Nenagh u15s v Clonakilty
Report by Mike Fogarty

Nenagh Ormond under 15s made the long journey down to Clonakilty RFC on Sunday last. With a yellow weather warning in place conditions were always going to be difficult and so it proved to be. Clon won the toss and opted to play with the wind. Nenagh early on struggled to deal with the conditions and kicking was just not an option. Clon got 2 early scores from Nenagh errors. Nenagh tried to play rugby moving it around, but conditions just didn’t allow that. However, Nenagh did settle after 10 mins or so and started to play tight. Ben Madden at 12 made some brilliant runs with ball in hand creating a platform for the forwards to work off.  They started carrying with intent and really took the game to Clon but just as we pushed up the field some ill discipline resulted in a Clon penalty. The Nenagh defence seemed to switch off and their no 8 ran 50 yards to score. Nenagh got to half time 19 down but still with a lot to play for.

The second half kicked off and Clon took advantage of a Nenagh error and after a couple of mins scored in the corner. That try seemed to spur Nenagh on a bit. Anluan White got us into the Nenagh 22 with a great run and after a couple of rucks Shaun Murphy seemed destined to score but the Clon defender ripped the ball loose. Luke Slattery was first to react to dive on loose ball to score. Oisin Hogan added the very difficult conversion. That score gave Nenagh real momentum but with the conditions so difficult it was a stop start game. From a penalty on our own 10 metre line quick thinking by Aidan Steed who kicked the ball in behind the defence. From the resulting ruck Aidan Ryan made a brilliant turnover and when the ball was moved wide to Anluan White he powered over the line with Kaden Fogarty adding the extras. With 7 mins to go and Clon down to 14 men Nenagh kept the momentum going.  Again, after a kick they found themselves in the opposition 22. The ball was moved into midfield where Aidan Steed in contact threw a long pass to Cody Sheedy who did very well to collect and then step inside the defender to dot the ball down on the line. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough time left to get another score with the final result 24-19 to Clon. Overall it was a good performance, with Clonakilty adjusting to the conditions that bit quicker. It was a learning curve for the team in that you have to adjust your game to the weather conditions. Training conditions Wednesdays and Fridays.