16 Oct 2017
Tullamore RFC U12 Roscrea RFC Blitz - 15th Oct 2017
The boys U12s team travelled to Roscrea RFC on Sunday for a blitz involving Roscrea, Birr, Mullingar and Portumna.
In the first game against Portumna the team got a great start with an early try from Con Little but then fell asleep and let Portumna back into it. Wholesale changes were made at half time and the incoming players really upped the performance. They got the basics right in clearing rucks and protecting the ball much better. As a result the tries came as a result of great team play. Scorers were Cian Lynam, Joe Keenaghan with two and Tadgh Clear rounding off the scoring in a 5-2 win. Next up were Birr and after the example set in the second half of the first game Tullamore were flying when going forward. However, some of the tackling at times was a bit poor apart from one super effort from Eric Martin who went low and executed a perfect tackle on Birr’s biggest player. Eric will be demonstrating at training on Wednesday! Birr had no answer to Tullamore when they moved the ball with seven tries being scored, all by backs – Cillian Bourke with a hat trick, Shane Marsden with 2, Eoin Dunne and Joe Keenaghan with a try each. Proof once again that forwards win matches and backs decide by how much.
Mullingar were up next and despite having a few bigger players, Tullamore were much the better team. Again, focusing on the basics for protecting the ball well at ruck time gave quick ball for the backs. The final score was 4-0 with tries from Con Little, Shane Marsden and Cillian Bourke. The final game against Roscrea was real tough affair with both teams quite well matched. However, due to an injury to one of the Roscrea players the game was called early with the score 1-1. Best wishes to the injured Roscrea player and we hope he recovers quickly.
There were some great performances across the squad. Plenty of work still required on tackling low and running straighter with the ball in hand, but also plenty of progress being made with this super bunch of players.
