Mullingar 36 Edenderry 24

It was a case of Friday night lights for our Under 16 lads as this promising group of young men kicked off their 2023/24 season. They hope to build on an excellent 2022/23 when they finished as Leinster league division 2 winners, midlands finalists, and Leinster Cup semi-finalists. The new coaching team of Clare O’Brien and Cian Walsh, alongside Paul Murphy from last season’s management have inherited a strong squad and will have high hope for another successful year.

Despite a constant deluge of rain for the previous 24 hours the grass pitches in Shay Murtagh Park were in pristine condition, perfectly sanded, marked and tightly cut. As an added aesthetic the newly constructed state of the art gym provided an attractive backdrop as it shone fully lit in the background for this round 1 midlands league game against their regular opponents, Edenderry.

Referee Stephen Lown blew his whistle to commence the season’s campaign for both sides and it was Edenderry who controlled initial possession with strong running from Alex Bagnall. The Mullingar defence stood strong and great tackles from Daragh Vickery and Brian O’Rourke meant the visitors didn’t breach the home 22. Captain Ben Smith marshalled his troops well as Edenderry piled on the pressure. The electric running of Ethan Heitmuller on the wing was causing plenty of problems for the opposition.

So it came as no surprise when Mullingar opened the scoring as Conor Casey started the year just like his finished last year with a pacy and strong run through the middle of the opposition defence to touch down under the posts for an excellent try. Credit to out-half Kian Campbell for a wonderful dummy pass before feeding Casey for the try. Charlie Boyle soon added a second, converted by Campbell and Mullingar seemed to be cruising.

But Edenderry responded with a try from the impressive Bagnall and Mullingar certainly had a game on their hands, but two more tries from the powerful Eke Adetuberu and hard-working Charlie McDonnell left the half time score Mullingar 22 Edenderry 5.

Mullingar emptied the bench at half-time, but the visitors once again proved their worth as they ran in three tries and made the most of some rusty passing and handling by the home side, something the coaches will surely work on over the coming weeks, but very much expected considering the lads only got together as a group earlier this week.

But Mullingar again responded positively when another debutant Isaac O’Neill, produced a superb strong and mazy run, evading several tackles to touch down under the posts. Charlie Boyle added his second try of the night to cap off a great opening fixture for the team, coaches, and many supporters in attendance.

There’s additional optimism as tonight’s team contained four debutants, Ike Adetuberu, Isaac O’Neill, Oscar Flood and particular mention to Sean Byrne, who fitted in perfectly, demonstrating some fine catching and strong runs at full back. Additional credit to Byrne considering it was his first game of competitive rugby.

Overall this was a great team performance and ideal opening game of the season. A performance worthy of it’s surroundings. Final score Mullingar 36 Edenderry 24