Thurles Rugby Club Match Report 6th March 2022.

Thurles Go Top Of League
Thurles RFC:                25
Charleville & District: 20

Thurles RFC got some revenge over Charleville when the two sides met in a league encounter a week after Charleville knocked Thurles out of the Munster Junior Cup.
On a lovely crisp spring afternoon Thurles started to show some of the seasons earlier form  with a very impressive start and but for some sloppy defending at times, would have won this game with ease. Paddy McGrath opened the scoring in the 5th minute with a penalty. 5 minutes later Outhalf James Maher kicked down deep in to the Charleville 22 from the resultant lineout the forwards drove on the ball and released it to the backs and James Maher ran a great line for to score and Paddy McGrath added the conversion.  In the 32nd minute Eoighan O Dwyer returned a long kick the ball was passed to Colin Nolan who passes a lovely deep pass to James Maher who passes far out to Ger McCormack   he popped the ball to Luke Kelly who skipped a pass to Conor Moloney who drew the defender and returned the pass to captain Luke Kelly who ran in from the 22M line for as good a score that has been seen in Loughtagalla in a long time. Typical of Thurles was to let in a very sloppy try in on the stroke of half time to give Charleville a glimmer of hope , the try was well converted from the touchline. To leave the half time score 15: 7.
Thurles got a great start to the second half when following on from a scrum in their own half the backs ran the ball up the middle and from the resultant ruck James Maher kicked deep onto the 22 and the ball bounces backward into the arms of the onrushing full back Paddy McGrath who added the conversion to his own try.
More poor play allowed Charleville back again into the match with a converted score and two penalties to close the gap to 2 points but Paddy McGrath added another penalty to increase the gap and Thurles ground down the last minutes deep in the Charleville 22 keeping them under pressure. A much more improved performance from Thurles but there is still room for improvement  to get back to per Christmas form.
 Team:  Paddy McGrath, Darragh Sweeney , Dylan Shaughnessy, Sonny Dwyer, Eoghan O’Dwyer, James Maher, Semaus Houlihan, Ger McCormack, Dara Sweeney, John Shaw Jnr, Colin Nolan, Luke Kelly C, Conor Moloney, Mark Cummins, Sam Quinlan,  Subs:, Jack Kavanagh, Rob O Donovan, Joey Kelly, Shane Nugent. 

Other Results from the Weekend
 U18.5  Girls  Thurles /Carraig-on- Suir   71:  Shannon 7
U16 Boys Thurles 20 Mallow 18.
U18.5 Boys Thurles / Cashel 26:  Old Christians 20