Bruff Rugby Football Club

On Saturday last we entertained Bangor in what we’re testing conditions in Kilballyowen. Bangor kicked off and enjoyed a lot of territory and possession for the first 20 where they laid siege inside the bruff 22 but some excellent defending saw us clear our lines, Bangor went ahead from a penalty from their out half, and it was bruff’s turn to spend some time in the Bangor 22 but came away with nothing , halftime came and Bangor took a 3-0 advantage which was a reflection on defenses and conditions. 2nd half started similar to the first with Bangor getting on top and went 6-0 up after 3 mins and went 9-0 up after 15. At this stage it wasn’t looking good for the home side and after loosing 2 more players to injury it was hard to see where or when our scores would come. But with the game entering the final quarter we started to get some territory and were rewarded with a penalty which Kevin McManus duly slotted between the posts which seemed to give the lads the transfusion they needed and from a scrum outside the 22 James put a cross field kick that saw Jack o Grady use his Gaelic football skills to gather and go over in the corner Kevin added the 2 pts from the touchline and we found ourselves in front 10-9, we now had some momentum and continued to put pressure on on the Bangor line. From a Bangor scrum outside our 22 saw us win the ball out the back, the alert Pa Maher picked and headed for the line and with a smart offload to Tom o Dwyer found Sean Darcy in support to crash over for a try Kevin added the extras to leave it 17-9. Bangor will I’m sure be disappointed to have left with nothing but credit to lads for digging deep and grinding out a win when I’m sure they’ll agree they weren’t at there best. Credit to both teams and officials and to all who turned up to support the lads in what were very testing conditions. We know we’ll have to be better next Saturday when we entertain Skerries at home. We wish all our players with injuries a speedy recovery which resembles a ward in the regional hospital at the moment but great credit to all who are stepping up the plate every week.

1 Brendan Keogh 2 Johnny Cleary 3 jack Fitzgerald 4 Sean Hartigan 5 Neilus Keogh 6 Taylor Jones 7 Conor Fitzgerald 8 Tom o Dwyer 9 Niall Byrnes10 James te Pari 11 Kevin McManus 12 Sean Darcy 13 jack o Grady 14 Liam Barrett 15 Cian Clifford 16 Brian Bulfin 17 Tony o Connell 18 tadgh o Dwyer 19 Patrick Maher 20 Shane Doona 

Saturday last saw us make the trip to Midelton to play the locals in rd 3 after winning our previous 2 we were hoping to continue the run, but it was a game we never seemed get going we trailed 10-3 at halftime with Kevin getting our 3 pointer. And though we only trailed by 7 we were struggling to get into the game. Midelton went further ahead with a try and a couple of penalties to go 23-3 ahead, we managed to pull a try back through Cian Clifford and though we tried hard for the losing bonus time ran out to finish 23-10. And while we are going through a bit of a crisis with injuries at the moment the break will give management the opportunity to work hard at getting things right for our next game at home in 2 weeks time.

Team Jack Fitzgerald Johnny Cleary Brian Bulfin Neilus Keogh Sean Hartigan Robert Browne Patrick Maher Tom o Dwyer Florent Riguet James te pairi Kevin McManus Sean Darcy jack o Grady Graham Whelan Cian Clifford Eamon Cooke Tony o Connell Conor Fitzgerald Tom Callaghan Liam Barrett. Taylor Jones Brian Morrissey