U18’s come up short in final of Pan Munster league

There was disappointment today for the u18’s as they were beaten 20-22 in the final of the Pan Munster league by Newcastle West/Estuary.

Bruff started brightly and had a try on the board after just 3 minutes of play. It was a good team try with backs and forwards combining to set up the opportunity for Jack O Grady to touch down to the right of the posts at the road end of Thomand park. NCW hit back quickly and kicked a penalty to make it 5-3 with 10 minutes gone. The next score of the game came after 18 minutes when NCW added a converted try to make it 10-5 to the West Limerick combined side.

Bruff then took control of the game and on 33 minutes they were awarded a penalty for dangerous play under the West Stand, which they kicked to the corner. It turned out to be the correct decision as the Bruff pack asserted dominance and mauled the ball over the white wash for Bruffs 2^nd try to make it 10-10 at the break.

NCW got the opening score of the 2^nd half with a converted try with only minutes gone on the clock. Bruff hit back 10 minutes later when Mattew O Dea touched down on the far right wing, finishing a move off the back of a scrum. Scrum half Niall Burns with the telling pass which put the flying winger away. With the score now at 15-17 to NCW it still looked like a game that could go either way. When winger O Dea added a 4^th Bruff try with only a few minutes to go it looked like Bruff might push on and finish the job. But NCW weren’t done yet and scored another 5 pointer  with the clock in the red. There was time for 1 last restart but Bruff could not regain the ball and West saw out the game to win by 22 points to 20.

Bruff Squad- Kevin McManus, Dean O’Shea, Odhran Ring, Thomas Breen, Darren Kennedy, Matthew Lockhart O’Dea, Tadgh Leddin, Brady Day, Thomas Quigley, Darragh Moore, Cian Mulqueen, Fearghal Cooke, Gareth Cooke, Conor Fitzpatrick, Simon Divilly, Jack Fitzgerald, Brian Bulfin, David Crofton Young, David Moloney, Cian Clifford, John Bulfin, Jack O’Grady, Dylan Reeves- Wasik, Niall Byrne , Sean Hartigan ,Adam Sheehy ,Cormac Daly ,Aaron Daly ,Lorcan Hayes

pic’s courtesy of Liz McManus