U17s thriller in Coolmine

THRILLER AT CRFC

Coolmine19-16 Cill Dara

CoolmineU17s Come Back From The Abyss to secure Final Place.

Rarely has there been a thriller like it at Ashbrook. Coolmine U17s left the pitch to standing ovations and acclaim after clawing themselves back from a 0-16 deficit with 15 minutes remaining to secure a famous victory 'at the death' over a very well organised, highly motivated and effective Cill Dara team. The last gasp victory secures a place in the Premier League Final.

The first half was a very evenly matched affair which saw both sides attempting to play open expansive rugby in the Ashbrook sunshine. Both defenses proved solid however. Cill Dara made more use of the boot to gain territory and put the Coolmine full back under pressure with some probing chase kicks. Meanwhile, Coolmine's back line, through impressive variations constantly threatened the Cill Dara defense. The differences between the two sides was the Cill Dara kicker. With a golden boot that would impressed the discerning locals, he slotted home three penalties from a distance that would not normally be expected at this age group.

Coolmine helped the kicker on several occasions when poor after-the-whistle ill discipline resulted in the ball being moved the customary ten metres towards the tryline and into kicking range. A tough but fair lesson on the importance of good discipline for every player participating or watching! The first half ended 0-9 in favour of Cill Dara with little between the teams.

The second half started as the first half ended. Several minutes into the second half, once again a long Cill Dara boot put the Coolmine full-back under pressure; an impressive chase from the Cill Dara speedsters resulted in a blocked down kick and an easy try and conversion. There was a question of knock on as Cill Dara went over but the score stood.

0-16 to Cill Dara and the momentum was definitely with them. At this point, all but the most blindly optimistic Coolmine dreamers on the sidelines were resigned to defeat and a disappointing end to a courageous league campaign.

However,as the all-time great American Football coach Vince Lombardi once said: “It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up.”

The moment of truth had arrived for these young Coolmine men and it was time to decide if they were going to “lie down” or if they were going to “get up”.

Fired by indignation (at the situation they had found themselves in, of their own making), pride and belief, the team went up a gear. Time and again they hammered the Cill Dara defence and despite the temptation to change tactics, Coolmine stuck with their plan to play the ball out through the back line. At one point, whatever hopes the Coolmine supporters had, took another blow when a Rob O'Farrell try was disallowed due to a knock-on that had occurred moments earlier. Three minutes later, however, a scrum on the Cill Dara '22 produced a back line move of remarkable elegance, allowing  Coolmine to pass untouched under the post to score. 7-16 with 12 minutes to play. Was this to be the loser's consolation score? They had other plans.

For the next six or so minutes, waves of attack by Coolmine were stoutly defended by a brave but perhaps tiring Cill Dara. Eventually,through a combination of quick hands and determination, full-back Matt Grogan achieved sweet recompense after his earlier blocked kick, with a strong finish from 15 yards out to score on the wing. A close but missed conversion attempt. 12-16.

Cill Dara, perhaps waking up to the realisation that Coolmine were not quitting, gained a second-wind and went on the offensive. At this point, with less than two minutes to play, with Cill Dara enjoying an attacking scrum on the Coolmine '22; a moment of individual brillance:

Cill Dara's backline attempted to wrong foot the Coolmine defence, however, flanker David Slupko, was alert to the ploy and performed a gorgeous interception at full pace. After a heartstopping and hair raising chase, he grounded the ball under the posts to the whoops and barely believing cheers of the Coolmine supporters. Last season, David suffered a very severe leg injury that sidelined him for almost a full season. The sight of him at full flight for 80 yards is, in itself, a story of determination and of 'courage overcoming adversity' worth recounting.

After the conversion Coolmine led for the first time in the game 19-16.

An understandably shell-shocked Cill Dara did not have time to comeback. The final whistle blew to the joy of Coolmine and the disappointment of a brave Cill Dara team. There will still be a chance for Cill Dara players to shine at the Schools and Youths Cup Final against Seapoint. Best of luck to the Cill Dara lads in that game.

The Coolmine Coaching team and Supporters on the sidelines could not quite believe what they had witnessed; perhaps one of the greatest ever comebacks in the history of Junior Rugby at Coolmine.

Sport eh?

Coolmine Crew Feature strongly in Leinster Metro panel

Congrats to five of the U15 panel who have been selected on the Leinster Metro Panel and a heartfelt hard luck to the lads who have missed out on this turn. 

Thinen Tharn, Ben Colgan, Ben Griffin, Conor Kelly and Max Gerhardt - congratulations to you all and well done. 

And to Dean Ennis. Jack Fitzpatrick, Eoin Gilmore, Killian Hogan - your coaches , team mates and club are in your debt for raising our standards. 

The club is unbelievably proud of you and your achievements this season.

As School Youth Premier League Champions, School Youth Cup Holders & Metro Plate Champions, it really has been an extraordinary rugby journey for this group. 

 

U15s v Terenure

And so it begins ……

 

After a stellar pre-season, with wins over Barnhall, Malahide, St Marys and Clontarf in the bag, the first league game of the season, against Terenure, finally arrived on Sunday 11th. This run of victories hadn’t come without a cost however. There were a number of players unavailable for selection for the first game including Peter O’Farrell and Tien (concussion) and Chris Agnoli (Fractured Hairline!!). There was still a strong squad to pick from however, and the coaches had their work cut out for them in this regard.

The starting 15 lined up against a strong looking Terenure outfit, and the first couple of minutes were spent settling into the game. Coolmine settled first. After some good forward play. The ball was quickly moved along the line and out to the left, where Dean was left unmarked and when the final pass arrived, he made no mistake, scoring just to the left of the posts. Louis stepped up and coolly slotted it between the posts. 7-0 after 4 minutes.

Terenure all of a sudden looked nervous. After a dud kick-off, Coolmine immediately had possession of the ball on the half way line and moved the ball forward ominously through their forwards. Ben was proving a handful and made ground every time he had the ball, ably supported by the rest of the pack. A break from the 22 was made by Justin and there was no stopping him as he went in for the 2nd try just to the right of the posts. Again, Louis made no mistake with the conversion. 14-0 and only 7 minutes gone.

2 minutes later it was the turn of Ben. Terenure were in possession but a strong tackle and subsequent ruck forced the turnover, and Colgans strength and speed were not going to be denied. A couple of minutes on, and playing in an unfamiliar back row position Max Gerhardt joined the party. It was one of those runs we have all become accustomed to from the fullback position, but it proved just as efficient when starting from the thick of things. With the score at 35-0, the one man Kiilian show began. In a scintillating 11 minute spell, the former Ashbourne man crossed the line 4 times, with Terenure having no match for his speed and some clever lines. The pick of these was the 4th, where Justin drew the final defender beautifully before laying off the pass for the finish just to the right of the posts. Louis converted all bar one of these to leave the score at 54 – 0, and there were still 3 minutes left in the first half.

There was no let-up though and Conor Kelly showed his strength to get over just before half time. As the referee’s whistle blew, it was 61-0

With the game so one-sided, Coolmine made a total of 13 substitutions for the 2nd half, which gave some of the ever improving squad a well-earned chance for some game time. As was to be expected, such a significant change to the team structure left a few gaps initially with the new look Coolmine outfit, and Terenure took advantage of this, going in at the right corner, with their big forward unstoppable. The conversion was missed, but they were on the board after 2 minutes of the 2nd half. The game then settled down and both teams had their chances, but there wasn’t to be another score for 18 minutes. During this time however, Fionn played in a strong and composed fashion and was impressive throughout (player plug sponsored by Linda).

After 20 minutes, one of the few players that started the game, Justin, crossed the line for the final time for Coolmine. Harry stepped up to take the conversion, but unfortunately just at that time, a huge wind picked up and the ball flew agonisingly wide (and under) the posts. Terenure had the final say with a converted try in the final minutes, but with the score at 66 – 12, it hardly mattered. 

While its early days, one can only look forward to the season ahead. The next competitive game is against St Marys on the 25th. C-O-O-L-M-I-N-E

 

 

 

 

U15s v Greystones

Greystones upset the odds

Coolmine Under 15s travelled to Greystones with confidence high after some great results in the last few weeks. Having seen off the stiff challenges of both Barnhall and Cill Dara in the previous 2 weeks, and with Greystones on a pretty ordinary run of results, there was an expectation that the morning was going to go well.

The first blot on the horizon was the”pitch” that the game was assigned to. With a slope on it that Chris Bonnington would have struggled with, and not a hint of green as far as the eye could see, it wasn’t worthy of the title. 

The muddy conditions brought to mind the Battle of the Somme to many of the parents watching (obviously not from personal experience). Still, it was the same for both teams, and the coaches and team didn’t let it get in on them during the warm up.

Greystones won the toss and chose to play both downhill and with the breeze. Coolmine kicked off and the conditions and the environment quickly set the agenda. For the first 10 minutes, Coolmine couldn’t get out of their own half. They regularly won possession, but the muddy ball meant there were more handling errors in this period than you would expect in an entire game. Scrum followed scrum, followed knock on followed scrum. It was tough going for the forwards and it was obvious that it wasn’t going to be a day for the backs. There were some displays of great defence during this period. Dean stopped his man metres from the line and Max also executed a great stop on their big wing, to keep it scoreless

The one break for Coolmine came from Ben Colgan who got the ball off the back of another scrum and broke the line. He just got to the Greystones half before being stopped, but unfortunately it was only a short respite.

The best attack came from Greystones after 27 minutes. They worked the ball into the left corner and were patiently recycling the ball but super defending of the initial attack as well as the 2 penalties awarded by the ref ensured the home team didn’t cross the line. 

Max made a break just before half time, but his pass inside was judged to be marginally forward and that signalled the end of the half. 

Coolmine were definitely the happier team with the scorelessfirst half. It could not be overstated how difficult it was to deal with the conditions. The underfoot conditions ensured that it was nearly impossible to run the ball out of this part of the pitch, and the wind against ensured that kicking wasn’t an option either. These were going to be in Coolmine’s favour for the 2nd half.

Mick made 3 substitutions, all forwards at half time.

The change of direction had an immediate effect on the game. Almost immediately, Greystones were under pressure from the kick off. Coolmine went through a phase of “buffalo” balls and their patience was beginning to pay off as they move towards the Greystones 22. However an unfortunate knock on returned possession to the opposition. The best move of the match followed. The Greystones 10 took the ball and ran straight at the Coolmine defence. A delightful kick over, which he ran on to and fielded spelt trouble. With only one to beat, he made no mistake and dotted down under the posts. 7 – 0.  “That wasn’t in the script” was how Stewart succinctly summed the moment up.

Coolmine piled on the pressure after the kick off. With quarter of an hour gone, they were parked in the left corner. 5 good phases followed, but the ball just wouldn’t cross the line. 4 minutes later it did. Greystones were under pressure again, and in attempt to clear the ball they attempted to kick up field. Conor Dunne managed to get his hand to it and knock it down. A couple of passes later and the ball reached Cillian who ran the final 15 metres and got in at the left. Thien attempted the difficult kick from the touch line, but didn’t quite have the distance. The 7 – 5 score line guaranteed that a frenetic final 10 minutes were in store. Despite the heavy ground neither team felt the need to bring on fresh legs so both teams were beginning to tire. Penalties were mounting up, and it was probably because of this that the crucial moment in the game came at the 29th minute. Coolmine had been parked in the Greystones half, and were focussed on getting over the line. Greystones went offside and the ref gave the penalty to Coolmine, almost straight in front of the posts. Nobody thought to take the kick and they ran it again. The Greystones defence were up to the job this one final time and 30 seconds later the ref was blowing the final whistle.

A great performance again from the guys, and on a different day and under different conditions, the result might have been different. The league is still very much alive however, as a surprise draw between Barnhall and Wanderers in the other game in the league, means that the game next week is a winner take all affair. C – O – O – L – M – I – N - E

Coolmine 57 - Malahide 0 U15s

Coolmine 57 – 0 Malahide Saturday 14th November 2015

“The Biggest game of the season so far!!”. These are the words used by coach and team manager Ciaran to describe the game against Malahide in his call to arms on WhatsApp. The team duly responded with a larger than normal turnout for the Friday evening training session. Drills for the forwards and backs went well. Areas for improvement were highlighted and worked on. A steely determination was palpable among the group as they left that evening. 

Saturday came and with it came the rain. Would it ever stop? Is there any chance that the game will go ahead? How could the pitch possibly be playable? Many a pint was had on the Saturday night on the basis that these questions would be answered negatively the following morning and a lie in would replace this eagerly anticipated match.

But NO. The grounds man had performed miracles, and at 9.30, confirmation was received that we were going to war at midday. Warm up commenced at 11, and the referee for the day called the captains together during this session and explained what he wanted. No foul play, no back chat, no repeated fouling. How one of the captains must now be wishing that he had actually listened. The game kicked off and the first few minutes were spent with the teams getting to grips with each other. There were a number of silly penalties for issues around the ruck in the early minutes. An issue with the ball size brought the game to a halt for a few minutes. Seemingly all the Malahide Under 15’s balls are size 5, but Coolmine’s are only size 4. Agreement to use the smaller specimen was eventually brokered and the game continued.

After 10 minutes, Coolmine were piling some serious pressure on the Malahide forwards. One penalty followed another, and despite repeated warnings by the ref, the fouls continued. The yellow card was out and the Malahide man was off for 10 minutes. Amazingly, one of the other Malahide players thought that this would be a good time to directly question the referee’s parentage, which unsurprisingly earned him a spell in the bin as well. With 15 against 13, the first score had to come and through sustained pressure Ben Griffin eventually broke the line.

The numerical advantage was cruelly exposes a couple of minutes later when Max Gerhardt fielded the restart in his own 22. With one of those jinky runs, he proceeded to run the ball back under their 

posts with hardly a hand been laid upon him. Coolmine continued to press, but their next score came just before half time, when Malahide were back to full strength. Several patient phases of play from 10 metres out were eventually rewarded when Ben Colgan broke through the line for the final score of the first half. Coolmine 21 – 0 Malahide.

Unfortunately for Malahide, the 2nd half started where the first left off. Probably one of the most popular scorers of the day got the first try of the 2nd half, when Jack Fitz used his strength to bundle 

the ball over in the right hand corner. With a tricky wind to deal with, Louis eventually lost his 100% 

kicking record with only the first missed conversion of the day. 4 minutes later, Max crossed the whitewash in the right corner after some lovely back play that involved Liam and Conor Dunne as well.

Malahide began to show some fight and were close to crossing the Coolmine line for the first time, when the ball was lost and some quick play released Dean down the left wing. With only one player 

to beat, he was cynically tackled with a straight arm to the neck that left him poleaxed on the ground for several minutes. Thankfully there was no serious damage done, but the ref had no alternative than to issue a 3rd yellow card of the day to Malahide. From the ensuing penalty. Conor Kelly received the ball and made tremendous yards through the middle of the pitch and looked like he might make it himself at one point. Desperate tackles eventually saw him brought to ground but Ben Griffin was on hand for his 2nd and Coolmines 6th.

With 15 minutes left, and the game as good as over, Coolmines ruthless streak remained. Good work by Fionn on the 18 minute mark, saw him make some good yards before releasing Harry on the left, 

who worked hard to cross the line under a mountain of Malahide defenders. Max got the first hat-

trick of the afternoon, with another fantastic solo run, but Ben Griffin wasn’t to be denied either and with 3 minutes remaining he also crossed the line for the 3rd time.

Final score 57 – 0 to Coolmine. Size 4 or Size 5. I think it’s obvious who has the bigger balls !!

.

Coolmine 36 - Navan 0 (U16s League)

Coolmine proved too strong for Navan in an emphatic win at Ashbrook. The game was played in awful conditions but the excellent pitch held up very well. After twenty minutes Navan were well in the game with the only score being an unconverted try after five minutes. 

However three tries for the home team in the final ten minutes of the half put them in a commanding position. Coolmine went on to control the second half and ran out comprehensive winners.

 

The team are now two from two in the league & next week travel to Wanderers for what is sure to be a very interesting tussle.

 

Wicklow 22 Coolmine 0 Leinster League Div 1B

Wet and Windy Wicklow Woes

This was not an easy day for the squad who have had a superb run up to now. No matter what way we look at this, the home side were hungrier from the get go and wanted this more.

While the conditions were truly awful to start with, their more weighty pack made the difference in what was never going to be a rugby spectacle.

They started with almost a full press forward game and with wet conditions aiding the forward play our scrums came under pressure early on.

Aided by a wind that sheared diagonally across the pitch, the first half was spent almost entirely in our half.

We made hard work of our clearances and their back row left little to take around the fringes.

Emboldened by their strong scrummaging they opted for the corner when awarded a penalty for Coolmine going in at the side.

The resulting drive from their take-down in the lineout wasn't met quickly enough by us and they steamrolled in for their first try: 7-0 to the good with conversion.

We weren't clicking like normal and spent much of the half defending, some times quite well, others not so. 

There were a couple of flashes of that high tempo game we've made our own in that opening period but the slippery conditions made hard work of any fast play and inevitably ended up in a set piece where we were struggling.

It wasn't all one way in the scrum with Coolmine getting a couple over on Wicklow as well but their back row and back three kept the pressure on both at the break down and out wide and we failed to get any rythm going. 

A brighter period for Coolmine coincided with the brighter weather which cleared up but the big boot of their full back kept us pinned back in our own half and a knock on in our 22 gifted them a scrum. From this they were awarded a penalty - 10 - 0 to Wicklow 

Coolmine go back up into again and pushed hard, winning a penalty which went to their corner but the ball was adjudged not straight which confounded us watching the game and they were let off. Probably the best chance of the game for us to score as we had played much better for that period.

A big scrum almost won us the ball back and we up the pressure but they managed to clear all the way back to our 22.

A scrum to them in front of the posts and a try worked from it, was a bit of a spirit crusher as we had made all the play before that. 17 - 0 to them.

The second half saw a much improved performance from Coolmine and we shut them out for long periods but we really only edged our way into a scoring chance perhaps twice in that second half.

Greg Culhane put in a storming final 15 with one wonderful solo turnover effort.

I counted about one penalty to us for that period (we opted for the corner) and maybe half a dozen at least to Wicklow. 

They crossed for a scrappy try after what looked like a cross over by them but our protests came to nothing.

22 - 0 it stayed for the rest of the game with most of the play in the middle of the pitch - Wicklow not really able to get anymore on us but Coolmine looking like we didn't have the ammo to test them.

Our one clear chance saw the ball rifled behind the runner into touch on their 5 metre line - it summed up our day.

Malahide won't be any easier.

Need to hit the reset button and get back into our win mode asap.

Final score Coolmine 0 - Wicklow 22