Match Report - Seamus Grealy

On Sunday last the U18.5s travelled to one of the stalwarts of Cork Rugby, Old Christians RFC, the home or famous faces like Donal Lenihan and David Corkery. The team was without some of the U17’s who were busy representing Kerry in Musgrave Park so it was the job of the remaining players to wear the Killarney hoops with pride.

The game started like a tornado with the sleek feet of Gary Randles zig zagging their way around and through 6 of the Old Christians players to plant the ball firmly over the line to open the score. Christians then pushed Killarney hard and after repeated crashes against the defensive line managed to get a try back. With their heads now up Christians again piled on the pressure and eventually succeeded with a wide move that got rewarded with a try. 10-5 at half time but with heads up Killarney pushed hard and we’re rewarded with a penalty slotted over by Ciaran O Brien.

The second half then saw Killarney take the lead with a break on the left wing by Matt McAuliffe that Simon Zebo would have been proud of and a powerful crash over the whitewash from John McCarthy to stretch the score to 18 - 17. With two minutes to go Christians were awarded a penalty that gave them the lead to see out the game. This was a great opportunity for the coaches to see some new combinations at work with changes on the wings, centre, both halfbacks, front row and back row. To a man Killarney could have not worked harder and will undoubtedly learn from the mistakes made. Every player got game time.

Team on the day - Adam Cronin, Craig McKenzie Vass, Ciaran O Brien. Krystian Komosa, Evan Mannix, Adam McSweeney, Sam Casey, Padraic Talbot, John McCarthy, Matt McAuliffe, Mark Sheahan, Dion O Neill, Jack O’Connell, Micheal Óg Casey, Adam Walsh, Aidan Keane, Tomas Clifford , Ronan Buckley and Gary Randles.

Next week we are away to Killorglin. All support welcome!