Tullamore Rugby Notes
Michael Dunne Cup Final (J.4). Tullamore 17, Ashbourne 13 Tullamore 4th team came up short in this match in Carlow last Sunday. Enniscorthy had a good few players with first team experience and in a tight contest this made a difference. Playing into a strong breeze in the first half Tullamore had a lot of defending to do and they coped well with Paddy Thornton very safe under numerous high balls and he counter attacked with determination. The tackling of the brave Niall Neville was encouragement for all his teammates and the tackle put in by Kenneth Mann to save a certain try was terrific. An opportunist drop goal by Enniscorthy after 9 minutes was the only score of the first half. They did miss a simple goal kick under the posts when Tullamore were penalized for obstruction. Tullamore had a penalty attempt from 30 metres into the strong breeze on the stroke of half time but missed the difficult attempt to leave Enniscorthy 03-00 up at half time. Tullamore could not get enough ball in the second half as they were under pressure in the scrums and the lineout yielded very little ball even on their own throw. Enniscorthy capitalized on these areas and kicked to touch as often as possible. Tullamore did not look like scoring a try and had only one long-range penalty attempt from the 10 metre line when the breeze had disappeared. Well done to Managers Eugene and David Mann and that ever-reliable coach Pat Tierney. Team 15. Paddy Thornton, 14. Cormac Maloney, 13. Emyard Hooper, 12. Niall Neville, 11. Kenneth Mann. 10. Johnny Moloney, 9.David Neville, 1, Keith Cleary, 2. Kevin Gorman, 3. Dale Connolly, 4. Enda Molloy, 5. Feargal Kerin, 6. Andrew O"Reilly, 7.Kevin Browne, 8. Liam Mealiff. Replacements used; Darren Tuohey, Enda Seery, Ciaran Lynch, Paul McNiff, Ger Molloy. IRFU Junior Interprovincial Championship Saturday at 2.30pm Leinster V. Ulster in Tullamore. Having won their first two matches Leinster play for the title next Saturday. In the first match a last minute try from Tullamore"s Aaron Deverell defeated Munster and last Saturday a conversion from Gearoid O"Grady gained an injury time win over Connacht. Two other Tullamore men, Richie Hughes and Donal Mine are also on the team. Coach is none other than John Burns and Vinny Wyer is assisting him.