Photosets | Bruff Rugby Football Club

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A Tough bruiser to start the season off, that’s about the best description of Saturday’s encounter against Clonakilty in the AIB Cup.

Within six minutes of the off, Bruff were down by three points but after that quickly took a stranglehold on the game. With Bruff playing all of the rugby, there was wave after wave of attack on the Clonakilty line, ring rustiness rather than the Clon defence and the referees whistle the only things keeping Bruff away from the Clon line. Scores were levelled by the first of the successful Bruff Penalites on 13 minutes courtesy of Brian Cahill, and they took the lead within 8 minutes with a second. Clon then, against the run of play, touched down for their one and only try of the game, with a block down of a Brian Cahill clearance, the blocker chasing to catch and touch down, then it was duly converted to give them a 4 point lead. Bruff returned to camping within the Clonakilty Twenty Two , two line crossings disallowed before finally they returned the favour with former captain Cathal breaking through the ruck to touch down on 29 minutes, Brian Cahill converting again to give them a three point lead for the second time. They would hold the lead from there to the finish. Play continued with Bruff attacking the Clon line right until the break, Scrum after scrum given to Bruff for constant infringements at the ruck byt he home side who were left trailing 13 points to 10 at the interval despite a one man advantage due to a yellow card for John Shine for slapping the ball from the Scrum-half’s hands five minutes before the whistle.

The Second half began in much the same mode, Bruff doing most of the attacking but the occasional handling error providing relief from the onslaught for Clon. The Bruff Scrum was on top enough to nullify the extra man in the scrums but on his return they had a fifteen minute golden period. 6 minutes in Bruff outhalf Brian Cahill crossed beside the posts to extend the Bruff lead to ten points when he converted a minute later.

Despite their dominance however they failed time and again to put away their opposition and despite their dominance Clon managed to come within seven points with another penalty. Clonakilty then seemed to knuckle down and the Bruff defence was tested by waves of Clon attacks before Bruff closed the game out with a final Brian Cahill penalty.

Final score Clonakilty 16, Bruff 26.

Bruff: Backs: P. O’ Brien, P. Thompson, G. Leonard, B.Deady, J. Moore, B.Cahill, T. Cahill, Forwards: S.Foster, C.O’ Regan, G.Ryan, M. O’ Connell, R.Wall, A.Bourke, J.Shine, M.Carroll.

Subs:A. Whyte (For R. Wall), D. Horan (P) (For Foster), G. Bolger (H), (For M.Carroll), N. Riordan (For J. Moore), E.Maher (For P. O’ Brien).

Scores: C. O’ Regan (T), B. Cahill, (T), (2xConv), 4 x Pens.

Opposition in the next round comes in the form of our very first ever game against St. Mary’s in Templeville Rd., where we won the Division Three Final three years ago.

Dr. Declan Kidney's address.

The university of Limerick conferred an honorary Doctorate of Science on Declan Kidney today.
During the reading of the citation by Professor Stephen O’ Brien, it was mentioned that “it takes a special kind of person to withstand the frustrations and pressures of constant review, and it takes a truly remarkable individual to emerge from many years of intense public scrutiny as a widely acknowledged, highly successful coach who enjoys the respect of players, officials, fans and the media.”
There are no better words to describe the achievements of the current Irish Coach.
During his own address, Declan as usual paid a special tribute to all of the players, mentors, kitmen and other people who have worked with him and who he described as “Having shaped the person that I am today, each and every one”.
He then dedicated the doctorate to all of those players who didn’t make the teams that he coached over the years as well as those successful enough to make the grades as without them there would be no such thing as sport and he wouldn’t have had the achievements that he had along the way.

Congratulations Declan, on behalf of all of us here at Bruff RFC.
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Mike Prendergast

For the first time in three months we saw a bit of Sunshine in Kilballyowen but thats about as good as it got for the first XV. Despite a good performance, events conspired again and again to deny Bruff the try that they needed to put away their First division opposition. On four separate occasions they were denied what would have been deserved tries by the staunch and strong Munsters Defence.

The first half was a tale of two kickers. Bruff’s Captain Brian Cahill putting over three tough ones and missing one more, the Young Munster Outhalf, Alan Kinsley missed three from in front of the posts, the only difference between the three being the distances. With the first half broken for water breaks, the play swapped end to end, both defences winning out and nullifying their oppositions attacks. Half time saw the players taking on loads of liquid but with Bruff with a nine point lead, you felt it should have been more. A brace of thwarted earlier efforts in front of the line for the Bruff back line would prove crucial in the finish. The first binning of the day of a Bruff forward with a minute to play in the half giving a one man advantage to Munsters, the only chink of light between the sides at this stage.

Munsters made full use of the extra man on the restart, before Binning number two took place, a try by Second Row Shane O’ Neill was converted by Kinsley, finally getting his kicking boots back. This brought the cookies back to within a score and a nearly blocked down drop on 48 minutes gave them the single point lead for the first time in the game.

Full back Ray Moloney took over the responsibilities with the boot and slotted another three pointer on 63 minutes and repeated this on 72 mins. The Second half closed out with Bruff doing all the attacking, getting within 5 yards on a number of occasions only to end with the ref blowing and Munsters the beneficiaries of the relief on most of the occasions. Bruff chose to take the scrum for one five meter penalty but Munsters Scrum was finally strong when they needed it most and they managed to turn the ball over. A last gasp break from John Moore from long range was finally broken up two meters short and referee Dermot Moloney blew the game up, Munsters scraping their way out from Alcatraz.

This closes the Munster competitions off for Bruff, the next competitive outing for the first team is away to Clonakilty on the 26th for the AIB Cup 1st Round.

BRUFF: Paul O’Brien, John Moore, Garry Leonard, Brian Cahill (Capt), Nigel Riordan, Philip Moloney, Tony Cahill, David Horan, Graham Bolger, Stephen Foster, Richard Wall, Maurice O’Connell, Padraig Clery, John Stephen Shine and Michael Carroll.
Replacements: Cathal O’Regan for Bolger and Gearoid Ryan for Foster (44) and Andrew White for Carroll (71).

CLICK PHOTO FOR THE SLIDESHOW.

Paudie O' Brien being cleared over

The J1 Adult rugby season kicked off with their Transfield cup match against UL Bohemians on the main pitch which had been re-lined once the rain had stopped. With the aid of a very strong breeze the UL Boh’s side went into the break with a 10 point lead courtesy of a penalty by Ed Torrie followed with a try by , and the extras again added by.
The second half again saw a fantastic turnaround with Bruff gaining five points back following an extremely well worked try, play passing over and back across the field until Eoghan Maher finally broke the Bohs line from about twenty meters and with a lovely mazy run got in. UL Bohemians fought back to score another five pointer but despite an onslaught on the Bohs line for the final ten minutes the gallant Bruff side were unable to breach the staunch Bohemians defence and eventually came out on the losing side of the 15 points to 5 scoreline.
While not quite a battle of the veterans, It was great to see a return to rugby for former club Captain Brian McMahon who played the full eighty in his usual second Row position. Brian was the club captain in Bruff when we turned from Junior to Senior. While we’re on the subject of Veterans, I was delighted to see life in another old dog with Former Newport Veteran (and I mean veteran, we were in the same class in school together) Shamy Hassett getting the last fifteen minutes as hooker for UL Boh’s, throwing darts straighter than ever.
A good day out for all despite the early morning torrents.

Click Here for a link to the photos.

There is no doubt we feel that saturday was the very best blitz ever.

Firstly we would like everyone that was there to contact us directly with comments, Honest Comments by email to : pr@bruffrfc.com What did we do wrong, what we can improve, what we should change, what went perfect, what went alright and what was poor. We need your honest opinions and I guarantee that I will respond personally to each and every one whether good or bad.

From our point of view, we had everything that we could have asked for and more, following the unbeliavable opening party in Clancy’s on Friday night:

Rochdale Swarm at Clancy's for the opening Party

The torrential rain stopped at quarter past ten in the morning (AGAIN!!!!, who was on their knees? ) and it seemed to go almost perfectly from there on (from where I was for the duration).
Just a quick few words before I head out the door to the post-blitz committee meeting tonight:

38 teams in 4 Divisions, (A,B,C,D) 8 Pools on 8 pitches. Seventy nine pool games completed, twenty eight teams made Semis & then we had the group and section finals. Thanks to the trojan work put in during the day by the crew in the office and on the pitches, we had everything done and dusted in time on time well ten mintues off 🙂 . Just goes to show what a non-profit, non-commercial group of volunteers can accomplish.

First off, A special thanks to Gráinne for the absolutely great work done over the last four to five months.

Thanks to you, the players, the Teams that travelled from Exeter in devon, Rochdale near Sale, London and from Fermoy, Tralee, Clonmel, Ennis, Galway, Cork, Kildare and all over Limerick.
Thanks to the absolutely fabulous Ruth Scott and Paddy Mc Kenna and the 2FM Roadcaster, sponsored by Kelloggs Get Active. (you can play back the show on www.2fm.ie). You guys were absolutely fabulous and really added to the atmosphere on the day.
We had the traditional Bucking Bronco Bull that carried Ruth Scott, Jon Kenny and the “other Bull” John Hayes on its back during the day:

Jon Kenny wrestling steers

We had the gorgeous pear babes for the Bulmers Pear “Embrace the Pear” in the bar on Saturday evening dishing it out as fast as they could cope with the queue (They told us that they had never seen such a thirsty Horde 🙂 ).

Veteran Bull N Booze Live Band Intrigue absolutely rocked the joint, Alec and the lads were just on FIRE, and they asked me to say thanks to all of you there on the night for making it such a fabulous gig. Saturday night for me cemented their reputation as one of the absolutely best live bands in the Mid-West region and vindicated my faith in them. Thanks guys:

Intrigue

We had approximately 70 tents dotted around on the pitches, lunches, burgers, dinners, teas, cakes, sambos, ice cream, chips and sunday morning breakfast.

The Magners League, 6 Nations and Triple Crown Trophies were on show all day courtesy of the IRFU and MAR, thanks again guys for all of your assistance leading up to the day.

We saw the presentation of the first ever Honorary life membership of Bruff RFC to Munster, Ireland and Lions player, Bruff’s own John Hayes and his good lady Fiona (passed at this years AGM):

John Hayes with the 6 Nations, Magners League and Triple Crown Trophies.

Next up I have to pay a very sincere thank you to all of our referees on the day. They put in tremendous work and did so without a word of complaint, I can only hope that you enjoyed yourselves as much as we enjoyed having you. I didn’t get a chance to meet all of you before ye left but again a sincere thanks to you all and I will be in touch personally.

For the record, Saturday was a prime example of how our club can run an event perfectly or as close to perfectly as makes no difference. A very special thank you to all of our volunteers from Mary Paul and her crew in the bar to The Cahills, Mike Lillian and co for the kitchen and all of our pitch co-ordinators and our own guys who filled in to give the refferees a break as and when needed.

The Swarm present Gráinne with a jersey.

Declan Hehir has all of the team photos taken on the day available for sale, I’ll get a link or a Slideshow of them up as soon as I can.

For the moment here is a link to a very small slideshow just as a teaser, I’ll get some more up over the next couple of days.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS

Bruff Rugby Football Club

AIB Cup Bruff 26 Clonakilty 16

UL confers Honorary Doctorate to Declan Kidney

Young Munsters put away Bruff in the 2nd Half, Munster Senior Cup

Transfield cup, Battle of the veterans

Click Here for a link to the photos.

Oh God, Oh God, Oh God, What a Blitz…..Bruff Tag Rugby