Carrigaline Rugby/Official Sundays Well RFC U16 crowned South Munster B Cup Winners

By Barry Fitzgerald

Following our recent semi-final win away to a very good Youghal RFC side on a score line of 21-15 our Carrigaline Rugby/Official Sundays Well RFC U16 teams sights were turned to our South Munster B Cup final opponents Crosshaven/Cork Con.

Having previously played them and getting well beaten before Christmas we were under no illusion as to how big a task we had before us.With a few good weeks training under our belts all roads led to the Mardyke on a sunny Saturday morning.The lads were met by a colourful and large support.With a point to prove after our previous encounter against our opponents the game started at a frenetic pace with some ferocious tackles.Fionn Mackey opened the scoring with a well worked try with Seamus O’Mahony duly converting to make the score 7-0.

Crosshaven hit back with a sweeping move to bring the score level at 7-7.Harry Field who has being having a superb season was next to score with brilliant solo effort with Seamus again adding the extras 14-7.Crosshaven again hit back with their back line showing their class to make the score line 14-12.A timely reminder of how dangerous they could be.

Carrigaline Rugby/Official Sundays Well RFC U16 team

A period of domination followed with a couple of missed opportunities but on the stroke of halftime following good work from Seamus Finn and Shane O’Meara, Captain Jack Whelton powered over to leave the score 19-12 at halftime.Following a few words of encouragement and copious amounts of tape and spray applied the lads were ready for the second half.Following some huge carry’s from our forwards Eoin Curley was on hand to force his way over under the posts with Seamus again adding the extras to bring the score to 26-12.

With each player winning their personal battles and defending well when needed, every penalty, line out or turnover win was met with huge cheers from our supporters.Following some great work by Rian Moynihan and Shane O’Flynn our next try was scored by Calum with a diving effort arm outstretched to touch down with Seamus again adding the extras.With the score now 33-12 we were able to bring on fresh legs to give some of the players a well-earned rest.The final score of the day came from Eoin Curley who blasted his way over to make it 38-12.

A poignant score as Eoin scored our first try of the season prior to picking up an injury which kept him out for period and thus nicely bookended the season for us.The scenes at full time will live long in the memory for not just the players and coaches but the parents and supporters.All that was left was Captain Jack Whelton to receive the prize and say a few words.

An incredible performance from all 21 players after what has been a good season with some very entertaining games.What started off as 2 clubs has become 1 fantastic team that that we can all be hugely proud of.A word of thanks to the coaches - Zach, Alex, Josh, Jer and Mike.Thanks to team members Patrick O’Sullivan and Noah Barry who’ve helped and supported throughout the year.Thanks also to Ben O’Meara and Richie Heaslip who helped out with training over the year.Huge thanks to the parents and family that have transported and supported the lads through the season.Thanks also to Sundays Well RFC for providing facilities for the lads to train on all season.

Team on the day

1 Daithi Jackson

2 Eoin Curley

3 Jack Whelton

4 Louis Heaslip

5 Eoin Lynch

6 Rian Moynihan

7 Josh Davison

8 Calum Fitzgerald

9 Shane O’Meara

10 Seamus O’Mahony

11 Seamus Finn Tsirigotakis

12 Fionn Mackey

13 Shane O’Flynn

14 Finn O’Donnell

15 Harry Field

16 Daire Leahy

17 Jake Gould

18 Cal O’Leary Callender

19 Ryan Barrett

20 Caelan Fleming

21 Billy O’Leary