The Under 13 squad got their league season off to a tremendous start with a surprise whitewash against a travelling Cork Constitution side.  No surprise in the victory itself; the surprise was that we were expecting to play Dolphin!  Cork Constitution had decided, at the eleventh hour, to take part in the league and Crosshaven drew the short straw.

The match got under way under the stewardship of referee Niall Scriven and the ball was moved about a great deal by both sides for the first fifteen minutes.  Gradually, however, Crosshaven started to gain control of the game and their efforts were rewarded twenty minutes into the match with a fine try from outhalf Seán Gray.  The Crosshaven forwards had moved the ball steadily up the field and a final quick pass from scrum half Peter McCann allowed Seán to use his strength and pace to get over the line in the corner.  Crosshaven went thus into the break; five points up.

The second half saw Cork Con come out very strong and they applied sustained pressure to Crosshaven’s defence.  No breach could be made, however and Crosshaven soon took play back into the Cork Con half.  Here, Con held possession of the ball for a continuous seven minutes, moving the ball across the pitch, before ultimately turning over the ball after conceding almost forty meters of territory.  Crosshaven capitalised on this turn over and, off the back of a maul on Con’s five meter line, prop Daragh Kiely charged through the Con defence to touch down for a well crafted try.  Outhalf Seán Grey converted, leaving Crosshaven leading by twelve points to nil.

Once again, Con piled on the pressure and, once again, Crosshaven’s defence held firm.  Constitution could not find a way through, with the Crosshaven back line holding firm.  Superb tackling from captain / full back Cian Byrne and centres Oisín Conway and Fionn Dalton held the Con offence at bay and the whole back line hassled and harried the Cork Con lads to a tremendous degree, leading to numerous expressions of frustration from the visiting side.  As the final whistle approached, centre Oisín Conway flowed through the Con defence, shrugging off three attempted tackles, to score the final try of the game.  17 – 0.  This was a superb performance from the entire team, with everyone on the pitch giving 100% all the time.

1       Daragh Kiely (try)              9    Peter McCann

2       Shane Bushe                     10  Seán Grey (try, conv)

3       Grattan Roberts                 11  John Reynolds

4       Thomas McGrath              12  Fionn Dalton

5       Brian O’Connor                  13  Oisín Conway (try)

8       Oliver Nyhan                    14  Richard Thompson

15  Cian Byrne

Substitutes:  Eoin Lydon, Tim Marron (both played).

This was the opening game of the Under 13 league, in which Crosshaven have yet to play Douglas, Dolphin and Kinsale.  For this squad, it is the first time they have a played a match on a full pitch.  They match time of one hour – as opposed to forty minutes that they played as Under 12’s last season – is also new.  Credit is due to the lads for their ability in winning their first match in this format and we hope to take them on to similar victories over the coming season.

The next match is on Saturday, October 31^st, away to Douglas.  The KO time has not been decided yet, but all will be notified soon.

Crosshaven RFC Under 13 Squad

Training: - 7pm to 8:30 pm every Monday

Upcoming Under 13 Fixture:

Saturday October 31st 2009: AWAY to Douglas KO tbc