Skerries Under 10s v Barnhall & Portarlington (14.03.10)

Another sunny Sunday morning saw twenty three of the U10 squad head off for Leixlip to play Barnhall RFC. Barnhall numbers were down and they could field only one team but, as luck would have it, Barnhall were also hosting Portarlington’s under 10’s that morning. The Skerries squad was split and each team played two matches, one match against Barnhall and one against Portarlington.

First up for the Skerries Blue team was Portarlington. This was the proverbial game of two halves although the 2nd half was about twice as long as the first. It was a bruising but entertaining game which might explain the referee forgetting to blow up at full time. The Blues were up against a strong, well drilled Portarlington outfit. Although they finished strongly in the 2nd half and scored four tries in the game, a slow start in the 1st half, when they allowed in some soft scores, left the Skerries boys with too much ground to make up. Adam Bund and Lochlainn Joyce both showed great rucking technique and were best at retaining possession and winning turnovers against a hard rucking opposition. Joe Mulvanny tested the Portarlington defence with some great attacking charges and also led the tackle count for the Blues. Thomas McBrien, Oisin McKey and Declan O’Reilly scored the hard earned tries.

The Blues took their improved 2nd half performance from their first game into the game against Barnhall and went on to enjoy a fairly comfortable victory. The entire team played their part and Thomas McBrien, Oisin McKey, Declan O’Reilly & Joe Mulvanny got on the score sheet. Pick of the scores came when John Grimes ripped the ball from a Skerries maul. Some good passing between Luke McAvinue, Gareth Horan and Ciaran Palmer got the ball to Jack Halligan who timed a beautiful pass under pressure to send Thomas McBrien racing for the line.

The Skerries Cerise squad played Barnhall first and they enjoyed a hard fought victory. All the players put in 100% effort and Skerries came out on top in the physical exchanges. Skerries defended well throughout; Sean Keenan, Jonathan Clear, Shane Dowling, Liam Woodcock and Killian McGinnis all put in big tackles and forced Barnhall back. Patrick Hutton and Karl Nolan secured vital turnover at the breakdown on many occasions. Jack Dowling, Mark Coomey, Tim Sharkey, Evan Tickner and Reuben O’Dwyer were very dangerous in open play with some excellent attacking runs which opened up the Barnhall defence. There was also some very clever passing and off-loading which created good space and inevitably tries followed for Skerries, with Hutton the top scorer.

The Portarlington match was a very physical affair and unfortunately two early tries were conceded by the Cerise team. However, the boys reacted very well to this set-back and in a determined fight-back scored two great tries, culminating in an excellent effort from Patrick Hutton to level the match. Despite having the upper hand in the latter exchanges, time ran out for the Skerries lads and they had to settle for a draw. The last action of the day was a fantastic run from Jack Dowling which came up just short.

The coaching team were pleased with the concentration and application of the squad, both teams reacted in the best way to going behind to Portarlington, they fought back and refused to drop their heads. When their line was threatened Skerries knuckled down and increased their efforts. Well done to everyone.