Leinster Youths U18 League Division 1

FINAL

Sunday 17th March 2019

Shay Murtagh Park

Mullingar 29

CillDara 5

LEINSTER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS 2018/19

Leinster Under 18 Champions sounds pretty good, amazing even and well deserved. The future looks very bright for Mullingar RFC after this excellent performance from the U 18 Boys in front of a large gathering at Shay Murtagh Park on St Patricks day. I firmly believe that there are moments in every game that can swing the momentum either way, the moment this game pivoted on came just after the interval. A Cill Dara line out in our 22 with the opposition looking to get back in the game at 17 to 0 down, was stolen by Sean Casey and the pack and cleared to safety. What made this even more pleasing was the fact that the lads had practised this defensive line out move repeatedly in training all week. Moments later Mullingar’s man of the match out half James Kerrigan crossed for our 4^th try to put us 22 points to the good and almost out of sight. The number ten took advantage of an over keen defender who shot the line, leaving him a nice opportunity for a show n’ go as he cruised over the line. With barely fifteen minutes gone Mullingar lost influential second row Luke Carton and centre Paul Smith to injury, but to the team’s great credit they never panicked and the replacements jelled nicely into the fare. It was clear from the moment the lads entered the changing room on St Patrick's morning that everyone was up for this one, the warm up was intense and focused with all 23 players in a great frame of mind and so it was, Cill Dara looked shell shocked from the off and void of any plan to deal with Mullingar’s intensity, gone was the slow starts this Mullingar squad are famous for, big hits from Luke Carton, Paddy Doran and Conall Fagan set the tone before Niall Derham crossed for our first on 7 minutes. Derham found a hole in the Cill Dara defence between the second defender and the pillar to get us on our way from 5 metres. Strong carrying throughout the match by Paddy Doran and the rest of the pack saw the lads make the gain line and up the pitch. A powerful hand off from our inside center David Manning secured a line break for himself and a consequential try from just inside Cill Dara’s half. Mullingar’s third came from some fancy feet and an unorthodox off load from Paul Smith to our full back Stephen Derham. Stephen proceeded to blow past one defender with a mighty hand off given his size and followed up by blitzing the trailing Cill Dara defence. The final try of the day arrived after the Mullingar lads went through an impressive amount of phases inside the Cill Dara 5-meter line with the opposition defending well. Some good marshalling of the forwards from Kerrigan and Cleary directed Paddy Doran round the corner and over the line,resulting in a lovely crash ball to give Mullingar a well worked team try to wrap up the scoring. All 23 players played their part in this win with the full squad getting game time on the big day, then the celebrations began from the jubilation of lifting the cup, Conall Fitzgeralds burgers and on to MoJos where I hear the lads acquitted themselves very well on the dance floor. Well done to all, the Squad Management and coaches are extremely proud of everyone. 

Team; Matthew Doyle, Conall Fagan, Brian Reidy, Nathan Gallagher, Luke Carton, Dylan Daly, Sean Casey, Cian Cleary, James Kerrigan, Peter Mitic, David Manning, Paul Smith, Shane Murtagh, Stephen Derham, Evan Harte, Christopher Glynn, Matthew Looram, Stephen Wynn, Niall Derham, Conor Gibney, Harry Ripley, Fionn O'Hara, Ryan Brennan