North Munster U14 League Boys - 20/10/24

Young Munster V Charleville & District RFC

As that Neil Young number goes “The devil fools with the best laid plans”. 

Charleville boys arrived at Tom Clifford Park for their first league match on the road against Young Munster, only to realise after a phone call to their coaches that we were in the wrong place! Cue rapid efforts to find the location that we could navigate to, updates to travelling players and a convoy of cars heading back out to the ubiquitous “edge lands” of Limerick to get to Derryknockane.

Winding our way through ever narrowing roads, lanes we finally came to a dirt track. As the wind from Storm Ashely continued to pick up, there was all the ingredients for ‘B list’ horror film about the unwitting boys rugby team disappearing into the bowels of Limerick.

Fortunately, we arrived at the other (much) less known mecca of Young Munster RFC with enough time to get set up for our warmup. With the strengthening wind blowing across an undulating pitch of tufty grass, it was going to be an energy sapping encounter.

The boys were taken through their warmup with a focus on short fast passing, knowing full well that the wind would play havoc with anything more ambitious than a few metres. The conditions were going to be a big leveller and as Charleville boys attacked the clubhouse end, they received kick off to get the match underway.

Young Munster were a big team, especially in their back row, but Charleville boys caught the kick off and carried back, undaunted, straight into the fray.  Setting their stall out from the off with straight carries at the opposition, Charleville showed they were up for the battle against a group with all but two on the age. Indeed, that start was vital in giving early confidence to the team that would stand to them for the rest of the match.

With most of the action in the first half rooted in the half way zone, handling errors heavily influenced by the stiff cross field breeze, made continuity difficult for both teams. On balance, it was Charleville that had the slight edge in territory. But on days like this, its is about taking your chances when they come and in the 10th minute one quick piece of backrow forward interplay, gave Young Munster big No. 8 ball in hand while moving at pace. Breaking through a couple of tackles, he went under the posts for a converted score 7-0. But this was no kick in of the floodgates, as Charleville  knew they had the ability to stay in the match and fire some shots of their own. For the remainder of the half, Charleville battled hard with direct carries from their point men in the pack, James Drinan and Sam O’Donnell, to get the team forward momentum. Working the ball up the pitch in phases, Charleville put themselves into striking distance a number of times only for a knock on to kill momentum and offer a relief to Young Munster. But Charleville manned up in defence enough to stop further breakouts from Young Munster and the half ended with no further scores.

The second half started with Charleville boys brimming with intent. Following up on their kick off, they immediately put Young Munster under pressure forcing them into a more ragged rearguard action to try and escape their 22. The pressure was causing knock ons and penalties a plenty. Charleville boys needed some “heads up rugby” to capitalise, but missed a number of opportunities to take a quick tap and go before their opposition could organise and squandered certain scores. 

Eventually in the 17th minute of the half, Charleville managed to put another period of pressure on Young Munster through the direct carry from Darragh O’Sullivan in the centre. More than justifying his selection through a more connected partnership with Hugh O’Donnell, Darragh broke through the defence to get within ten metres of the line before being hauled to the floor. Charleville boys needed to get the ball away from the larger Young Munster boys marshalling the centre of their defence, and a couple more penalties ensued in favour of Charleville that gave them the opportunity to do so. Charleville put their best period of continuity together with quick hands and short interchanges between backs and forwards on the edge, keeping the ball alive and drawing in defenders. With the ball moved back towards the middle, Darrah O’Sullivan got his chance again and this time made no mistake to turn the pressure into a score to make it 7-5.

A team is never more vulnerable to conceding than when on a high after a score, and Charleville were no different. A lapse in concentration and organisation allowed Young Munster easy metres into their half. A period of consistent pressure followed with Young Munster probing for the spaces to run into, with some last ditch tackling just managing to keep them out. But then miss matches started to appear and the ball was fed out wide to a big forward who broke through to score out wide in the left. 

The unconverted score 12-5 remained up to the final whistle, but not for lack of effort from Charleville, who continued to back themselves to get another score before the end. But the experience of playing full 15 a side rugby favoured Young Munster, who had just enough to hold out. Not all memorable moments are tackles and scores. Pulling off the skills that are the bread-and-butter stuff are game changers too and there were a few of those. Pick of the bunch was Ryan Farrell taking a high ball kicked out of defence in the second half. As the ball swirled in the wind, he adjusted his feet and turned to take it over his shoulder and carry it straight back in attack. We will be keeping him in the pack…but it we are short a full back, you never know.