The Score doesn’t do this game justice, hard fought, hailstorms, wind, Heavy hits, constant knock-ons, It just about had it all.
To be brutally honest the first half was not one of the best Bruff performances of year, whether it was down to the fact that to all intents and purposes the job was done three weeks ago, aims achieved or whether the celebrations and the lack of a couple of training sessions the week following the Banbridge win came back to haunt a little doesn’t really matter. Banbridge were well up for this and although Bruff camped out in the Banbridge side of the pitch for almost the complete half, some silly knock-ons, missed last passes and some very good harassment on the ground (and off the ball) by the Banbridge pack and No. 9 meant that Bruff just couldn’t get points on the board. Even though you spent the game wondering when Bruff would just click into place, they never really looked like losing. They had a stranglehold on the scrum for most of the day,And kept the pressure on almost all of the time. Poor finishing and generally “Ring Rustiness” cost them a few tries. Although the Banbridge No. 5 and No. 9 both got yellows, they were never really punished for it. Anyway, I’m sure that the first training session this week will be hard and heavy hitting just to “Get them back into form”.
Two Wingers Tries by Garry (Badger) Leonard and Paul O’ Brien, coupled with four penalties from Brian Cahill saw the game through with 3 penalties from Banbridge.
AIL Final next Saturday at Donnybrook against Instonians (Who according to RTE Aertel put a loony tunes score up against Queens today running out 69-17 winners by all accounts). I know the scores and tables have been wrong before on RTE so I’ll wait patiently for the IRFU site to be updated before confirming this, anyhow the Final is set for a 2:00 kick-off in Donnybrook next Saturday, 19th. (Second trip there this year I think).
Hard Luck to our gallant U18’s who finally lost in the AIL final against Wicklow in Galway today. I’ll put up a Match report as soon as I can get one. The future looks bright with these guy coming on stream. Well done lads, you’ve done us proud.