Bruff Rugby Football Club

The Junior side claimed a hard-fought victory over UL-Bohs on Sunday afternoon in Kilballyowen to further bolster their chances of being in the mix when the play off stage of the North Munster Seconds League arrives.

On a day that saw optimal conditions for rugby, the J1 team emerged victorious by a 24-16 margin. The game started brightly with John Hogan flopping over the try line after ten minutes, having piggy-backed on a strong maul, powered by the rest of the Bruff pack. UL-Bohs, however, fought back with two penalties that had it looking like they would be heading in to half time as the leaders.

However, second-row Pat Lynch put Bruff back in front shortly before half-time with a well-taken try that took considerably more effort from the second row than what was displayed by Hogan for his try earlier in the game. Richie McAuliffe added the conversion to make it 12-6 at half time.

UL Bohs added another penalty shortly after the half to bring them closer to Bruff but Richie McAuliffe was on target again, this time with a penalty, to put the lead back out to 15-9 and once again shortly afterwards to give the home side what should have been a comfortable lead at 18-9. The visitors fought back once again with a converted try of their own to put the margin down to only two points.

Concerted Bruff pressure, aided by a dominant scrum thanks to the hard work of Stephen Foster and Keith Laffan, led to two further successful penalty shots at goal for Richie McAuliffe in the dying minutes to put the game beyond UL Bohs and to keep the J1 side’s unbeaten streak going for at least one more week. Next week’s game is at home against Cashel in the Junior Cup.