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Tralee U14s travelled to
Newcastlewest on Sunday morning with a number of regular players unavailable.
This required a number of fringe players to step up to the starting team and
also a number of players to adapt to positions that they would not be familiar
with. Newcastlewest on the other hand were back at full strength with the
return of a number of long term absentees.
The Newcastlewest team were
physically bigger than the Tralee players but this did not stop the Tralee
players from edging the opening encounters, however, the effort did not convert
to a score until the 20th minute when Ben O’Neill opened the Tralee account.
Continued pressure after the restart led to a second try by Ben O’Neill. Tralee
looked as if they could bring a 10-0 lead into the break but a late rally by
Newcastlewest left the score at 10-7 at the end of a very entertaining
and well contested first half.
The huge effort that the Tralee
players contributed in the first half began to tell in the second and the
Newcastlewest team seemed to take the initiative with a very strong bench to
choose from. While the Tralee players contested very well they were punished on
three occasions by a very fast and physical opposing backline. The spirit of
the Tralee players once again came to the forefront as they continued to press
Newcastlewest in the last quarter. Jack Quilter grounded at the end of a
brilliant team effort only to be denied as the final pass was deemed to be
marginally forward. A lesser team would have dropped the heads at this point
but these players are made of stronger stuff than that and they continued to
press until eventually Jack Stuart finished some superb work by the forwards
for a well-deserved try.
Panel: Conor O’Nuallain, Patrick
Slattery, Daniel Teahan, Sean Dowling, Anthony Craig, Andrew McEllistrim, Ben
O’Neill, Jack O’Shea, Jack Murray, Rory Hill, Aaron Ferris, Cathal O’Reilly,
Louis Wells, Liam Kennedy, Jack Quilter, Jack Stuart, Fergus Bulman, Greg
Reidy, Ciaran Regan, Billy O’Donovan, Max Benner. |
Under Age Teams