Big weekend for Mullingar RFC"s underage section

It was a good day on Saturday for Mullingar Rugby club, with the Under 13s first into action in Navan with in a double header of Leinster League and a North East league fixture against Boyne.In a tough game Mullingar dominated and emerged winners by 14-0 It was a great display from the Mullingar 13s and they will play Navan in the final.Next up was the Under 18s game at home to Kilkenny with in the quarter final and another good win for the 18s sees them into the semi final of this competition for the second year running. This was a great performance from our 18s side who have been very consistent all season and are well capable of winning the semi final where Naas will provide the opposition.The Under 14s game in Athy provided a very disappointing result for the players. No doubt they will learn a few hard lessons from this game. While some of the players only got back to Mullingar at 2.30am the previous morning from a school trip and were maybe feeling the result of their adventures, this was a game that Mullingar dominated and should have won easily. However Athy did take the few chances that they got and won by 20-18 with a kick four mins from fulltime. The team have a 1st round Cup game away to Tullamore next Saturday morning and will need to be back to their best as Tullamore will strive to take revenge for the previous league defeat which Mullingar inflicted on them earlier in the season. This is a very good Under 14s side and their defeat last Saturday should spur them on to making sure that they do not have any more hiccups this season.The Under 16s had a Midland league game against Longford last Wednesday evening and had a good win by 13-6. This was a good win away as the match was played under lights which Mullingar are not used to.All of the mini teams were training last Saturday and there was a great turnout despite the mid term break. The 10s and 12s Midland qualifier for the Leinster Cups are in Mullingar on Sunday, March 8 and the qualifier for the 11s is in Birr on March 15. I am sure all players will be putting in great effort in training to make sure that they make the squad for those games. Both the 11s and 12s are now putting in an extra training session on Wednesday evenings, with the 12s training at 6pm and the 11s at 7pm.This week"s fixturesand trainingUnder 7, 8, 9 and 10s training Saturday at 11.00; Under 11s training Wdenesday at 7pm and Saturdday at 10.30; Under 12s training Wednesday at 6pm and Saturday at 10.30; Under 13s training Saturday 11; Under 13s Sunday Leinster League Final v. Navan at Nth Kildare RFC 12 noon; Under 14s training Wednesday at 7pm and Cup game away to Tullamore Saturday; Under 16s training Tuesday and Thursday game being arranged for Saturday/Sunday; Under 18s training Tuesday and Friday, Leinster Semi-final Saturday v. Naas in North Kildare, ko 11.30am.Under 18sMullingar 13Kilkenny 3Mullingar under 18 go into next week-end"s semi final after a good performance at home to a very good and spirited Kilkenny side under their belt. The game was played at a very fast pace. Mullingar`s defence was very strong with huge hits from Stuart Flynn and Aaron Connolly in the center of the field and put Kilkenny back each time they made a move which made them kick to our back three who picked everything up and made ground every time. Robert Allen at full back handled everything with ease and has a serious side step and with Philip Butler and Kevin Pyke on the wings Kilkenny were making a big mistake kicking to these three.Our pack was holding their own against a very strong pack and most of what we worked on in training was working in the match with Jordan Gillmor, Daragh Daly and Colin McCormack carrying ball at the opposition. Our pack at scrum, ruck and lineout was working well.Our scrum half dominated the pack and apart from 10 minutes at the start of first half and 15 minutes start of second half Mullingar were always in control. We scored two tries,. The first from a good defensive lineout in Kilkenny 22 disturbing them at front of lineout lead to Patrick Simpkin, our outstanding captain and inspirational number 7, stealing their ball and going over for a try.The second try was purely down to tremendous forwards and back play which started off at the half way line and practically went through everyones hands finished off excellently by Adam Karroum in the corner. With one more penalty in the second half by Stuart Flynn finishing the scoring and leaving Mullingar facing Dundalk in a semi final which they deserve with all the hard work that is being put in by the coaching staff and the lads themselves. Special thanks for the support from parents girlfriends etc but also to a few good sponsors who have made contributions who don`t want to be mentioned. We would specially like to thank MP&C Construction who were kind enough to sponsor a set of tracksuits that the lads in the picture are wearing.Just to remind everyone associated with this team and Mullingar RFC your youth will be playing in the semi final of the premier league next Saturday at 11.30 in North Kildare against Naas RFC so we would appreciate a big crowd of support as the club has never been beyond this point in this competition before and we want to push them on all the way to the final so your presence in Navan next weekend would be very much appreciated.Man of the match is the hardest thing to give out as there were lots of outstanding performances. Patrick Simpkin just seems to get better and better and without a doubt he is the best number 7 in Ireland, Aaron Connolly was back to his amazing best but a guy who never gets to shine as he never get the ball enough is Kevin Pyke. he got lots of ball and made ground every time and never missed a tackle and genuinely played his heart out so this week he gets the man of the match.Under 13sMullingar 14Boyne 0On Saturday February 21, we played Boyne in a double header (The Leinster League semi-final and also our tie versus Boyne in the north East League fixture) played at a neutral venue in Navan.In summary, the whole team put in a real genuine effort on the day and had to do this as Boyne are a fast improving team and have been great opposition for this group of lads for the last few seasons. We again kept our winning run going and again kept a clean sheet. The quality of skills on display was of the highest level and credit goes to both teams for a fantastic game and an excitingly close encounter. The differences between the sides could probably just be put down to the greater hunger of the Mullingar team.A try in each half by Niall Hannon with very good conversions by Jeremiah Scully and Conor O"Brien sealed the victory.A few players will be singled out for praiseworthy efforts on the day. Both Padraig Moran and Daire Conway gave a great demonstration of what it means to be flankers and neither needs an invitation to join in the battle at the breakdown. Other nominations include the backrows of Conor Glennon and Conor Craig; Ryan Johnston at scrumhalf who gave his opposing scrumhalf a lot of problems on the day; Gavin Moore and Lee Duggan for thwarting the opposition on every occasion. The whole backline just looked impenetrable on the day such was their quality of tackling. Jeremiah, whilst it is unusual for him not to score tries, put in a lot of hard work and not only made valuable yards but his tackle count on the day was high.But the Oscar goes to Davy O"Reilly with an incredible performance as hooker. Without doubt the best performance of the season. The scrum looked more balanced and was a key differentiator on the day. Time after time Davy hooked the opposition ball, aided by strong pushing by all the forwards when Mullingar were under pressure. Ross Kiernan and Stephen Hassett kept busy all day leading the front row charges.Like last week the players introduced all played well and kept the momentum going.Each of the players focused on their own game and they can all be proud of their performance - yet more headaches for selection process for the next match. The referee complimented both sets of players after the game for their behaviour on the pitch and this, just as much as the result, is commended by the coaches and supporters.Next weekend plans still have to be finalised but at the time of going to press it is likely that there will be training on Saturday (light training session just working on areas for improvement) and with the possibility of playing Navan on Saturday afternoon, February 28 at 12 noon in the neutral venue of North Kildare in the Leinster League Final. All supporters welcome.