Results | Bruff Rugby Football Club

Well, as you might have heard by now it looks like a playoff place is almost definitely out of reach.

Following a tough game at Kilballyowen Ballynahinch managed to scrape throuigh with a twenty two points to twenty win on Saturday to clinch their playoff place and consign us to fifth place in the table. While still technically possible, We have Clonakilty at home on the 11th and then we go away to Greystones for the last league phase game of the year on the 18th, Old Crescent would have to Lose to either Highfield at home on the 11th and/or Away to Malone on the 18th and we would have to get max bonus points to be sure.

Saturdays game again had the Bruff Pack dominant, the back line willing to throw the ball around a good bit but a couple of mistakes allowed Ballynahinch to score two tries, and that’s what it was, Bruff mistakes keeping Ballynahinch in the game. To be brutally honest, many felt that this game should have been put to bed by half time, such was the dominance of the Bruff side with the strong wind at their tails but they failed to put the scores on the board when they had their opposition on the rack. With Bruff going ahead after three minutes courtesy of a Brian Cahill, They maintained possession and territory but Ballynahinch latched onto a looping infield pass from the wing to the full back to create a ruck from which Chris Stevenson broke to get try No. 1 duly converted by Ryan Bambry. Finbarr Hogans try on 22minutes followedon thirty five minutes by another mistake which allowed Ballynahinch’s outhalf Bambry in for their Second try which he duly converted. This all meant that Bruff went in at halftime down by Fourteen points to ten despite spending almost all of the first half in the Ballynahinch side of the field.

The second half started with Ballynahinch coming strong and three minutes in they went ahead after a Gareth Rourke try which gave them a 19 points to ten lead. Bruff again fought back however and two minutes later hauled the lead back in a bit courtesy of a three pointer from Cahill. 19-13. This was followed by a ten minute camping out betwen the Ballynahinch five meter and try lines which eventually led to Captain Cathal O’ Regan crossing the whitewash. The Cahill conversion duly gave Bruff the slenderest of leads but it wasn’t to last long. Three minutes later Bambry knocked over a penalty to give hinch back the lead and despite a massive attack for the remainder of the game by the Bruff team with only an ocacsional breakout by Hinch they managed to hold on to the two point lead right to the finish.

Final Score Bruff 20- Ballynahinch 22.

Bruff: David Horan, Cathal O’ Regan, Stephen Foster, Alfie Laffan, Maurice O’ Connell, Mike Carroll, Ger Luby, Peter Malone, Eoghan Maher, Brian Cahill, John Moore, John Malone, Andrew Cashman, Fionbarr Hogan, Paul O’ Brien Subs: Gearoid Ryan, Mossie O’ Donnell, Padraig Cleary, Garry Leonard

What can you say about this? If you missed it you missed a cracking tight encounter. A last minute penalty from the touchline by David Maw giving Bruff the four league points on offer, Old Crescent having to settle for the Losing Bonus. The Limerick Derbies in Division two this year promised to be very close encounters but so far Bruff have managed to scrape through in each case. There was as much excitement on the sideline as on the pitch by all accounts. It just goes to show how tense things are in division two this season. The first half saw Bruff going into the break 9 points to five down, the only try of the game coming from Bruff centre John Carroll three meters in from the touchline after a sustained period of Bruff pressure who played the first half towards the clubhouse and against the diagonal breeze.
Second half saw Brian Cahill putting one penalty over and Bruff spent long periods inside the Crescent 22 with only the occasional breakout lifting the siege and in the final play of the game, the dominant Bruff Pack pushed Old Crescent off their own scrum to win a penalty five meters in from the left between the 22 and the 10 meter line which Dave Maw slotted after coming on with twelve minutes to go to give Bruff the win. Anyway Bruff head back into second place in the league table albeit with some teams with games in hand to play. Looks well though for our first season in Div. 2. With UCC playing Bective this coming weekend we should see a shakeup in the top four or five teams in the division.
Final Score Bruff 11, Old Crescent 9.

Scores: Old Crescent: 3 Pens. Bruff: J. Carroll Try, B. Cahill Pen. D. Maw Pen.
Bruff: D. Horan, C. O’ Regan, S. Foster, A. Laffan, A. Bourke, J. Shine, M. Carroll, P. Malone, E. Maher, B. Cahill, P. O’ Brien, J. Carroll, J. Malone, J. Moore, B. Deady, Subs: M. O’ Donnell, G. Ryan, D. Murnane, G. Leonard, D. Maw.

1st XV: Saturday was what you might call a “Perfect Storm” from a weather point of view. An extremely strong Lansdowne team containing at least one contracted player lined out against the lads in the RDS. All the points came in the first half with Lansdowne slotting two penalties with a mini hurricane at their backs. With it being dark enough to require floodlights right from the kickoff, things got so bad that both of the posts seemed to wave at least two feet over and back in front of the kicker. A day full of penalties at the ruck again for both sides but Bruff weathered the storm in the first half to hold on for a 6 point deficit at the half time break and hoping to have the wind at their back for round two. The travelling horde were ensconced under the roof to the side, somewhat comforted by the flow of hot toddies on hand nearby but it was just awful out there. Both teams literally ran for cover at the half time break to take a little shelter from the weather. The game should never have been played in those conditions and news was filtering through during the game about games being called off or abandoned all around the country, the condition of the pitch however was just excellent and this was probably the only reason that the game proceeded.

Second half began with Bruff on the attack but seemed to be completely unable to get inside the Lansdowne 22. The wind had changed to a lunatic swirl around the ground instead of the straight between the posts version which had dominated the first half. Every time that Bruff crossed that white border of the 22 they were pinged and play seemed to be concentrated between the ten meter lines. A few Lansdowne attacks were easily repulsed by the strong Bruff defence but the much vaunted Bruff pack just failed to make any impression on the Lansdowne defence. The only consolation, two penalty attempts by Brian Cahill, one a very speculative effort from his own ten meter line, but it was not to be and both sides were again eager to get off the pitch when the Lansdowne Scrumhalf finally kicked the ball out over his own dead-ball line to close proceedings. Both kickers had to have the ball held for them every time they kicked, line-outs were a complete lottery, but Bruff seemed to get the better of the scrummaging on the day. It was just a miserable wet, windy and cold afternoon and it finished with no score in the second half. Just as the Bruff squad headed for the bus the skies cleared and we saw the sun for the first time during the day. Lansdowne cemented their position at the top of the table, and Bruff gaining a losing Bonus point for their efforts.

Bruff: D. Horan, C. O’ Regan, S. Foster, A. Bourke, D. Murnane, M. Carroll, S. Shine, P. Malone, E. Maher, B. Cahill, J. Moore, J. Carroll, J. Malone, F. Hogan, B. Deady, M. O’ Donnell, G. Ryan, A. Laffan, D. Maw, G. Leonard.

Quiet enough last week at home on the rugby front.
First XV: On Friday night last The first XV took a trip up to Nenagh to play a friendly under lights up there. Nenagh ran out eventual winners by 12 points to 7.
On Saturday the U20’s chalked up another win in a friendly against Dolphin, finishing on a 41 point to 19 win.
The J1 game against Shannon didn’t take place.
Youths:
The Under 18’s friendly between Bruff and Abbeyfeale on Saturday saw the Lads from the west coming away with a 20 point to 12 win.
NML U13: In the North Munster League the Under 13’s beat Shannon by the slimmest of score-lines, Young O’ Dwyer kicking his way into the history books (I Know, I Know….) with a penalty to give Bruff a 3 points to nothing lead with about ten minutes left on the clock. Bruff held on to win.
NML U14: Bruff 14 Garryowen 26
NML U16: Bruff 8 Newcastle West 41
J2 Bruff 17 Thurles 37.

The first XV Bruff managed to keep their winning streak going when they managed to come away from their Division two clash with De La Salle Palmerston in Kilternan today. Bruff opened the scoring with a Garry Leonard try on 9 minutes, DLSP Scrum half Dustin Jinka slotting a penalty 7 minutes later to bring it back to a 2 point lead.Following a lost lineout which DLSP quickly grabbed, Centre Francis Cooney broke two tackles to run in for their first try of the day. With both sides trading missed penalties, Play swayed over and back between the trylines with both sides attacking at various periods and both defences holding strong. The binning of David Horan 3 minutes into injury time only caused the Bruff pack to stiffen their backs and constant pressure earned them a penalty in front of the posts Which David Maw slotted over with 8 minutes of injury time played in the first half.
Half time score 8 points apiece.

The second half began wit more of the same, both sides attacking both defences holding, mistakes in passing and kicking going astray causing a string of phases breaking down until Cathal O’ Regan fulfiling the captains role after a maul over the DLSP tryline went down, the referee peering into the resulting melee for what seemed like a minute before finally granting the try. With Maw slotting the penalty Bruff took a seven point lead and led to their strongest period in the game.A ten minute period of attack followed and finally the frustration seemed to be getting to DLSP when their winger was sent to the bin after a boisterous charge in from the side. Again however this seemd to glavanise them into a strong period of attack and Cooney again made a very strong run down the left hand side resulting in his second try. Jinka missed the conversion to leave the score 15 to 13 with a nail biting final eleven minutes. At this stage the Bruff discipline really shone through and despite constant pack pressure in the final few minutes DLSP failed to get the penalty needed to capture the four league points on offer. After repulsing a number of DLSP attackes Bruff ground their way into Salmo territory finally being granted a penalty in the last minute which M aw duly slotted over to allow Bruff run out 18-13 point winners.
Bruff Scores: Tries G. Leonard, C O’ Regan, 2 Penalties & 1 Conversion: D.Maw.
DLSP Scores: Tries Francis Cooney x 2, D.Jinka 1 Pen.

Bruff: D.Horan, C. O’ Regan, S.Foster, D. Murnane, A.Laffan, A. Bourke, J.S.Shine, P. Malone. B.Cahill, D.Maw, J. Moore, G. Leonard, J. Malone, P. O’ Brien, B. Deady.

Bruff Rugby Football Club

Weekend Results for Bruff

1st XV AIL : Down to the wire in Kilballyowen. Bruff V Old Crescent

AIB League, Lansdowne 6 Bruff 0

Last Weekends results

Bruff 18, DLSP 13.