Last years U21s season was one of both huge success and disappointment. Having a strong core of the team back from the previous season, along with a number of new signings, we were well equipped to mount a strong challenge on both the Leinster League and the
All-Ireland. A new management team was also put together, consisting of Justin Wilson and Ben Gissing as coaches, with Paul Gorman and Conor D’Arcy looking after the management side of things.
The tone for the season was set early on by Giss and Justin on the way home from a
pre-season game in Buccaneers on a miserable Friday night. It was the first time we had gathered together away from the senior squad and it was clear that at the very least we were going to have a good time off the pitch. They also seemed to have decided we would play a more open, running brand of rugby which we were more than capable of playing but also a style we would really enjoy. While for the most part we trained alongside the senior squad, we always trained separately on Friday nights.
The league campaign started of in mid October against UCD in Belfield. Despite missing a number of key players and struggling to make up a bench we managed an 11-8 victory, a very impressive feat considering the strength of UCD at this level. From here we really kicked on through the group with five wins out of five and four bonus points. Each match followed the same pattern; we would shoot into a huge lead only to go asleep for a period, before eventually winning. The most notable occasion when this happened was in the Super Six against Old Belvedere were we shot into a 28 point lead after about fifteen minutes, though we trailed 32 – 31 at half time. We went on to eventually win 72 – 39, it was our way of entertaining the crowd though the management did not appreciate the gesture!! The first loss of the season came away to Blackrock (21-17). However it was a dubious result !! Despite the loss we managed to wrap up the Leinster League with seven points to spare on a Friday night in the ‘Bull Ring’ with a 45 – 17 win against Trinity. At this stage a number of team nights had taken place though the night we won the league was a special one. Special mention must go to Gormo, Darc and Denis D’Arcy who managed to source some money and sort us out with free jar for the night!!
I must also mention that in the week leading up to the All Ireland quarter final we had a death within the squad. The team goldfish, who had attended every match to date, died under the watch of Polar (Keith O’ Donoghue). Needless to say Polar was severely punished for his role in Scuba Steves death!! May he rest in peace.
On a more serious note injuries were starting to build up, Mike Sherlock had been ruled out for the remainder of the season alongside Greg Slattery. Adrian D’Arcy was also struggling to recover from a broken ankle. This added to our problems as we were a small squad who also supplied a number of players to the senior side on any given week. Despite this we managed to defeat a decent Garryowen outfit by 57 points to 27 for a place in the semi-final against UCD. There were strong performances from one to fifteen but special mention must go to Chris O’ Brien who put in a man of the match performance and to James Hart who was excellent off the tee as he had been all year.
Unfortunately the season was about to grind to a halt when we met UCD in a highly competitive and physical match where we lost out 22 points to 20. UCD had done their homework and devised a game plan to counter our expansive style. They put huge numbers of players into rucks preventing us from getting quick ball to play out wide where we had been so potent all year. Though they never really looked like creating tries their pressure paid off as they intercepted a pass for a try and capitalized on a breaking ball from a garryowen. Despite this we were always in the game and with a new lease of life and more direct rugby in the last 15 minutes we scored a try leaving us two points behind, however we just fell short in the last play of the game with a knock on in their twenty two. Even though we were missing a number of players we could have no qualms, we simply did not adapt quickly enough to the UCD tactics and they were fully deserved their win.
I must also mention the hard work put in over the last couple of years by Derek Maybury Paul Dempsey and various other club/committee members to create such a good U21s programme. Hopefully this will continue over the next number of years, though it will be more difficult now that Giss and Justin have moved to Australia. They will be a big loss to the club and the U21s.
Hopefully we will kick on from last years disappointment and win the AIL with the firsts.
Cathal O’ Flynn
Captain
2010/2011 U21s
