Under 21s lose their first game

Mullingar made the long run up to the AIL club De La Salle Palmerstown on Saturday last for an early kick off in the Under 21 Gale Cup clash.Between the long journey and the very early start it seemed to disturb this very talented Mullingar team. Mullingar were without their influential captain, David Butler but the ever reliable Adam Kerroum took his place as captain on the day and won the toss and elected to play into a strong breeze in the first half.This tactic paid dividends within 10 minutes of the start of the game with Mullingar having to keep ball in hand and making ground through the fantastic partnership of Alan Brabazon and Stuart Flynn at out half and first centre.It was a move through these two players that gave Mullingar the opening score. The move came through a great pass from the scrum half, Philip Butler with Alan Brabazon straightening the line and a great in out move and pass to Stuart Flynn who broke straight up the middle of the field for a 30 yard dash he released Robert Allen who released James Neale and only a last minute tackle stopped Mullingar from scoring a super try but the opposition gave away the penalty which Stuart Flynn duly slotted over the bar for a 3-nil lead.Mullingar were well on top but as we have been doing a lot we let the opposition back into the game giving away a silly penalty in front of the posts after the kick off and De La Salle converted the penalty to leave it 3 points all. Mullingar again dominated with great work in the pack from Adam Kerroum, Dan Kenny and Colin McCormack and with good open running from Patrick Simpkin Mullingar got another 2 kickable penalties but with the pitch and the goal posts in such bad condition no kick was easy and Stuart Flynn who normally is the best and most reliable kicker in Leinster never mind Mullingar was just having a bad day and the kicks were going a foot wide either side of these small goals.With all the pressure and good work Mullingar were doing there was one area in the game that let us down and that was the lineout. Our hooker Greg Berry again normally throws them straight and in the bread basket with his eyes shut but on this day and with a very good lineout defence from De La Salle, Mullingar never won any ball in this area and the opposition who could not break down our defence or our pack around the field decided to kick for touch at every opportunity as they were winning every lineout ours and theirs. This seemed to Fire Mullingar up and with great Play from Simpkin, Butler, Brabazon and Flynn, Mullingar should have scored in the corner but Alan Brabazon just happened to knock the ball on as he was touching down.Mullingar were starting to get very frustrated with all the possession and not scoring, and then Adam Kerroum was sent off for 10 min for over rucking a tackler who was never rolling away. It was harsh decision and a bad one for Mullingar as they were camped in De La Salle 22 at the time. But the 14 man Mullingar side did not let their absent teammate down and kept the pressure on in the six minutes before half time getting one more penalty which Flynn converted again to make the score 6-3 in favour of Mullingar.Mullingar went into the second half with the large wind at their backs a lead and all the play and class around the field on their side. However the second half tactics talked by the coaching staff at halftime which was to kick into their half and keep pressure on the opposition. This went out the window with the lads and for some reason taught they could run everything. It was with this attitude that caused Mullingar to concede the only try of the game. From just outside the Mullingar 22, Mullingar decided to do a skip pass from out half to 15, crashing wide but pass did not make its destination and a attempted hack through by our full back, Gareth Flowers the the ball rebounded off De La Salle second centre's legs and their very fast first centre kicked through and although Stuart Flynn caught him before the line the ball evaded Stuart at the last second and they touched down for what can only be described as a try totally against the run of play. With the try under the posts they duly converted for a score of 10 points to 6.Mullingar, who had all the ball, were totally shell shocked and could not believe that they were behind considering the amount of possession they had but this is what they had to face and knew they needed to score a try in order to go on and win the game as penalty after penalty went wide for the unlucky Stuart Flynn. Stuart did manage to convert a hard penalty with 10 minutes to go to leave the score 10 to 9 in favour of De La Salle. The home team were hanging on but knew no matter what with Mullingar's lineout not functioning at all and Stuart out of sync they kicked for touch at every opportunity and kept Mullingar away from goal. We did have a few more shots at goal to win it but it was never going to be Stuarts or Mullingar's day and even though with the last play of the game and a super back move Mullingar were held up inches from the line it appeared it was written in stone that Mullingar could never or would never win this game and the final whistle went and we lost 10 points to 9.It is a very hard lesson to learn but we must learn lessons from this defeat. The first lesson we must learn is that although we are a very young team we are no longer playing youth rugby and that we are in a very serious adult competition and we need to mature as a team and bond better and train harder to make sure we don't lose a game again that we have 80% of possession.Having said that there is positives we now know we have lots of work to do on the lineout we have major work to do on decision making and even more work to do on continuity play. We must take into account though that that we had plenty of opportunities to win this game and we need to be more clinical and finish when we can and put games like this to bed earlier.So to the lads, its simple, hard work, hard work, hard work and commitment. Training will take place on Friday night at 7.15 to be on the field at 7.30pm. We need everyone and everyone in good order. We have the biggest game and the biggest honour next week being the first team ever to play under lights in Mullingar RFC and we appreciate being given this honour and we need to shine on the field and show the large crowd what they have to look forward to on Saturday nights in Mullingar RFC.Mullingar Rugby ClubYouths SectionWith the mini squads having a break last weekend, the older youths were the only ones in action. The Under 13s and 14s had training due to their respective games being cancelled. The Under 15s had a friendly game against Sligo, which they won 26-15, giving them a more competitive game than in recent weeks. The Under 17s had a Leinster league game against Birr which they won by the narrowest margin of 13-12.Next weekend sees the first match under our new lights and we will have our Under 12s playing Longford at 7.30pm in a game before the senior game, which starts at 8pm. Weather permitting we hope to have some more of our mini squad involved during half time in the Under 21s game. A big thank you to all the parents who helped with the bag pack in Buckley's last weekend and thanks to Buckleys for the opportunity to raise much needed funds.FixturesUnder 7s, 8s, 9s, 10s, 11s, 12s Training at 10amUnder 13s Midland league v. Longford KO 11.30amUnder 14s training at 11.30amUnder 15s Midland league v. Longford KO 11.30amUnder 17s Leinster league v. Naas, KO 1amUnder 12s Saturday evening game v. Longford, KO 7.30amUnder 15s power past SligoMullingar 26Sligo 12The Under 15 team showed once again how on a wet morning a game can be won. Sligo looked more like an Under 16 team with the largest pack we have met so far. Before the game it had been decided that fast ball to the backs was the only way and with a set move from kick off, a try and conversion gave us seven points on the board and it looked good at first.Sligo had not travelled just to make up the numbers and showed great rucking and mauling to work their way up the pitch but solid defence and organised back line saw Mullingar run out of their own half to score again.Once again from the restart Mullingar kept the ball and with the full back coming into the attack they moved further ahead to lead 20-nil. That brought us almost up to half time but Sligo gained seven points with a well worked try. At half time it was anybody's game and if you were a betting man you would have put your money on Sligo. Mullingar forwards knew what was needed and fronted up and at different times both sides looked like scoring but cool heads by Mullingar brought them to the line and put them 27 points to 7 ahead with fifteen minutes to go. With the loss of Jack, Alan and Matthew, Sligo came back to the Mullingar line but with tough defence they could only manage one further score in the corner which left the final score 27-12. Get well soon, Jack.Under 10The Under 10s travelled to Tullamore on Saturday week. We had a great turn out of players and most pleasing was the support from the parents who made the journey. We had three great games against the home side. While the lads gave their all in every game we were beaten in all three matches. Thanks to Tullamore for the hospitality on the day and also to Roy who refereed all the matches.The squad that travelled were: Leon, Daniel, Simon, Diarmuid, Michael, Jack, Andrew, Joseph, Niall, Stephen, Evan, Conor, Aaron, Joshua, Andrew, Gavin, David, Jack, Luca, Oisin, Jenson, Harry, Kyle, Paul, Aran and Stephen.