Monaghan RFC Notes: U17 v Buccaneers RFC U17 I XV + U13 I XV 32 v Clogher Valley U13 I XV 10 – REPORTS

MonaghanRFC U-17’s v BuccaneersRFC U-17’s Sunday 29th at Rafeenan

Last Sunday, with a 1.30pm kick off, saw Buccaneers travel from Athlone to challenge Monaghan in near perfect playing conditions at Rafeenan. Monaghan produced some great scores that coaches John Mc Phillips and Davy Mc Gregor having been working on the training field. The home sides scrums and line outs were solid and the half backs kept the backline moving. Both coaches believe if the squad can step up another gear for Saturdays fixture against MaloneRFC a win is very achievable. Training continues on Thursday nights at 7pm sharp. A big thank you to Michael Mc Glynn and his fellow coaches for making the big effort to organise and travel to MonaghanRFC and we hope to see you all back soon.

Clogher Valley U-13’s 10 – MonaghanRFC U-13’s 32

MonaghanRFC U-13’s travelled to Clogher Valley last Saturday morning in a pre-season friendly. With the sun shining brightly it was perfect conditions for both teams to get to grips with the new scrum laws. Clogher Valley settled into the game very quickly and opened the scoring after 5 minutes. Monaghan were slow in coming to terms with defending in their positions and had left open spaces on each wing. From the restart it was again Clogher Valley applying the pressure but Monaghan were slowly but surely addressing their defensive problems and managed to level the scores after some great work to leave it 5 – 5 after 15mins.
From the restart CV made good progress and scored to take back the advantage 10- 5 after 18mins. Coaches Joe O’ Connell, James Sheridan and Joe Campbell reassured the MN outfit to play their positions and start running the ball through the hands and step up the support play. This was evidently taken on by the squad
because that was CV last score of the match. MN leveled the game and took the lead before half time converting their third try to lead at half time 10 -17. Second half MN were making all the plays and having a good strong bench, allowed each player a taste of playing in a number of positions. Mn ran in a further three try’s to leave a final score of CV 10 – MN 32. MN squad learned alot in this friendly, from a shaky start to playing nice flowing rugby inside 50 mins was invaluable, each squad member getting experience and learning about their positions. Congratulations to all and a big thank you to Clogher Valley.