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This coming wednesday sees the first team kick off their competitive season with the first round of the Limerick Charity Cup against Thomond, 7:30pm in Kilballyowen Park.
Friday night we have a J1 Friendly against Galbally at home with a 7:30pm kickoff.
Well,
The season started with a bang, Bruff’s sevens squad making their way to the final of the Meteor Sevens tournament in Highfield last Saturday. They took care of Young Munsters in round one, The holders Highfield in the second round and Shannon in the semi-final finishing the game with only 5 players following injuries. Thomond finally beating them in the final.
Following last weekend’s Meteor sevens tournament final appearance the Bruff 1st XV are back into full swing in the season proper this week.
Limerick Charity Cup final 2007 between Bruff and UL Bohs
Tuesday night sees Shannon RFC coming out for a friendly kicking off at 7:30pm and this coming Saturday sees the competitive season kicking off with the Limerick Charity Cup opener against Young Munster. This game has been relocated to St. Mary’s and kicks off at 2:30pm in Pa Healy’s field.
The J1 team kick off the season with a Transfield Cup game against UL Bohs in Kilballyowen on the 6th of September with a provisional kickoff of 1:00 (Due to the day that’s in it).
This is the draw as per the Munster Rugby Website.
Interesting, Home and Away against Munsters in two cups.
Good start to the season.
LIMERICK CHARITY CUP
First Round – Weekending 28 August
A U.L. Bohemian v Old Crescent
B Shannon v Thomond
C Nenagh Ormond v Garryowen
D Young Munster v Bruff
Semi Finals:
Sat 5th Sept “C” v “A”
Sun 6th Sept: “D” v “B”
Final 26th September
Getting to grips with Shiner
Well, We’re off.
The first run out of the Bruff First XV saw a very changed and experimental side lining out against U.L. Bohs last Monday night in the Limerick Charity Cup.
The pace of the game was extremely fast right from the start and Bohs’s couple of runs already this season really showed. It took a long time for the Bruff side to settle into the game and after twenty minutes they ended up 20 points to nil down following two fairly easy tries by Martin McPhail, both converted by Fergal Lawlor with only a single missed penalty by Full back Paul O’ Brien as a Bruff attack of any consequence. Another try by Bohs Prop Kevin Flanagan on 40 mins and it looked like becoming a rout before Eoin Cahill touched down on the stroke of half time to go in 25 points to five down at the break.
The second half was a much different affair with Bruff really settling into the game finally and it was nip and tuck all the way. Bruff finally settled into a routine but some missed passes going astray cost them dearly when in front of the try-line. Another brace of tries for Bohs and a return from Eoin Cahill saw a final score of 35 to 10.
Garry Leonard and Eoin Cahill try to get to grips with the Bohs Centre.
The new ELV’s didn’t seem to cause any major problems for all concerned, the tactic of kicking to outside the 22 preventing both sides from returning kicks to touch, the mauls were pulled down almost straight away, we’ll see a return to the Old fashioned “Rolling” maul in an effort to get momentum in the forwards, both sides seemed to get caught in the rucks a couple of times but this rule is always going to be very much down to referee interpretation and when the season is in full flight we’ll see how the rules end up panning out in “real time”.
Bohs Prop Kevin Flanagan with the pop pass to his scrum half watched by Bruff Scrum half Eoin Maher
All in all, a good blow out for the first run of the season. When the full squad gets back together coming closer to AIL time we should see some major improvements. Eoin Maher was also a bit of a revelation stepping up from the Twenties squad as scrum half, while maybe not getting to grips with the pace fully at the outset (and he wasn’t alone in that) he settled in very quickly and had a good game. Good game from Alfie Laffan overall as well.. It was also great to see Peter Malone back in the yellow and maroon for the first time in a few years.