Rugby, AIL, Bruff 26-City of Derry 11

After a long running saga trying to get the team to Derry last night, Bruff 1st XV managed to come away from Derry with a win and a bonus point despite having finished the game with two men in the sin bin.

Last nights heroic efforts to even get to Derry seemed like a poor omen, the first team bus came a cropper in Roscrea, the team got off, had a meal and got on the replacement. The second bus caved in 150m or so from the toll bridge on the M50 with 6 lanes of cars whizzing past at speeds that meant that they couldn’t even get off for a walk around. Fair play to the Gardaí who were on the scene almost instantly by the way. Finally managing to get to the side of the road, they returned to Bewleys Hotel where a third Coach picked them up, leaving Dublin in extremely heavy fog at about 11:30pm or so and finally managing to get to the hotel in Derry at about 3:40 am this morning.

Anyway tries by Garry Leonard, Cathal O’ Regan and Brian Cahill in the first half with three conversion by Brian Cahill saw Bruff go into the break with a 21-6 lead playing against a wind that has been described as “The face of a storm” by those watching from the sidelines. The second half saw Bruff with the wind at their backs and very early on Mike Carroll got Bruff’s fourth try to snatch the bonus point. Bruff seemed to rest on their laurels slightly after this but defended well finishing the game with thirteen men after Brian Cahill and Brendan Deady were binned within the last ten minutes.

That’s a great start guys despite the uphill battle to get there, WELL DONE!