CIYMS Mini Rugby Club brings the curtain down on another great season at Belmont by handing over £2,300 to McMillan Cancer Research collected at their very successful Minis Rugby Festival at the end of March and with a superb P7 tour to Aberdeen over the weekend of 7 – 9 May 2010
Just like Ballymena and Belfast Harlequins, CIYMS had to travel to the mainland to compete and entered 2 sides into the prestigious Mackies FP FRC Mini Rugby tournament at Stonehaven. It was a very well organised event with over 600 kids involved on Saturday 8 May in sunshine in Scotland.
CIYMS P7 ‘B’ team performed exceptionally well to win 1 , draw 2 and lose 2 in their section while the very talented A squad won 4 of their 5 groups games and ended up equal top in their group both on points and tries scored but were pipped to top spot as we conceded 3 tries and the hosts Mackies RFC only conceded 2.
A very tough semi-final followed against the winners of the other group Grammar which was the game of the tournament. CIYMS won a very tight contest 1-0 against a team whose forwards were coaches by former Instonians and Ulster player Davy Crawford.
Unfortunatelty CIYMS lost their captain and talisman Rhys O’Donnell late in the semi-final with a very bad ankle sprain but performed heroically in the final against host Mackies RFC under Bailey Gribben’s captaincy only losing a very tight contest 1-0. The teams were piped on to the field for the final which made it a memorable event for the kids and the only downside on the whole day was the hosts standing down a neutral refereee in favour of their own official to ref the final.
Overall the tour was a resounding success which will provide memories for all 27 players and the 59 strong touring party of mums. dads and coaches with games of football, touch rugby , ten pin bowling , quiz, karaoke enjoyed by the kids (and some adults too) and we all managed to get our flights back to Belfast despite the threat of the volcanic ash.
Pictures From CIYMS BELMONT Click Here
7th May 2010 CIYMS Mini Rugby / Belmont
Teh tour reunion was Saturday 22 May at Belmont where the kids ( and some adults again) played another game of football before sitting back to watch the tour video and enjoy each others company one more time before they head off to their big schools next year.
Most of the squad of players and coaches had been together since P3 and it was great to be able to bring them back together one more time as P7’s having been split up the middle of this year into U11’s and U12’s.
Report By
Keith O’Donnell
CIYMS Mini Rugby Convenor and P7 Tour Organiser
