Report by Milo, Photos by Margaret Murphy and Anne Gabbett, Compiled by Liam Murphy.
Two gitanium wins in Aghadoe against Clonakilty recently and on Sunday just past, away to Bruff, has left a real opportunity to fight for the last four positions for theses brave and fearless girls.
Bruff, at home and at any age, is not a place any coach wants to take their team, as there is a huge tradition and passion devoted to make all their sides, quite frankly, tough and good.
So, it was this in mind, the Killarney girls showed up with a certain amount of trepidation. What made matters worse, there was quite a large home crowd present due to an earlier match. But once again, the Killarney girls started well, and it wasn’t long before they scored, much to the surprise of the partisan Bruff contingent.
In the scrums, the coaches were delighted to see that the ball is being hooked back a lot quicker, thereby gaining vital quick yards from the base of the scrum, by captain of the day, Fia. It was this possession that proved vital in some of the tries that followed, and it also proved a real problem for Bruff to marshal.
Due to height of the Bruff girls, the lineout’s proved problematic but that said, Clodagh and Joanne did very well in securing ball and giving our backline a go forward momentum.
In broken play, Killarney came under sustained pressure as Bruff got to the breakdowns quicker occasionally and robbed us of vital possession, but it was only due to the work rate in defence by everyone that the floodgates didn’t open. The backline of Robyn, Bronagh, Niamh, Marina, Kate, Katie and Melissa, had to work for the full 60 minutes, as Bruff never gave up. The Forward set up of Ella, Jasmine, Molly, Nell, Shauna, Clodagh, Joanne and Fia, had to put in a huge shift to overcome a pack that looked liked that could play u16s and compete. Isabella came on for Kate to give us a fresh pair of legs, which were badly needed due to sustained periods of pressure.
At half time, Killarney were two tries up, but as we know from a previous encounter, Bruff will come back, and back they came, scoring a brace of unanswered tries. The tension was mounting as the match entered the last quarter and one wondered, was it too much for such a new side to rugby.
All around the field the girls threw themselves into the thick of it, our girls often had to run into five of six Bruff girls, and it was the work ethic of the forwards getting into help her out that won the day. What was inspiring was the fact that nearly all the backline scored, showing that the girls little by little are beginning to understand, support, lines of running, depth of running. But, the backline also know, if it wasn’t for the hard yards, the rucking, the turnover balls by the forwards, the scores would not come quite as easy, so the moral of the story, Killarney girls rock!!
Killarney knew they had to get Bruff back under pressure and get some scores deep into the game, or, Bruff would seize the day. All the supporters knew, it was a huge ask, but the players themselves are growing into a mature, young outfit and are prepared, even under pressure, to back themselves and with four minutes to go, not only scored once, but twice, to hush the Bruff supporters and put the game out of sight. It was a thing of beauty to see Bronagh, tap over a very very difficult conversion, only for ref to blow fulltime. What a result!
A word of special mention goes to Katie O Donoghue, who had an epic performance, to our mascot and waterboy Donnacha, to Liam and Josh who were outstanding helping out, to Mags, Norma, Rose, Ana, Anne, Jerome, Paula, John, Gary and Fiona and if I have forgotten anyone, my humblest apologies..
Be very proud of these girls, they deserve it.. FACT!
