MRFC 1st XV 2009/2010
Team Coach: Hamish Adams
Assistant Coaches:Tom Mulcahy
Team Manager: David Ryan
Team Captain: David Lee
Vice Captain: Kevin Brierly
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2009-2010 - AIB League Division 3 after Mar 27 matches |
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6 from 6 and the excitement machine moves into top gear!
MIDLETON 6 - NENAGH ORMOND 3 - 5th December 2009
The Midleton team that took the field for this fixture in what can only be described as very wintry conditions. Back into the side came Junior Sifa, returning after International duty, while Professional Surfer Damien Symth came into replace Jason Holland. On the bench, Keith Koking, was chosen. Bryan Morris also made a welcome return to his OLD club. His coaching expertise proving vital, in what was to prove to be a very tightly fought game.
The conditions for the game were easily the worst of the season. The referee admitted afterwards that he was close to calling it off until he saw the amount of spectators that had turned up for the pre match lunch. There was a time when Midleton teams would have relished these wintry conditions, but not this current team. Rumour has it that the backs have more moves than Jackie Chan!!!! We won the toss and chose to play into the strong gale for the first half.
As was expected we spent the first 15min doing a lot of defending as Nenagh used the wind well keeping us pinned back with some good tactical kicking. However birthday boy Michael Cronin playing at 7 was proving to be a constant thorn in their side as he turned over ball time and again at the ruck. Scrum Half Rob Smyth also came up with a try saving tackle when he got his body under the Nenagh N0.8 when a certain try looked on the cards.
As the half wore on however we started to get our hands on the ball more often and spent long periods on the attack despite having to rely on players carrying the ball rather than kicking for position due to the wind. Nenagh had a few opportunities of shots at goal, but it was proving a difficult day for kickers. That all changed about 5min before half time, when an eagled eyed referee spotted an infringement, yellow card was shown and the resulting penalty was kicked.
Nenagh went into the break 3-0 and with an extra man advantage,
The second half proved to be more of the same, however we were now on top in both possession and territory, but the worsening conditions made the likelihood of a try seem very slim.
Jeff Hitchmore kicked a penalty early in the half to tie things up, and Aidan McCarthy continued his ‘most annoying man at ruck’ performance while Kevin Brierley made sure Nenagh didn’t get any soft yards around the fringes. We got a penalty and surprisingly after speaking to the ref there was only 5 min left and therefore only one option. After what seemed an eternity of Peter and Jeff discussing who was prettier and possibly who should take the kick, Jeff stepped up and slotted a really difficult kick straight between the posts, 6-3.
Nenagh then game back hard but a combination of good discipline and hard defence kept them out of range of any other scores. The last few moments were spent asking the referee was time up yet, before Mark O’ Connell picked from the base of the scrum and kicked for touch. The forwards were out on their feet while the backs had earlier been air lifted out due to hyperthermia.
6-3 final score, 6 wins from 6. Next week Ards away.
Report courtesy of David Lee, Photos by Denis O'Flynn
7 from 7 and you need to get your colours ready!
ARDS 7 v MIDLETON 40 - 12th December 2009
All roads led to Ards on Saturday.
With all the travelling involved this season it’s hard to expect supporters to be at all the matches, but the following must be thanked especially as they have attended all matches, J. Murphy, P Mc Carthy, N. Cooney, R. Williams and Mr. & Mrs. P. Smith. Up until this match one other “supporter” could also have been included, Mr. G Johnston, touch judge extraordinaire, just ask J. Holland, who is adamant that the kick for touch was inch perfect.
Of course there was an early Christmas present for all involved with a bonus point win. Early exchanges saw the Midleton pack dominate in all areas, in particular the scrum where K. Brierly, D. Lee and R. Mc Ardle set to work and reaped rich rewards throughout. The lineout was efficient with clean ball being won time and again. This supply to scrum half Rob Smyth was a major reason why he received Coach Adams brownie points (3). Having been a doubt before the match due to the onset of back spasm (brought on by over shopping in JJB’S). He got through the 80+ minutes with ease and was well worth his 3 points.
The absence of P. Broughan(who was playing for Ireland according to those in UCC) paved the way for Jason Holland to star at out half. He varied the game well with timely passes and great kicks out of hand to keep his pack on the front foot. The pairing of D. Smith and J. Sifa at centre was again solid in defence and inventive in attack. Hopefully J. Sifa will get his timing in the tackle right. The back three of Troy Nathan, P. Whelan and J. Hitchmough were positioned well to swallow up any kicks and returned it with interest and ran good lines. P. Whelan again suffered from white line fever when he failed to touch down with the line at his mercy. About the 60th minute Mr. Holland departed with his ego dented with the earlier call by G. Johnston (touch judge)going against him and still weighing heavily on his mind, there was also a small injury matter.
This paved the way for star fullback Troy Smith to try his hand at the number ten slot. He settled in well with a floater of a pass on the Ards 5 metre line was intercepted and the Ards fullback ran the length of the pitch untouched to score under the posts (wasn’t a training ground move).
Midleton managed to put this behind them and normal service resumed and they finished strongly and well on top. A deserved win for the top side in division 3 and one of only two unbeaten sides in the AIL.
A Happy Christmas to all and a very prosperous New Year.
Report courtesy of Aidan McCarthy.
8 from 8 and the Redbacks are starting to sting...................
Wanderers 08-Midleton 37.
Report by Mark O Connell.
8.30am is not a good time to start worrying about whether the normally fanatic Midleton supporters had deserted us, but this is what happened when the familiar faces were not seen hanging around the team bus.
This game was always going to be huge with Wanderers sitting in fourth place, a win putting them right in the title hunt. Coach Adams’ team selection reflected this with some tough calls being made on Thursday evening. Peter Broughan came in for Jason Holland, the cold snap having played havoc with Jason’s old bones, and Barry Sweeney got the nod ahead of Michael Cronin in the back row.
JP O’ Connor made a welcome return to the squad, clear of any injury he picked up in Towns Park while playing for Cork Con. a few years ago.
The build up was going perfectly until Ger Sweeny bulldozed Captain David Lee during the warm up. Luckily David was able to play through the pain with the help of some “tough motivation talking” took his place for the kick off.
We started the game well and spent long periods in their half with our lineout drive proving very effective. After an initial scare at the scrum, (we got shoved off the ball but luckily the ref blew for a collapse and nicely gave us the ball back to try again) the tight five got it together and took 3 against the head in a row. The back row spent this time concentrating on much loftier things which only back rows know about.
The total dominance of the scrum waned slightly however as Roy brought the ‘Ye have one, we’ll have one’ front row rule in to play. Despite all this control we were just 6-0 up with 25 minutes played and were guilty of taking too much out of the ball up front when going wider was probably the correct option. However the forwards quickly put this down to rustiness and felt that was enough of all that ‘going wider’ rubbish.
A moment of madness later saw the ball escape from a ruck and into the shocked hands of Peter Broughan, who hit No. 8 Mark O’ Connell with a lovely pass in the centre of the field. Mark then attempted to skip Paul Whelan and pass it to Troy Smith unmarked on the wing. However the whole skip thing just didn’t work out and Paul found himself crossing the line after brushing his marker off with a lovely hand off. Troy continued to call for the pass even after Paul had touched down. 10 min later and Man of the Match Paul was in the corner again. Jeff got his act together and actually converted this one.
Making it 18-0 at half time.
The 2nd half was more of the same but Wanderers were proving to quite dangerous on the quick break. We nearly paid for this, only for Peter chasing back to haul the Wanderers winger down on our 22, followed by Kevin Brierly turning over the ruck on his own we could have found ourselves in trouble. Junior Sifa kept his try in every game stat ticking over pushing us further in front and making the bonus point win a possibility. Coach Adams started emptying the bench, just before Aidan McCarthy was yellow carded. He claims it was for being off his feet at a ruck.
However with a young and confident Eoin O’ Shea now on the field being a man down was not going to be used as an excuse. The next lineout we had in their 22 he called a drive and controlled it well at the back of the maul to touch down for the all important bonus point try. I thought the ‘take that Leeser’ comment he shouted after to be a bit over the top.
Wanderers came back with a long range try, but Midleton finished strongly with a lovely worked try which saw Jamie Gogerty just squeeze in the corner. Thank God there was no video ref is all I can say!!! 8-37 was the final score keeping us on top, unbeaten. Next week is the massive game and Local Derby against Sundays Well and with Queens so close its must win.
A quick mention to the Managerial team of Rhino, Schmig, and Mush. I’ve no idea why, but I remember saying I would but can’t remember what for. Quality water rings a bell!!!
9 from 9 and the pace is frightening.........
MIDLETON 12 - SUNDAYS WELL 6
It seems lately that every match Midleton play is a big one but getting up for a huge local derby was never going to be a problem. With Midleton sitting pretty on top of Division 3 it seems that every team want to claim their scalp and the Well were no different.
The day started well with a good buzz amongst the players and a good buzz around the club in general, I'm in no way suggesting this was anything to do with all the extras that packed the club house for the pre-match lunch and of course... wine. In the pre match meeting however a much more sobering thought was being drilled into the players as they were being told what they needed to do and what the Well would bring.
Certain players do a lot of talking and certain players are happy to listen and some just listen to their ipods, but I have no idea why Junior Sifa listens to his ipod because for the life of me I can't figure out how Myley Cyrus would get you pepped for a game!! (yes Junior we heard it). The warm up went well and Hamish seemed to learn from his mistake last week and opted out of a rugby league drill, preferring instead to keep Ger Sweeney and Dave Lee well away from each other. Speaking of Well away- it was just gone 2p.m. and there was still no sign of our nearest rivals who were running strangely late.
Kick off finally arrived and on time despite the Well’s efforts and Midleton opted to play towards the train tracks. Conditions on the day were quite good, firm underfoot and with no wind, despite the reasonable conditions though the first 15 mins or so was a scrappy affair with neither team getting a firm grip on the game.
The first 20 mins was littered with scrums and Roy MacArdle proving again that rugby is a thinking man’s game decided to give Ger Sweeney a run and gingerly limped off saying something about 'a dead leg partner'. Thankfully Ger managed to lock his side out and we were now getting a better platform to work off and soon mounted some pressure. Midleton were rewarded with a penalty for interference at the breakdown which seemed to be happening regularly but was only penalised every so often. Jeff kicked the points. 3-0.
Peter Brougham seeing Jeff get on the scoreboard decided to have a go himself and attempted a few drop goals which were optimistic at best. Midleton were rewarded again for fine back row play at a ruck and got another three points, Jeff having made up for an earlier miss. Not long before the break the Well got on the scoreboard themselves with a penalty from the boot of former Midleton representative Eamon Ronan. Ronan for some reason was wearing a Canterbury jumper (yes jumper and not a body hugging thermal vest) presumably to bulk up or possibly as protection for the odd tackle he was making.
Half time arrived to a good cheer from the large crowd who decided to stay after their lunch and actually watch the match! HT 6-3
The second half was more of the same with neither team dominating or getting decent periods of possession. The Well decided to start taking a bit of ball straight off 9 and hitting it up hard but when Kevin Brierly and some lad called Mark Murphy decided to tackle back, the Well soon abandoned that idea. Unfortunately for poor old Mark, the ref deemed his tackle dangerous and he was shown a harsh yellow card. (for those of you who don’t know Mark Murphy is Horse!)
As time was moving on Hamish looked to the bench and decided to throw caution to the wind and go against his better judgement and brought on Jason Holland for Peter. The old man still has it though and reinforced the mid field and started to steady a match in which an error could prove costly. Dave Smyth took the place of Barry Sweeney and some fine work helped earn Midleton another penalty, again Jeff kicked after an earlier miss.... yet again. The last 25 minutes was back and forth, Ronan missed two shots at goal to let Midleton off the hook and the game was all but won when, with 15 mins left Midleton went 12-3 up. Midleton emptied the bench as did the Well and to be fair to them fought back to score another 3 points but that’s how it stayed. Final score was Midleton 12 Sundays Well 6.
After the final whistle in the changing room three Kiwi’s surprised us, Junior hadn’t scored in a game for the first game all season; Troy was complaining of some swelling in his gut even though all appeared normal; and coach Hamish Adams bought us all a beer!
Next week Midleton play Barnhall away and will be hoping to welcome back James Colbert and J.P. O’Conner to fill the skiing boots of Eoin O’Shea and Dave Smyth.
Yet another big game...
These photos of the match were taken by Denis O'Flynn,
thanks Denis
10 from 10, it only gets better........
keeping the pedal to the metal is the aim
Barnhall 8 - Midleton 16
By Jason Holland
10 wins from 10 League games. That was where we wanted to be when we left the field at 4 o’clock up in Barnhall. We had targeted January as a vital month to our promotion prospects and this was the last game in this little phase of games.
The start of the day was extremely strange and seemed to upset the mind set of a lot of players. Roy had turned up for the bus on time and no one really knew how to react. Luckily two of his fellow front rowers were late and the fact that we were back behind schedule put the boys at ease again.
Training on Thursday night had been the worst of the season and unfortunately for the first twenty minutes of the game we played as we had trained. Barnhall went 8-0 up and we were fortunate it was not more. They had caught us asleep from a quick tap and scored in the corner and then kicked a simple penalty. To compound matters Briers spent ten minutes in the bin.
Gradually we started to control possession and build some pressure. Jeff made up for an earlier miss and kicked a penalty to get us on the board. Shortly after from a lineout about 15 metres out the pack took over and an impressive maul resulted in Barry Sweeney scoring in the corner (he had been practising his scoring on the sideline of the Junior match with his girlfriend the week before and it had payed off).
That was all the scoring of the first half and 8 all was a reasonable result for us considering we had played poorly and we would have a breeze at our back in the second forty minutes. Captain Fantastic Dave Lee had unfortunately taken a blow to the head and had double vision so could not carry on. Double vision is not unusual to Dave on a Saturday but not normally this early in the day. Eoin O’Shea was away skiing so we were lucky that Snow White had lent us her 8th dwarf “Fatty” and he played the last forty minutes in the middle of the front row.
It was mentioned before the game that we would have to work extremely hard to earn the result up here and by now the boys believed it.
The second half started brilliantly when a good long kick from Peter was chased enthusiastically by Junior. The Barnhall back 3 did not deal with it and Junior snapped it up and scored an unconverted try. Junior had scored no try the week before after listening to Miley and it was an inspired decision to motivate himself with Mariah Carey this week.
From then on we dominated both possession and territory but were not accurate enough to finish the chances we created. It was not till about the 70th minute that we added the final 3 points of the game to complete a 16-8 victory.
It was a quiet enough dressing room as a lot of the lads were disappointed with our performance. They were right to be frustrated but we had won ugly for the second time in 2 weeks and it takes a quality team to consistently come out on the right side of those sort of games. Our aim was to be 10 from 10 and the job was done, an impressive achievement but 15 from 15 is now an achievable goal.
We will learn a lot from the last two weeks and be better and use the ball more intelligently than we have been.
Rainey is the next hurdle in two weeks time and if we take the foot of the pedal we risk losing everything we have achieved in the season to date.
Oh no, the wheel nuts are loosened....
Midleton 13 - Rainey OB 13
Initally this report was meant to be done by Coach Adams, but on mature reflection this would have been a bad idea. I'm not sure it would pass censorship laws.
But as we do a report every week we win it'd be just sulky bad form not to do one when we lose. (Ah jesus I keep forgetting we drew not lost)
Anyway, here is the SHORT and non humerous report from the Rainy OB game.
Match Starts
We play like pigeons for 40 min but lead 3-0
We score two tries in the first 20min of 2nd half, quickly revert to thinking we're Gods and pigeon status is immediately restored.
A quick intercept try follwed by a charged down kick follwed by a penalty makes it all square 13-13.
Match ends.
Dressing room resembles a morgue, (not the CSI version however)
ROLL ON CONNEMARA!!!
Tightened the screws and the machine rolls again.....
Midleton 26 - Connemara 12
The Saturday produced perfect weather conditions for the eagerly awaited clash with the Connemara All Blacks. We needed to get our campaign back on track following the lack lustre draw the previous week against Rainey Old Boys.
The weeks training was excellent as on Tuesday night we had some live opposition against Rockwell College to complete their Senior Cup preparations followed by a viewing of the Rainey match. Niall Cooney to everyone’s horror produced a quality DVD (something to rival Avatar) so no one escaped the embarrassment of the poor individual and collective performance. All contributed to the post match feedback and when we viewed highlights of the Queens and Instonians matches there was a stark contrast.
The match against Connemara was what we expected from the men from the West a physical dogged affair with no quarter given. As the top team in the league we are finding every team raises their game against us and as a result the challenge is for us to do the same – improve our standards.
Off a set play and pattern the old war horse Mark O’Connell ran in the first try (his 3rd in 15 years of senior rugby so I am told) of course being old style there was no celebration although being from a league background I was personally disappointed there was no dive! Not to be out done, the young buck Troy Smith muscled his way over after some good lead up work. Unfortunately much of the hard work was undone with a very soft try through poor defence allowing Connemara back into the game. Half time 12 to 5.
The second half saw some open rugby at times although the accuracy was not there and although Troy got on the scoreboard for his second and Junior’s excellent offload in contact for Damien Smyth to score meant we had the bonus point win there was a lot of frustration. Our discipline was again poor resulting in a yellow card to Mr McCarthy unfortunately I felt James Colbert was just an inch or two too short to compete effectively in the lineout otherwise Aidan wouldn’t have returned to the fray! We leaked a try whilst down to 14 men and the score finished up at 26 to 12 a solid if unspectacular win.
Pleasing to see the return to AIL of John O’Connor and Gilly and with Barry Sweeney and Roy returning this week still plenty of competition in the pack. All the subs contributed and although Peter Brougham had a solid game Alfie felt he needed ten minutes as he aspires to be the oldest AIL player of all time!
Plenty to work on and with the penalty count 16 to 8 against we have to question our discipline. We once again put ourselves under pressure and we were fortunate that the Connemara kicker had a poor day at the office missing several opportunities.
The focus now turns to Portadown and the continual search for that perfect individual and team performance. Several players will be competing for starting positions based on their performances against Kanturk this coming Sunday so plenty to play for.
Red is the colour!
Oh no, wheels loose again.....
Portadown 22 - Midleton 17
I cant believe i get to do the match report on the only game we've lost all year!!
Firstly we'd like to apologise to all those who travelled the long road up to Portadown. All the players feel pretty bad about the performance and promise to make it up to everyone in the audience come Banbridge in 3 weeks.
The trip up North is usually a joyful experience. Lazer (Dave Lee) goes to Xtravision and asks for the worst dvd's out at the moment, Roy arrives late, Mush gets the poker chips ready and Jerimiah the bus driver says his prayers, kisses his wife and hopes we dont wreck the bus like we did the last time. With all that done we hit the road and by carrig some fool is buying in for another 20 euro worth of chips. (Yorkie!!!!) 7 hours later, it only takes 6 but Jerimiah and ryano like to get lost, and we've arrived. the coach takes us for a walk down to the pitch mainly to clear our heads after watching Lazers horror/cult/gangland movie. I cant go on walk as my pockets are too weighed down with money from poker (oh no you didnt! yes i did)
Morning breaks and everyone is feeling very olympic. After our lineouts we spend a few minutes discussing what the kids name is in Toy Story, the one who writes his name on the bottom of all the toys shoes. Its Andy by the way. When we arrive at the pitch everything goes well, the mood is good, the warm up goes well even Troy remembers not to sing his Snoop Dog song loudly in the dressing room whilst everyone is concentrating. things are looking up. Then the game starts...end of report.
Portadown are clearly up for it as they are 2nd from bottom and playing against 1 of only 2 unbeaten teams in all 3 divisions who also happen to have the 3rd best defensive record in all 3 divisions ( coming into my own now). Their 12 and 7 played absolute blinders with the 12 stepping in for a try under the sticks 3 mins after Jeff missed a penalty in the 7th minute. They then added another 3 points to this 4 m ins later before jeff kicked a beauty to make it 10-3. We had alot of pocession in the 1st half, breaking the line numerous times in paticular Troy and Junior were going past people like the runners will be passing Jason Holland in the Ballycotton 10 in 2 weeks.....with ease. We just couldnt get that final pass off before the tackle. that frustration turned to real worry when Portadown turned over a ball inside our 22 and their 12 ran in for another try in the away fans corner. 15-3. On the hill Andrew Mac sat down in disgust. Niall Cooney sighed and there was no Smithwicks for Paulie Mac. Things were turning ugly.
With 7 mins left in the half Junior took a great line and went in under the sticks 15-10. Game on. We should have scored just before half time when Troy made another front row like break but was pulled down before the line, he passed off to Jamie who was tackled aganoisingly close to the TROY line. (get it?? Troy..line?? ok moving on). Half time came and the fans werent happy so the subs made it look like we werent happy either. No tip. Just running back and forth. We were pepped and ready if needed. Might i add here that i suggest that all home games should hold a subs v subs half time game of tip. We could introduce a league system with the eventual winner receiving 'Tip Champions 2010' T-shirts.??? anyway back to the game.
Second half was more of a tit for tat affair with their 7 and 12 again very bullish and getting in absolutely everywhere at any given chance. With nothing really happening only messed up lineouts it was time to bring on the big guns. So they brought on Gilly. Everything was going well until they brought me on really. I made an instant impact. i came on. They scored. Solid. With the game gone it we were playing for a bonus point which i told Hamish we would get!!! and in fairness to the lads they battled away through all the abusive 'yahoos' from the Portadown players who had clearly been promoted with this win!!! With 0 mins remaining Paul Daly , playing his 1st AIL game QUICKLY whipped the ball out to Paul Whelan who was at outhalf....but actually playing on the wing popped a lovely ball up to Brian Gill aka Super Sub who barrelled over like the samoan tight head prop from the 1995 world cup. No idea where that came from i just wanted to sound intelligent. Well i think my job is done here. Not much else happened really besides the bus ride home but thats for Crime Watch not Facebook.
So Ladies and Gents as Ger Lawton would say 'All roads lead to midleton in 3 weeks when the mighty Tana take on Crums crowd in a must win game. Its also Fatty Hollands last game for Midleton EVER so get your tickets now to avoid dissapointment cause its gonna be a crazy night no matter what happens.
Signing out
James Colbert
Wheels firmly on and motoring to a great finish....
Midleton 13 Banbridge 5
Ever since the defeat to Portadown, this game couldn’t come quickly enough. As it happened it arrived in exactly the amount of time it should have, which made a complete mockery of Einstein and his relativity nonsense. What your cousins have to do with time is anyone’s guess, however this match report has bigger fish to fry...
The lead in week saw a nice build in focus and intensity, and training went quite well also... Alas some people always end up disappointed with team selection, but it was a measure of team spirit and the guys involved that personal feelings were put behind them and everyone ensured the team came first. However the fact the Evening Echo insisted that Jason Holland was selected to start will bug a lot of the team for some time to come!!!!!
The morning of the game saw the Midleton RFC Facebook page jammed with messages of Good Luck from all over the world; however these 3 messages never made it to the team as no one had checked the page until well after the game. Well well well after....
The game started well, with Midleton playing towards the clubhouse, or down the pitch, or facing the brewery depending on who you ask. The coin toss takes a while as veteran Captain David Lee tries to explain what he means after he wins it. So much so he prefers not to win it. Banbridge enjoyed a lot of possession early on, started by some shocking hands by No.8 Mark O’ Connell (a theme which was to continue for much of the game) and followed by a kick charge down by Jason’ ECHO’ Holland, but found ground hard to make as tackle after tackle limited their final options to kicking for territory. Midleton then took hold of the game and dominated the rest of the half, including being held up twice over the line before Aidan’Simon Buckley’ McCarthy parted a ruck and sprited like a limping gazelle over the line from 10m out. 5-0 Midleton. The left hand corner (facing clubhouse...) proved to be a popular hangout for the rest of the half as again Midleton tried to extend their lead. Mark ‘hands’ O’ Connell dropping the ball once again as attempted a backward overhead touchdown. With all this forward bashing going on the backs were getting a little jealous, so in attempt to alleviate the boredom Troy decided to try a see how many people he could break with tackles, Junior helped him, Damo tossed his hair a bit depending on wind direction, Paulie was ok as he was in most rucks anyway, Jason continued his interview with the Evening Echo and Jeff kicked a ball between the posts. 8-0 half time.
Midleton dominated the early parts of the second half and some quick thinking and quick tapping from Rob Smyth (he obviously learned how to take a quick penalty from his brother Dave!!!) saw him crash over in the corner for a try. 13-0. Banbridge were bound to enjoy a bit of the ball and managed to get in themselves close to the posts after a long period of phase play. At 3 O’ Clock Sunday Midleton players admitted that they had just ‘fundamentally gotten fed up of tackling at that point’ and just let them score. Luckily their out half chose that that moment to get fed up of kicking and proceeded to miss a relatively easy conversion. 13-5. The second half threw up one more interesting bit however as Simon ‘Muhaffi’ Buckley made a clear break 22m out. With 24m of empty space to his left, 24.5m to his right, Junior to his right screaming for a pass Aidan decided it was time to show the damage his 18st frame could do to the one reaming defender. None was the answer. This decision cost him Man of the Match as well as a try...
Final whistle was blown.. Promotion achieved. Club song was move out of the dressing room to an open air location with better acoustics!!!
The celebration that followed afterwards will be kept a secret, but at least we made sure people will remember the weekend Midleton RFC returned to the 2nd division.
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