Charleville & District RFC V Castleisland/Abbeyfeale

17th December 2023

With Castleisland/Abbyfeale the visitors sitting one place above Charleville and District boys in the league with a near identical record, there was little doubt that a close contest was in store in this BOI Semi-Final. Exactly how close and on such fine margins it was decided, nobody was quite prepared for as it turned out.

But this is cup rugby. Selection boxes or tours of a fire engine was not going to be much comfort for the team that came out the wrong side of this one.

Conditions were almost identical to last week, with a stiff south westerly breeze blowing to the advantage of teams playing from the road end. Charleville boys played the opening 20mins into the wind. They would have to play the ball through the hands and work their way up the pitch. It was immediately apparent how Abbeyfeale would play from the kick off. With a large pack, especially two front row forwards and a No.8 that wouldn’t look out of place on an U18.5 side, they moved the ball to these point players to punch through Charleville defence, virtually ignoring their backline for the opening 15mins of the match.

Despite this opening onslaught of hard running forwards, Charleville threw themselves into the contact in the close areas around the breakdown. Whilst Charleville boys were doing a good job of containing Abbeyfeale around the fringes, it was from set piece, particularly the scrum, where the pick and go from the No.8 was doing real damage. Charleville didn’t deploy the pressure ball defence as quickly as they needed to and left them tracking back to try and stop Abbeyfeale who scored under the posts after 8 mins to take an 0-7 lead.

Charleville continued to try and work the ball up the pitch but found there was little room to be had between the Abbeyfeale forward defenders, which slowed their ball down and did not suit their strengths a team. A series of penalties for high tackles and knock ons slowed the game down and kept Charleville in their half. On 11 mins Abbeyfeale had another set piece opportunity just inside Charleville’s half from which they went through a couple of phases, before their main ball carrier took a pass and went down the right side to score in the corner despite valiant attempts to tackle him into touch.

With the score now at 0-12, there was a risk that this match could get away from Charleville. But as we all know, there is character way beyond their years in this group, and they knew they needed to find a way to get back into the game. The priority was to make sure they didn’t concede any more scores before the end of the half. For the remainder of the first period Charleville boys put everything into defending their line and on several occasions last ditch tackles were put in to prevent scores. Charleville boys started to make some headway into the opposition half with carries of their own. This relieved some pressure, if not presenting clear cut scoring opportunities to end the 1st period at 0-12.

Charleville opened the second period with the assurance ringing their ears that they were by no means out of the match and with fresh legs to help. Going back to the game plan of not running into traffic but getting quick ball to our own backline would be key. Almost immediately Charleville were rewarded for executing the plan. After an initial couple of quick rucks, the ball was passed out wide and with straight running and great handling Connor Quinn was able to dive in to finish in the corner to get Charleville on the scoreboard and make it 5-12.

That score was a critical boost in confidence and Charleville built on this by continuing to put the ball out to the backline and keeping it away from the Abbeyfeale pack as much as possible. In the 8th minute of the 2nd period Charleville had worked the ball down deep into the left of the Abbeyfeale 22. On hearing the calls from his backline wide on the right, Pauric Crowley launched a cross filed kick for Harry O’Conner to run onto uncontested to take under the posts for a converted try to level the score 12-12.

The remainder of the half saw an already a tight contest become an intensively physical battle for supremacy to get the crucial edge for what would likely be the defining score.

Charleville had to withstand a resurgent Abbeyfeale and contested hard at the breakdown. On 15mins a high tackle on Jack Foley stopped play deep in Charleville 22. Whilst Jack got up and walked away without concern, the Abbeyfeale player took more time to get to his feet and was taken to the touchline as a precaution. A scrum was awarded to Charleville, that was hooked back initially, only to bounce back of a front row leg to the opposition. Abbeyfeale resorted to the pick and go that had worked for them in the first half and with the backline out of position, Charleville were unable to prevent the converted try to make it 12-17 with four minutes remaining.

But Charleville never fold and with urgency got the play going again. With pressure put on Abbeyfeale at the restart, Charleville camped themselves deep in the opposition 22 once more. From almost an identical position as in the early part of this period, Harry O’Conner saw Abbeyfeale was caught narrow in defence and not covering the backfield. An almost certain try from the cross field kick called for by Harry was denied by the wind carrying it just over the dead ball line.

With only a minute left to play, Charleville had to dig deep and have one more go to try and level the score and force extra time (or so they thought!). Charleville took the restart cleanly and immediately ran it straight back down the pitch through Alan Krause. He was eventually brought down in the Abbeyfeale 22 and Charleville went through a sequence of short carries interchanging with backs and forwards to keep momentum going towards the red zone. At 15m out, the ball was passed out the backline on the left. As Abbeyfeale made fierce attempts to stop the attack the ball made it to Fionn Ronan, who managed to ground the ball in the corner surrounded by Abbeyfeale defenders. An excellent strike from Pauric converted the score to draw the match at full time 17-17.

Uncertainty rather than celebration followed the final whistle, as calls were made to competition coordinators to clarify how the tie should be decided. It was with the level of disappointment that delayed writing this report, that the Charleville boys were told that under the competition rules, there would be no extra time. As neither side could be separated on number of tries scored, the tie was awarded to the first try scorers and with that Charleville journey in the BOI Cup was at an end.

There was still the final 20min out of competition period to be played and the team was refreshed with all the available squad to play like it was still game on. This they duly did. It is to the great credit of all the players that they brushed the disappointment to one side for the moment to go out and show the pride and character that they have as individuals and as a group. They tore into the match from the start and piled pressure on the opposition, especially around the breakdown. Even with the wind at their back, Abbeyfeale couldn’t carry or kick the ball to exit their half. The early relentless pressure from Charleville forwards forced and avalanche of errors for Charleville to pour through with Hugh O’Donnell diving on the ball under the posts for the opening try converted by Pauric to make it 7-0 after the first 2mins.

In the 5th minute, Abbeyfeale desperate to put some pressure back on, kicked deep into the Charleville 22. Alan Krause was on hand to collect the ball and as he will always endeavour to do, ran back directly at the opposition. After initially breaking though a couple of tackles, Alan surged on to dot the ball down for Charleville’s second converted score to make it 14-0.

The remainder of the period was a more even contest as both sides continued to try to prise open miserly defences. In the final play Abbeyfeale managed to get a breakthrough to score out wide in the right corner to end it at 14-5.

The group have earned a well deserved rest for the Christmas Holiday and will be in great shape to pick up and progress in the New Year. The coaching team are looking for gaps in the fixtures in 2024 to get full U13 matches in too. So, keep an eye out for those.