Match Report Sat 19th Feb. U16 Thurles v Old Christians

Our young men headed south to the Rebel County today to take on the boys of Old Christians. After recent heavy rains and storm the going was soft on the grounds in Mahon. An early indicator that it was going to be no ordinary match came as coach Johnny Fogarty approached the fans on the sideline to ask that the usual banter directed towards the referee from the sidelines to be kept to the minimum today as the new ref took to the field on her first official and monitored game. A giggle went through the sideline as everyone asked the same question - how would Johnny be able to bite his lip today?

The game got under way and Thurles got into a good stride early on with Sean O Mahony first across the opposition try line in the first ten minutes. The Thurles team working well together saw Keelan Dunne second across coming around the ground behind the posts. Unfortunately this served to waken the beast that is Old Christians who started to come to life and put the ball into the Thurles end twice more. Windy conditions led to conversion troubles for both sides. Troubles also for both sides with a referee not quite on the ball yet missing a number of blatant fouls but eventually Old Christians were down a man as the error of their ways was finally penalised. A point to note and commend the Thurles team of this and of all their matches is the discipline and respect directed to all the referees - a credit to themselves and their coach. The second half saw Thurles fighting hard to close the gap on the scoreboard and coming close to sealing the deal but the final whistle beating them to it

Trys - Sean O Mahony Keelan Dunne Kicking was Fionn Fogarty.

Team - Fionn Fogarty(C), Oisín O Gorman, Cian McGrath, Niall Cleary, Con Phelan, Sean O Mahony, Evan Ryan, Sean Lloyd, Sean Ryan, Daniel Butler, Cian Ryan, Keelan Dunne, Eamon Ryan, Tom Ryan, Elliott Carew