U15 Tour to

Lllanelli

April 2010

It was early morning on Friday April 23rd that we left Rosbrien for tour to Wales. The ferry crossing was uneventful and our first stop in Wales was Llanelli and Parc y Scarlets. We were met on arrival by former Wales and Lions coach Gareth Jenkins who showed us around the Scarlets impressive facilities and gave a lecture on the development of players Scarlets style and the evolution of rugby over the years.

 

After some pictures, a visit to the Scarlets shop and a quick snack, we got back on the bus and made our way to Llandovery, our base for the weekend. Friday evening was understandably quiet but the local fun fair was visited by many of the players.

 

Saturday morning started with a swim at a local leisure centre and after a light lunch it was onto Church Bank, Home of Llandovery RFC to play our tour game. We played the Llandovery under 16 side containing a number of members of the Scarlets academy and despite taking an early 5-0 lead, the age difference and the physicality of the host team began to tell and they eventually took control of the game. The teams were mixed for the final quarter which was a very entertaining affair. We then retired to the clubhouse to get something to eat and then watched the Munster vs Ospreys Magners League game. It was strange fro many of us to be watching a game from Thomond Park on the TV. Our hosts were very generous with their hospitality and a great evening was had by all with many new friendships being made.

 

Bright and early on Sunday morning we left Llandovery and made our way to the Cenrath Paintball Centre for a paint ball challenge between the backs & the forwards which was won by the backs. Then it was onto Fishguard and the ferry home to Ireland. It was a tired group that arrived back in Limerick to the news that we had to play our league off game against UL Bohs the following evening!

 

So we returned to Rosbrien the next evening to play Ul Bohs. As all but 3 of the squad were on tour no one was sure what type of performance would follow for our side. To their immense credit the players to a man raised their game and put in a tremendous performance. We started brightly and went in front with a try from Cormac Blake but conceded 3 kickable penalties all of which were converted to leave us trailing 9-5 at the interval. Playing with the conditions in our favour we continued to pressurize the UL Bohs defence and regained the lead with a try from Mark Rickard which was converted by James Cusack. We then increased our lead with a 50 meter penalty goal from Cormac Blake and captain Robbie Scott rounded off the scoring with a fine try to give us victory by 22 points to 9 and set up a semi final clash away to Garryowen on the Wednesday. Again a large mountain to be climbed against a strong Garryowen team.

 

We  took the field on Wednesday for our third game in 5 days and again took the game to our hosts. With our defensive work on a par with teams playing at the highest level we succeeding in frustrating our opponents. Alas, the rub of the green was not with us and we conceded a freak try after a penalty attempt for Garryowen came back off a post to give Garryowen a 5-0 half time lead. The second half was pretty much a carbon copy of the first with our defence holding firm and some great attacking play failing at the last pass. We conceded six further points from penalty goals and so our season ended in defeat by 11 points to nil.

 

It was a extremely brave performance from the lads and they have shown that they are among the elite teams in their age group. Credit too to the coaching staff for the way in which they have brought on this team over the season and we look forward with quiet confidence to the under 17 competitions in 2 years time.