AIL Div. 2 Final, Bruff 10 Lansdowne 17

 AIL 2009-10, Photosets  Comments Off on AIL Div. 2 Final, Bruff 10 Lansdowne 17
May 102010
 

Saturday saw the final game of the season take place in Anglesea Road. Before our own final, We watched Nenagh Ormond come within a whisker of taking the Division 3 Title. Despite dominating the game, they seemed to be out on their feet at the end and a try in the final minute cost them the title. It had been great to see the posters up on the bridge on the way up wishing us well and the Nenagh support was added to by the voices of Bruff wishing them well.

Click for the slideshow

Click for the slideshow

I thought that the Division 3 game was played at an incredibly fast pace until our own final kicked off. This turned out to be one absolute cracker of a game, for neutral fans it was probably the game of the season and befitting a final playoff. When Lansdowne touched down after five minutes courtesy of a try by the winger Matt Healy which Andrew Geraghty duly converted to give them an early Seven point lead, all but the Bruff fateful wondered whether this game would be a repeat of the match early last October. Massive pressure from Bruff on the Lansdowne pack up front, coupled with some beautiful mazy running from all over the park by the backline gave Bruff a great edge from then on, the stiff breeze not helping Bruff captain and out-half Brian Cahill with two penalty opportunities but the Lansdowne defence stood firm until a sliced clearance on twenty two minutes, John Moore charging down the Lansdowne Winger Gahan just in front of his own line creating the slice which gave Moore a sweet opportunist touchdown in the corner to close the gap to two points.  Bruff seemed to dominate proceedings up front but couldn’t break the line. Both defences took charge for the remaining period until just on halftime, a crazily crooked lineout led to the Lansdowne full-back cutting in for try number two which Geraghty again converted to give them a 14-5 halftime lead.

Bruff seemed to come out from the halftime huddle with even more vigour and fire and the pack took proceedings by the scruff of the neck, Bruff absolutely dominating the scrums and tight exchanges but even though they seemed to do what they liked with the Lansdowne pack at scrum-time, a penalty for Lansdowne twelve minutes in stretched the lead to twelve points. Bruff seemed to shrug this off and start again and after another seven minutes they reaped their reward with what was probably the best score of the game with nearly the whole team combining to put Pat Thompson clear in the corner following a sweet final run-in. Cahill failed with the awkward conversion attempt, 17 -10 and twenty minutes on the clock. At this stage everyone felt that Bruff could just shade it but time and time again the Lansdowne defence stood firm and the referees whistle gave them relief at vital moments, even though Bruff never gave up right until the final whistle. It must have been a cracker of a game for any neutrals watching.

I have to add that Bruff definitely warranted their second place in Division two this year and proved this to everyone on Saturday. As I stated at the start, this game was played throughout at a frightening pace from start to finish and if they can hold things tight right from the start of next season, I can see both of these teams doing very well in Division 1b.

Bruff Scores: John Moore, 1T, Patrick Thompson 1T.

BRUFF : P Thompson; A Cashman, J Malone, J Carroll, J Moore; B Cahill (Capt), T Cahill; D Horan, C O’Regan, S Foster, M O’Connell, A Bourke, D Gardiner, J Shine, M Carroll. Replacements : P Malone for O’Connell, D Murnane for M Carroll (both 45 mins), N O’Riordan for Thompson (temp-47 mins), E Maher for J Carroll (77 mins).

Bus for Final

 AIL 2009-10  Comments Off on Bus for Final
May 012010
 

Buses are being organised by Mike O’ Connor for the AIL Division 2 final in Anglesea Rd. On Saturday May 8th. are being provided at the very low cost of €10 per adult, €5 per child with any family maximum cost of €30.00 including Bus trip and entry tickets for the match. Phone 087-6486603, or 061-382388.

Apr 212010
 

Following discussions with the clubs involved the IRFU have today confirmed that the Division 2 and 3 finals are to return to the original date of Saturday May 8th at the grounds at Anglesea Rd with the kind permission of Old Belvedere RFC.

The Division 3 final between Nenagh Ormond and Queens University takes place at 12:00pm and the Division 2 Final between Bruff RFC and Lansdowne RFC takes place at 2:00pm.

AIL Division 2 Semi-Final, Bruff 35 Terenure 13

 AIL 2009-10, Photosets  Comments Off on AIL Division 2 Semi-Final, Bruff 35 Terenure 13
Apr 192010
 
Click for the Slideshow

Click for the Slideshow

The half time score of 6 points to 3 gave very little warning of what was to come in the second half of this brilliant match.
With both sides willing and able to spread the ball across the park, the first forty minutes saw both defences on top denying either side any real attempts to cross their respective touchlines.
Bruff went three up after ten minutes courtesy of Captain Brian Cahill, a reply five minutes later from Terenures David mcAllister and another penalty a minute into injury from Cahill again were the only scores.
Seven minutes into the second half, Patrick Thompson. ran in from the Terenure 22 dodging a pair of despairing tackles and getting back up after the second to touch down in the corner. No conversion however from the captain.
11-3.
Terenure spent a good fifteen minutes at this stage on the attack over and back but the Bruff defence was its usual strong self. Again, things took a turn after one of those fabulous game-turning moments, Alan “Crusher” Bourke gathering a loose ball on his own ten meter line and as he sidestepped two tackles, he looked to offload. With no-one available to take a pass you could see him step up a gear and decide to pin back the ears and just go for it. Three missed tackles and sixty meters later the home crowd went ecstatic as he crossed beside the posts for what must be the individual try of the season. Cahill adding the two points to give Bruff a clear gap.

However as often happens, from the resultant kick off, Bruff failed to catch and Terenure No. 9, Mark O’Mahoney ran in for a try near the posts. McAllister added the extras to allow them to claw back a little into this tight match and leave only 8 points beteween the sides.

After his fabulous try last week Peter Malone got a print of the shot from Pat O’ Leary as in his own words “They don’t come around that often”, this week he made a lie of that when he crossed for try number three from the rear of a lineout. Captain Cahill again added the extras and that put Bruff out of sight. a penalty and a further brilliant interception from Davy Gardiner and Bruff were home and hosed finishing on thirty-five points to the visitors thirteen, a three point improvement from the one in January last.

This gives us one last Final playoff crack at Lansdowne who demolished DLSP by forty points to eight at the RDS to decide the spoils for the season. This game is set for 8pm on friday 7th May in Anglesea Rd.

Bring it on!

BRUFF; Patrick Thompson, Andrew Cashman, John Malone, John Carroll, John Moore, Brian Cahill (Capt), Tony Cahill, Stephen Foster, Cathal O’Regan, Gearoid Ryan, Maurice O’Connell, Alan Bourke, David Gardiner, Andrew White and Michael Carroll.
Replacements. Peter Malone for M. Carroll and David Horan for Ryan (54), Dermot Murnane for O’Connell (62), John Clery for O’Regan, Gary Leonard for Moore, Eoghan Maher for B. Cahill and Paul O’Brien for Cashman (All 78).
TERENURE COLLEGE: Adam O’Loughlin, Ianis Deniau, Cathal Morley, Graham Coffey, Mark O’Neill, David McAllister, Mark O’Mahoney, Remy Alliger, Brian Blaney, Andrew Buckridge, William Collins, Brian Moroney, Peter O’Malley, John Dever and Kevin O’Dwyer.
Replacements. Tony Byrne for Alliger (61) and Darren Egan for Moroney (62).