report by Gerard Sugrue and photos by Liam Murphy
With a large cohort at the U13 age group and no dedicated U13 league in West Munster, we were anxious to give all our U13s (plus a few U14s who had not played rugby before this season) a chance to play the 15-a-side game without the assistance (or 'interference') from the older age group.
Mallow were in similar situation with a large playing group who couldn't all get on the field so they kindly offered to come to Aghadoe to play a friendly challenge game on Saturday morning. The focus of the game was to give everyone a chance to play and less emphasis on the score (at least not by the coaching teams).
The windy but sunny weather interspersed with showers made handling difficult but didn't interfere with the fun. We saw some fantastic rugby with players able to demonstrate their tackling, rucking and evasion skills playing against a peer group.
Thanks to Rob Tyrrell, Alan Sheehan and the rest of the gang at Mallow RFC for bringing two teams over to Killarney. Thanks to Feargal Courtney for reffing the game in a good spirit. Thanks to all the players for their enthusiasm and effort.
We are looking to organise further U13 fixtures during the season to give everyone a chance to play outside of the regular U14 fixtures.
