Bruff Rugby Football Club

Seniors Vs Tullamore

It was a disappointing end to the season for the 1^st XV on Saturday when they came out second best to Tullamore in the league promotion semi-final play-off.

Bruff played with the wind in the opening half and went into the break 6-3 up thanks to two Declan Bannon penalties on 36 & 39 minutes, with Tullamore’s Penalty coming after 40 minutes with the final play of the first half.

Tullamore kicked their second penalty just after the restart and added a converted try from a driving maul after 45 minutes to race into a 13-6 lead. Bruff didn’t panic and kicked a third penalty on the fifty minute mark to reduce the lead to 13-9. Bruff were enjoying longs spells of possession and were rewarded in the 61^st minute with a fine try from out-half Tony Cahill. Cahill dummied to his left and made a clean line break to run in from 25 metres to score to the right of the posts. Bannon converted and Bruff went into a 16-13 lead.

Tullamore drew level with a penalty after 63 minutes before Bruff went in for another great try after 66 minutes. Tullamore bombed a high ball down on top of Bruff full back Brendan Deady who returned it with interest. Deady launched his own high ball which he was able to retake himself. He linked with Mark Cosgrove who broke the Tullamore line before passing off to Darragh Mulcahy for a try in the corner to make it 21-16 to Bruff. With only a few minutes remaining Tullamore went on the attack again and were awarded with a penalty close to the Bruff line which they choose to kick to touch. It proved to be the correct decision for them as the resulting lineout was eventually mauled over and a converted try resulted to make it 23-21 to the home side. Bruff had an attacking opportunity from the kick off but it didn’t prove fruitful. Tullamore now go on to play Wanderers in the promotion play-off final next weekend.

Bruff Team : 1.Dave Horan 2.Johnny Hogan 3. Keith Laffan 4.Barry Laffan 5.Brian Morissey 6.Cillian Rea 7.Mikey Carroll 8.Paddy Clery 9.Davy O Grady 10.Tony Cahill 11. Mark Cosgrove 12. Sean Darcy 13.Declan Bannon 14.Barry Enright 15. Brendan Deady 16. Keith Laffan 17. Danny Keogh 18. Neilus Keogh 19 Sean Hartigan 20 Darragh Mulcahy 21 Paidi Kilcoyne 22 Jack O Grady 23 Cian Mulqueen

Other rugby

The seconds were in action on Sunday losing 36-24 to Presentation in the semi-final of the Munster Junior Bowl.

The Under 18’s had a convincing 41-20 win over Kilrush in the cup, while the u15’s were beaten 14-18 by Garryowen in a league play-off.