Ballymena Mini Rugby Team Dominate at Aviva National Mini Festival in Dublin.
Saturday, May 23rd saw the annual pinnacle in Mini Rugby with the National Mini Festival being held in Aviva Stadium, Dublin. The U10 festival saw invited teams from all over Ireland participate on the pitch where many of their international hero’s play for the national squad.
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Mini rugby teams from all over Ireland made the trip to the home of Irish rugby, with only 20 invited clubs and schools playing on the day.
Ballymena Rugby Mini’s were delighted to be selected and the 15 P5 boys with 2005 birthdays were provided the opportunity to participate in the event, along with their Parents as spectators.
The day commenced with an early departure for all from Eaton Park with mid morning arrival at the stadium. After a warm up at Wanderers Rugby Club, the Players all received a charged welcome through the tunnel onto the pitch applauded by the spectators. The atmosphere in the stadium was enhanced with the clear skies overhead, setting the scene for what would be an unforgettable day for all.
With the Ballymena team being allocated in Group 1, there was significant competition with games against Highfield, Ashbourne, Young Munster and Buccaneers.
All of the boys excelled with many of the competition being significantly older that the 15 boys, due to Ulster Branch age policy differing from the rest of the island.. Despite the heat and strong opposition, Ballymena dominated most of the forward play, rucking and securing clean ball for the backline to progress into space. Strong teamwork, communication and set plays, developed by the Players throughout the year, paid particular dividends in creating momentum and many of the resulting scores throughout the day.
The passion and skills of all the players resulted in them dominating all 4 matches with a total try tally of 27 tries scored in the matches with only 3 against.
After the games the Players and Coaches had a relaxing tour of the stadium, including the changing room facilities.
The Ballymena team included forward pack of Casson, Osbourne, Scullion, Smith, Williamson with Alexander, McKillop at scrumhalf and backline consisting of
Coulter, Logan, Stinson, McKay, Vercoe Rodgers, Mustoe, McCamphill and Carson. Coaching team included Casson, Scullion, Carson, McCamphill and Alexander.
Roger Alexander, Ballymena Convenor for the 2014/15 season, commented that
‘the performance by all the Players at this event was incredible with some of the game play observed remarkable for this age. All of these Players are not only passionate about the game but great group of friends, who play strongly for each other and very proud to be wearing the back shirt. It would be great to see a few of them playing here again in a decade. We have an extremely strong Mini Section at the Club and this also reflects the strength of Coaching across all the year groups and the passionate spirit in which all enjoy the game.’
