recovered.

For the last nine minutes of the game Kilfeacle had the upper hand. Richmond had some forays into Kilfeacle territory but the majority of the time Kilfeacle were attacking. However between errors and some last ditch defending by Richmond the score remained the same The final score read 45- 31 which does not do justice to the fine effort put in by a very young and courageous Kilfeacle side that had been decimated by injuries.

Kilfeacle: Kevin Doyle; Killian Noonan, Darren Lowry, Ben White, Shane Farrell, Gavin Heuston, Luke Heuston; Simon Barry, James Ryan, Diarmuid O’Donnell, Darragh Kennedy, Cormac Ryan, Rian Doody, Bob Purcell, Tom Fogarty.

Replacements: Brian Barron, Richard Whitney, Adam Crowe, Brian Barlow, Paddy Finnan.