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Our U14s travelled to Kerry Saturday morning. Castleisland kicked off and Thurles got straight into it with Edward Bannon setting up Paddy Ryan with what is now his trademark, ran in from the halfway line with only 2 minutes on the clock and Bannon kicked the conversation 7-0. Castleisland kicked off, but this time, a handling error from Thurles gave the home team a scrum, and their powerful number 8 ran in from the 22 for a great individual try, and the out half duly converted 7-7. Thurles started to dominate and looked the more dangerous with James Maher at the centre of everything good that Thurles were doing, Thurles had their fair share of defending to do with Cody Dooley leading by example and a solid shift from Ivan O'Reilly on the wing. There was a big performance from the pack with the back row of Charlie long Philip Lloyd and Gonzaga putting in a big effort. Castleisland won a penalty on the 10-minute mark and kicked to touch and processed to win the line out which the big No.8 got in for his second try out to the left of the posts and the missed the conversation 12-7. Thurles captain Paddy Ryan made a break up the middle of the field when he fell awkwardly and hurt his arm and had to be replaced by Sean Ryan with 5 minutes to go and Castleisland went in 12-7 up at the break. 

After the half-time huddle, Thurles came out the better team and was applying all the pressure when Charlie long crashed over to level the game 4 minutes after the restart, and Thurles missed the conversation 12-12. Thurles were on top now and on 5 occasions were denied scores with last stitch defending from Castleisland that on other days would have been scored, with all the striking runs from Bannon Ryan Corcoran and player of the match James Maher it still took until a minute before the end for the winner the extras were missed to leave the score 17-12 and a great win for Thurles. There were notable mentions for Oscar O'Donoghue and Bill Donnelly, who played in the second row for the first time together and we'd like to wish team captain Paddy Ryan a speedy recovery. Well done to all the boys and coaches involved.