Dundalk U9s headed up the road on a beautiful Sunday morning to Foxrock to face the local St Brigids team. The Dundalk Sharks travelled with a squad of 24 players (3 teams) which contested three matches each. The dry and sunny conditions really suited Dundalk’s fast paced play and resulted in some great rugby.
Team 1, marshalled by Aidan Reilly, flew out of the traps in their first match with DD Reilly and Liam O Connor leading the way. Some exquisite passing by Ewan Kelly and Daniel Cartwright paved the way for an easy victory. Eoin Purton and Moss McDonald led the tackle count in the second match as the opposition couldn’t cope with the Shark’s physicality. In the last game, Dundalk recorded another win with Euan McArdle chipping in with a great score and a feature of the game were a couple of barnstorming runs by Enda Dooley.
Team 1: DD Reilly, Moss McDonald, Eoin Purton, Ewan Kelly, Euan McArdle, Enda Dooley, Liam O Connor, Daniel Cartwright.
Damien Norton led Team 2 into their three matches. St Brigids were on the back foot immediately as ferocious rucking by Oisin Nash and Rory Wallace turned over possession on numerous occasions. Oisin McBride was the one to benefit as he notched up a hat-trick of tries as the Sharks ran out easy winners. Twins Thomas and Liam McNamara excelled in the second game with some tremendous passing interplay that yielded some great scores. But St Brigids came back and exerted concerted pressure but some fantastic tackling by David Coyle ensured the match ended level.
The lads eased to a facile victory in their final match with notable performances from Max Valentine and Iarlaith Connolly in particular.
Team 2: Oisin McBride, David Coyle, Max Valentine, Thomas McNamara, Liam McNamara, Rory Wallace, Iarlaith Connolly, Oisin Nash.
Team 3, under the stewardship of Niall Lavery, got their day off to a flying start with some super tries from Theo Connolly and Donal Lavery. Some wonderful tackling from Darragh Collier paved the way for a comprehensive win. In the second game, some great rucking from Josh Spaight coupled with fine passing from Ryan Martin, allowed Michael Carroll put in a performance that had the appreciable crowd present in rapturous applause. Again the final game followed in a similar vein with some very powerful running from Cian McGuinness and some fantastic tries from Luke O Connell.
Team 3: Cian McGuiness, Ryan Martin, Luke O Connell, Michael Carroll, Darragh Collier, Donal Lavery, Theo Connolly, Josh Spaight.
Training continues at Rugby Club on Tuesday at 6.15 sharp.
