Nenagh Vs Dungannon Team

Tipperary Rugby Review 21/09/14

Senior Rugby – Ulster Bank Division 2A

Pride of place in Tipperary Rugby, well and truly goes to the Nenagh Ormond Senior XV, who began life in Division 2A of the Ulster Bank All Ireland League with an impressive away win over a fancied Dungannon side who have spent most of their history in the senior divisions.

Nenagh Vs Dungannon Team

Not too many neutrals (except myself: see last week’s preview) would have predicted an Ormond victory, especially when a few poor results and injuries seemed to disrupt their preparation in the weeks leading up to this trip up the North.

Nenagh couldn’t have asked for a tougher test in their debut game in Division 2A but came back down over the border with four points, thanks to tries from Peter O’Connor and Ruaidhri O’Brien, both of which were converted by Dan Fogarty who also split the posts by adding a penalty leaving the final score, Dungannon 8 – 17 Nenagh.

The Nenagh men won’t have long to recover from the long trip and battle up the North, they have just a 6 day turnaround as they face Thomond RFC in a Friday Night Lights Fixture.  Thomond themselves have had a great start upon their return to Division 2A with a bonus point win against Queens University.

Nenagh Vs Dungannon Back Move

Cashel RFC who are beginning their third season in Division 2A, took into a long trip up to Co Down, to face Banbridge RFC.  This was never going to be easy for the Cashel men, Darragh O’Brien and the Banbridge kicker exchanged penalties early on before the home team slotted over another to make 6-3.

Shortly after this, a Cashel player missed a soft tackle, typical of someone straight off the back of a long bus trip and Banbridge went in under the posts for a converted try.  Banbridge scored another try, albeit controversial, as there seemed to be a Cashel player taken out off the ball.  Just before the half time break both sides exchanged a penalty each to leave the half time score at 23 – 9 to the Banbridge.

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Cashel came out of the traps all guns blazing in the 2nd half with a great try from K. Murphy in the corner, which was excellently converted by Darragh O’Brien.

This mini revival was short lived as Banbridge scored a well worked try to push the score out to 31-16.  The final quarter of the game was a real tug of war affair with Cashel scoring a push over try with the convert falling just short.  Just as it seemed that Cashel were beginning to turn the screw, Banbridge added another try against the run of play under the posts, to seemingly put the game out of reach.  Kevin Leamy had other ideas, as Cashel weren’t giving up without a fight, went back up and added another 7 points.

For the final few minutes, Cashel upped the intensity and pushed for the losing bonus point but fell short for a finish.  The men in red will be very disappointed not to have taken something from this game but they will take a lot of positives from it as they gear up for the challenge of Naas at home this weekend.

Junior Rugby Roundup:

Mansergh Cup

Kilfeacle & District and Galbally took to the field at the earlier time of 12.30pm in order to allow people to watch the All Ireland Football Final.  It was Kilfeacle who got out of the traps fastest in this semi-final, racing into a 10-0 lead before half time, with tries from Diarmuid Carr and Shane Morrissey.

Kilfeacle 1st XV

Kilfeacle continued in this vain of form in the second half and added another 26 points and limited Galbally to a single converted try to leave the final score at 36 – 7.  This result means that Kilfeacle march on to the Mansergh Cup Final to face a Clonmel side who had secured their place in the decider last weekend.  This face off will be a cracker of a game in a few weeks’ time and one that all Tipperary Rugby fans will look forward to with great anticipation.

Junior Friendly

Thurles RFC continued their winning ways as Dungarvan RFC travelled up to the Tipperary venue for a pre-season friendly.  Thurles ran out easy 43-0 victors with tries from, Donna Duggan, Colm Skehan, Nicky Irwin, Sam Devaney, David Maher, Shane Butler and Aidan Dwyer with a try and 4 conversions.

Waterpark - Teddy

Friday 26th September 2014

AIL Division 2A:

Nenagh Ormond v Thomond, New Ormond Park; 19.30

Division 2 Munster Junior League:

Bandon v Newport, Bandon, 19.30

Saturday 27th September 2014

AIL Division 2A:      

Cashel v Naas, Spafield, 2.30pm

Sunday 28th September 2014

Division 1 Munster Junior League:  

Kilfeacle & District v Cobh Pirates, 2.30pm

Kinsale v Clonmel, Kinsale, 2.30pm

Division 2 Munster Junior League:

Mallow v Clanwilliam, Mallow, 2.30pm

Waterford City v Thurles, 2.30pm

Division 3 Munster Junior League:            

Fethard v Bantry Bay, 2.30pm

Keep an eye out later in the week for Predictions for all this Weekends, Senior and Junior Fixtures.

Any clubs in Tipperary wishing to have notes featured on our weekly club update; please forward all information or photos to aidan@tipperarytimes.com, many thanks to the Clubs who contributed this week.