Charleville U14/U13 boys season came to a close away to Dungarvan RFC in the Pan Munster Plate Semi-Final after a closely contested match on Sunday afternoon. It is always difficult to travel away for such a distance to play a knock out game and with home advantage being exactly that. There was an extensive period in the second half when Charleville boys were camped in the Dungarvan territory. Just one opportunity converted into a score would likely have turned momentum of the tie in their favour. But it was not to be this time. That’s the world of ‘wudda, shudda, cudda’, and we wish Dungarvan the best of luck in the final and appreciate that Charleville boys gave them the kind of game they will need as they go on to Thomond Park.

Normally, we don’t write too much after a loss. But this was a lost match. What Charleville boys U14/U13 and our club has experienced in the adventure with them is a catalogue of wins.

As a club and coaches our first and most important job with players at the juvenile ages is to engender the kind of love for the game that keeps them coming back and encourages them to tell their friends to join in too. Winning tophies is fantastic and let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to! But success is relative to the challenge faced and it would be remiss not to take a moment to reflect and record the scale of the achievement of this special group.

When we started pre-season in August last year, eight players showed up for the first session across both age groups. One particularly enthusiastic and skilful member turned out to be too young and had to be content to watch on and wait for 12 training to start!

October came around and with West Munster League matches on the horizon we had thirteen players going away to Dingle for our first game. I still remember the tears of disappointment on players faces as they lost that match so narrowly. Normally that would trigger implosion and an inability to carry on and compete in the league.

But it didn’t.

What started was one of the most rewarding experiences this coaching group have had the pleasure of being a part of. We made a deal collectively as coaches and players to give it all we had.

By late November we regularly had sixteen to twenty players at our training sessions. With each match day experience the players learned more, not only about the game, but about themselves as individuals and as a group. They learned resilience, commitment and a ‘never say die’ attitude. They formed friendships across all the boundaries that rugby breaks down. They grew to love the game, love training and matches.

A team that got hammered by Clanwilliam FC in an early season warm up game, dished out a 30 point plus drubbing in the Pan Muster Plate play off. By the time we took the group on a fantastic and well deserved tour to North Wales, we had a panel of twenty seven players.

Beaten by Bruff so badly at the start of the season we had to throw in the towel early, they stepped up like an army and fought back to snatch a Quarter Final win with less that a minute and a half on the clock. But even that doesn’t tell the whole story.

To put into context the scale of the achievement of this group of players, it is highly unlikely that any opposition they have come up against this season has been made up with 45% of the squad not having picked up a rugby ball before or been away from the game so long they had to go back to basics. But this group of players worked, supported and drove each other on to come very close to going the distance.

That level of progression is simply phenomenal and makes every minute spent with them worth it. The respect the group has for themselves, the shirt and the coaches are a credit to them and their families. They have been the very definition of the values that our game seeks of all who participate in it, which is quite an achievement all on its own, if any of the paperwork an Hon. Secretary has to deal with in a season is anything to go by.

Parents got in on the act too. They came to matches, put on spreads of refreshments afterwards that would feed an army and joined the tour to help make it one hell of a fantastic and memorable trip. Jonny Logan will never be remembered in quite the same way again.

Together we have helped to set a consistency in standards about all of what we do that will be difficult to match. But it is our duty to the players to always try.

The biggest win of all? To see the happiness of the players with each other, even after the disappointment of their semi-final loss. Yet again it shows the level of maturity and awareness that was such a strong feature of this group throughout the season; strength of character and the understanding of the value of enduring friendship above all else.

With the qualities the boys have as people, not only as players, they are capable of great things. Whoever gets the opportunity to be part of the next chapter in their adventure should cherish it as much as we all have.

They go again next season, no doubt about that.! Our U14/U13 boys have taught us that.