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Underage News - U17s & U14s tournament successes

November 7, 2018

U17s win Tarragona Tournament Cup

 

Last weekend the Young Munster U17s competed on tour toTarragona, Spain where they played 3 games and won the Tarragona TournamentCup. Well done to all the squad and special thanks to Glen Blake, EugeneO’Connell, Anthony Considine, and all involved.

 

U14s successful at Waterpark Tournament

 

Last weekend the Young Munster U14s were invited to competein the inaugural Waterpark Under 14 tournament, sponsored by Ellickson. We wereone of 12 teams invited to compete, with other teams travelling from Caldy(Liverpool), Lansdowne, Kilkenny, Wicklow and other teams from Dublin and thesouth east.

 

Our first pool match was against a very strong and well-drilledteam from Caldy near Liverpool. They are current Chesire county champions, andwhile we started strongly, eventually their class began to tell and they ranout convincing 30-7 winners, with David Benn scoring our only try, which wasconverted by Dean Garvey.

 

Our next match was against Waterford Barbarians, and we ranout 19-0 winners. Captain for the tournament, David Benn helped himself to abrace of tries, and Aaron McNamara added another, with two conversions fromDean Garvey. This game saw a marked improvement in our play, with our forwardsin particular in much improved form.

 

After a break for lunch, we played the semi-final againstMidleton. To say the least, this proved to be a bruising encounter, with two ofour players (Dean Garvey and the impressive David Benn) requiring hospitaltreatment. With margins extremely tight, it was always likely that one scorewould probably decide the issue, and Aaron McNamara again duly obliged with awonderful finish after some powerful surges by our pack. By this stage we alsohad lost Alex O’Callaghan and Caylum O’Dwyer and had to finish out the gamewith 14 players. To their credit, our lads defended our line heroically, and wehad deservedly reached the plate final.

 

After the semi-final, the sideline resembled a fieldhospital with players receiving treatment for various knock and sprains. Ourpatched troops now faced Clonmel in the final. Andrew McInerney, in his firstcompetitive start for the club, had deputised for the injured Dean Garvey at out-half,had an excellent outing, and controlled matters behind the scrum. Our pack waswell on top throughout, but we just could not get the final pass to stick toscore a try. Eventually, with five minutes remaining, we managed to put somephases together, and our patience was rewarded when Calvin McDonagh crashedover from close range. The final whistle was greeted with a mixture of relief,exhaustion and sheer delight, by our battered players.

 

The presentation of trophies took place shortly afterwards,and the plate was jointly presented to both David Benn, and Shane O’Connell whocaptained the team in the final in David’s absence due to injury. We would liketo wish a speedy recovery to David and Dean Garvey who both sustained fracturedcollarbones in the semi-final. Thanks also to all parents and those whotravelled to support us. Finally a big thank you to Nick Molloy and all atWaterpark R.F.C. for their hospitality – we really enjoyed the tournament.

 

Panel: Shane O’Connell, Tadhg Enright, Aaron McNamara,Kelvin Brosnahan, Andrew McInerney, Dean Garvey, Alex O’Callaghan, JackFinucane, Emmett Connolly, Jake Bennis, Caylum O’Dwyer, David Benn, BrendanKelly, Calvin McDonagh, Jake Fitzgerald, Josh O’Donoghue and Jordan McKinght.