Our 1st team travelled to tullamore on sat last in the 3rd round of the Ail,in a day not suitable for any type of running rugby, we managed to come away with four valuable points. After a bright start we went behind to a tullamore pen, credit to the lads, we replied immediately with a pen from Tony Cahill. After some continuous pressure we stretched our lead with a try from Daniel Jackson when he managed to find a gap, Tony added the extras and we were 10-3 ahead. Tullamore replied again to make it 10-6. Tony put us 13-6 with his second pen, and as we looked a little more comfortable we conceded a soft pen on the stroke of h/t to go in 13-9 ahead.
This turned out to be the finishing score, but it had loads of drama, Tullamore took the game to Bruff in the second half after a period of sustained pressure as we had a man in the bin, our defence managed to keep them a bay, after we we made a spectacular turnover near our own line we found ourselves at the halfway line,from then on we probably had the better chances to add to the score. But in the overall we showed great resilience against a never say die Tullamore side.
We now have a break next weekend which gives an opportunity for lads carrying injuries to get themselves right before we take on high flying Ballina side in kilballyowen on sat week,
1 Paddy Cleary
2 Johnny Cleary (capt)
3 Fionn Flanaghan
4 Neilus Keogh
5 Tom o Dwyer
6 Tadgh o Dwyer
7 Cillian Rea
8 Sean Hartigan
9 Daniel Jackson
10 Tony Cahill
11 Liam Barrett
12 Cian Tierney
13 Jack o Grady
14 Cian Clifford
15 Kevin McManus
16 Kieth Laffen
17 Eamonn Costelloe
18 Brian Bulfin
19 Mike Cooke
20 Liam Treacy
pictured below our try scorer
Our 1st took on City of Derry in our first home game of the ail, eager to banish lasts week performance we got out of the blocks quickly, we scored our first try through Liam Barret, Derry replied with a try after we had a player in the bin, they added a pen soon after to go 10-7 ahead, Bruff made a terrific response when Kieran McManus got in on the right corner for Bruff to go in 12-10 ahead at h/t. The 2nd half was in its infancy when a superb break and great support play saw Cillian Rea reaching over the line with Tony Cahill adding the extras we were 19-12 ahead, further try’s from Tom o Dwyer Cian Tierney Eamon Costelloe and a 40 metre intercept try from Paddy Cleary saw us take 5 pts as we travel to Tullamore next Saturday.