Tipperary Rugby: Good early season win for Kilfeacle & District in Limerick

Munster Junior League

St Mary's Limerick 8 Kilfeacle & District 19

On Sunday last Kilfeacle and District RFC played St Mary’s RFC in Corbally, Limerick.

The weather was dry, with a strong breeze blowing down the pitch. The Kilfeacle side that stepped onto the field was much changed from the one that played the previous week.

With a number of players unavailable for selection due to different reasons, many players were again playing out of position. Once again, this provided the opportunity for new and fringe players to stake a claim for a first team place.

The home side started with the aid of the breeze and began with a sense of urgency but were immediately pushed back into their own half and surprisingly Kilfeacle scored in the first minute when Jacques Van Wyngaardt burst through the opposition’s defence and raced into St Mary’s 22 before offloading to the on-rushing Killian Noonan, who touched down in the corner. Luke Heuston converted from a tight angle against the breeze and Kilfeacle had rushed into an early lead, 7 points to 0 and were having the better of the earlier exchanges.

The next 15 minutes were evenly matched and then in the 17th minute St Mary’s seized upon the opportunity presented by some missed tackles to score in the corner. This try was not converted and St Mary’s had opened their scoring to reduce the deficit to 7 points to 5.

Five minutes later St Mary’s scored a long distance penalty to lead by 8 points to 7. The Kilfeacle forwards on the day - Cian Carroll, Brendan Barron, Aaron O’Brien, Thomas Fogarty, Brian Barlow, Ben White, Brian Barron, Gavin McCormack, Kevin Kinnane, Aaron Daly, Adam Crowe and Bobby Noonan - made the adjustments that needed to be made and to their credit for the rest of the game had the upper hand on their counterparts.

This performance was a credit to these players when you take into consideration that many of these players were playing together for the first time.

The last 10 minutes of the first half saw Kilfeacle camped in the opposition’s 22. The forwards were now providing the backs with better platforms to move the ball. The backs consisting of Kyle Morris, Luke Heuston, Dubhan O’Grady, Jacques Van Wyngaardt, Killian Noonan, Maurice O’Sullivan, Fiachra O’Grady and Shane Farrell were now starting to move the ball with more efficiency and with better results, with a score looking imminent.

During this period of the game the St Mary’s defending was to be admired and it was only during the last play of the first half that Jacques Van Wyngaardt managed to score under the posts. Luke Heuston scored the conversion, which meant that the score at half-time was 14 points to 8 and the game was on a knife edge.

Kilfeacle started the second half with more purpose and looked the better of the teams in this period.

After 14 minutes they once again breached the St Mary’s rearguard when a fine team move involving both forwards and backs ended up with Dubhan O’Grady splitting the St Mary’s defence to score a try in the corner. Luke Heuston was unlucky and narrowly missed the conversion attempt and the score was now 19 points to 8. As the second half progressed Kilfeacle and District started to dominate and began to look menacing, with some sustained possession and good phases of play.

For the last five minutes of the game St Mary’s secured a foothold in the game, and to their credit they were camped in the Kilfeacle and District 22. However, some fantastic defending by Kilfeacle meant that they were unable to translate this to points on the scoreboard.

Finally the referee sounded the final whistle and the score was a victory to Kilfeacle and District by 19 points to 8.

ALL-IRELAND JUNIOR CUP

Kilfeacle and District’s next match is the opening round of the Energia All-Ireland Junior Cup at home to Cooke RFC on Sunday at 2.30pm.

This is expected to be a titanic encounter and Kilfeacle and District will need to have the club on an even keel, with everyone back in their usual positions and performing at their best to take anything from this game. Cooke RFC are one of the leading clubs in Ulster and will be relishing the clash.

Kilfeacle and District hope that everyone will row in behind the team and come to support the players, coaches and backroom staff on the day.