The Final Series Of Games!
Its been some season and Q1 will enjoy the company of 2 new clubs from Q2! One Q1 will be in AIL next season, hats off to Coleraine who have achieved an astonishing position given their start to the season, and Academy. The other seasoned Q1 clubs will play to their strengths in keeping with the aims and objectives of their club!
What a feast the next few weeks will bring!
As of this week the league table looks like this!
Armagh played 15 won 13 lost 2
Cooke played 15 won 1 lost 2
Coleraine played 16 won 12 lost 4
Academy played 16 won 9 drawn 1 lost 6
Portadown played 13 won 8 drawn 1 lost 4
Clogher Valley played 13 won 6 drawn 1 lost 6
Dromore played 14 won 4 lost 10
Limavady played 13 won 3 lost 10
Ballymoney played 13 won 3 lost 11
Bangor played 15 lost 15
BRING IT ON!
ARMAGH RFC
Est: 1875
Club President: Noel Conn
Armagh Coach – Andy Hughes
“My 3rd season with Armagh. Before that I was at Dungannon playing and coaching with their under 16, 18’s & u20s.
I took over after a very successful season. Armagh had won The Junior Cup, Towns Cup and past players cup.
I think the team has improved, City Of Derry were our nemisis for the last few seasons, we’ve scored alot of tries and apart from Derry we have been successful.
Pre-season has been slow, q1 is a bit slower than Dungannon, guys arrange holidays at interesting times but this last few weeks everything has been very good. We’ve brought in a new backs coach Colin Atkinson and he is playing also.
CLICK HERE TO VIEW PICTURES OF ARMAGH V ACADEMY
At the end of the day alot of teams play the same style in Q1. We set targets and periods, of 4 or 5. We might have a bit less emphasis on cups than the league. The last couple of seasons it has been so close that we cannot afford to take it easy. The bonus points where so important and we could not take risks. Portadown, Cooke, Coleraine, Ballymoney, Dromore they have all improved and it makes for a much better league.
The standard right across the league has improved, and hopefully its not coming down to two or three games, with not as much pressure on one or two games all the teams seem to be stronger having recruited well.
We’ve lost a couple of players but we’ve brought in quite a few We are still finalising what is our best team.
We did not play to many pre-season games. We played Carrick and Ballymena. We beat ballymena 64/6, Carrick was a training game with 30 players, we won by four or 5 trys.
This is an important year for us and this is the year that we want to make a real push for the All Ireland League. The fact that there is no round robin at the end of the season is a bonus.”
CLICK HERE to enjoy picture slideshow of Armagh v Portadown
COOKE RFC
Est: 1910
Club President: Ian Callaghan
Cooke Coach – Mickey Rainey
“We’ve had a good pre-season, turnouts have been very good, everybody seems focused.
We have had no issues with the scrum engagement. I think the tackle release does speed up the ball and gives the opportunity for more space, players are finding it difficult to adapt as is the case with any law change.
Its a long time since i’ve been involved in Junior 1 rugby. All the teams are new to me. I’ve watched some of them, they may or may not have been at full strength, its competitive from what i’ve seen. The 2 games we have played have been tough and fairly abraisive, we’ve had to be patient and wait for our opportunities.
Armagh are always in contention, Portadown have come down, Dromore had a good season last year, not started well this year, Ballymoney a tough place to go to, any team on their day can be strong.”
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CLICK HERE FOR PICTURES OF Cooke In AI Cup Semi Final
CLICK HERE to enjoy 30 picture slideshow from the game
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COLERAINE RFC
Est: 1921
Club President: Dennis McCrum
Coleraine Coach – Richard Kernohan
“Pre-season was excellent. Really good numbers, 10-12 new faces into the squad from senior guys and younger players from school.
We had a pre-season tour to Donegal which was very successful, the 1st in a few years.
Attitude is brilliant, 3 or 4 of the senior players have added to the qulaity of the sessions, intensity and commitment.
Our squad has changed dramatically, with the squad of palyers we have we should be looking for top four and a run in one of the cups, every match is important for us, we take it one week at a time, we are going into every match to win.
We do not mark out critical game, each week is important.
I do think it is going to be very very tight and there are 4, 5. or 6 teams competing for the top 4 slots, Armagh are the favourites.
Portadown have entered the scene. I’m expecting Portadown and Armagh to be the two teams to beat in the league. Portadown have set their stall out with a good result against Ballymoney.
Academy have recruited well and they were perhaps unlucky to loose against Dromore. And Dromore are a potential top 4 side, so the whole league is very even, no game is gauranteed.
The referees will penalise the engage at the scrum, getting that right is important.
Also the tackle and release before going to the ball and how that is communicated with the referee.
There are some other changes but those two are being emphasised greatly.
looking forward to the challenge ahead.”
ACADEMY RFC
Est: 1975
Club President: David Haslett
Academy Coach – Alasdair Mckee
“Pre-season was excellent. Numbers up and the standard of fitness is higher this year.
Grosvenor gave us a very tought pre-season game.
Objectives: two objectives – short term survival – long term a comfortable mid table finish.
Our promotion into section one did not come from one season. We have built our club up from the minis. Our development has been 4 years, we were in two for 3 seasons and went up in our 3rd season. We have been aiming for section one for a good long time.”
CLICK FOR PICTURES OF ACADEMY V PORTADOWN
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CLICK HERE to enjoy 109 pictures from Academy v Limivady
PORTADOWN RFC
Est: 1879
Club President: John Anderson
Portadown Coach – Richard Hedley
“The boys started mid July, in August we started alot of work at skills and through that trying to improve our fitness, fitness was our biggest problem.
Its slow but its improving.
We have not targeted games, alot of teams have recruited and changed, Armagh are going to be strong, we played Ballymoney, we won the game but they gave us a tough time up front. Cooke, Coleraine, every game is going to pretty tough. Most teams would say they do not have big squads, we have key players and we hope to get out the best team each week.
I started this year with Portadown, I met the players at the beginning of the year, they want to win the league, they want a bit more enjoyment in their training and playing. We are trying to play a game that involves everyone and involves and brings the best out of people. Some of the rugby we are playing is good, and in order to play a game that includes everyone we have to be fit as a team.”
CLICK HERE to enjoy picture slideshow of Portadown v Armagh
CLOGHER VALLEY RFC
Est: 1977
Club President: Wilfred Bothwell
Clogher Valley Coach – David Black
“Clogher Valley see this as a watershed season. Our successful team of the past 4-5 years, (Towns Cup winners), is starting to break up and is being replaced.
The active development of players, through our Youth system, is now starting to pay further dividends with some players already breaking through to 1st XV level. The system developed players, like centre Chris Farrell who has represented Ulster and Ireland U18’s. The 5-6 players of our U19’s who are 18+ have started to train with the 1st XV squad. Three of these have already played in our 2nd XV this season.
We have enhanced our coaching structure with a new team. David Black as Head Coach supported by Ally Breen as backs coach, James Bates as skills coach and Raymond Orr as fitness coach. Training, both in the numbers and in the intensity, has increased accordingly. One benefit of the new structure has been that we can concentrate on the development of our U25’s with individual mentoring and coaching.
Players In: Ryan Wilson from Malone, Reynor Guildford, from Queensland, via Newmarket, Rodney Bennett from Dungannon
Players Out: Adam Duhig, last years Overseas NZ player to Dungannon. Ally Ferguson to Omagh.”
CLICK HERE FOR CLOGHER VALLEY V BALLYMONEY
CLICK HERE to enjoy picture slideshow of Clogher Valley v Academy
DROMORE RFC
Est: 1932
Club President: Harry Maguire
Dromore Coach – Jackues Benade
“Pre-season was very good we played Malone, Ards and Asbourne in Dublin, playing with 3 All Ireland League teams has given us alot of confidence. They were good competitive matches.
We have had success last year.
Click Here for Photos From Both Sides Which Can Be Viewed Individually Or As A Slideshow
We have lost James Thompson our number 10 one of our key players last year, & Stewart Simpson is away to Ballymena, Claude Crawford away to Banbridge.
Very big players to replace but we have brought in Christopher brigil from Ballymena, Kirk Frame loosehead prop / hooker from Ballymena, Alan Campbell a tighthead prop, Stephen Robinson second row / back row from Harlequins, Gary Hall the no 8 Captain from Enniskillen, and Chris Leatham wing / full back from Banbridge also playing under u20s. All good players.
So we have guys coming in and we are very positive – everyone in the club wants to give the junior league everything and work as hard as possible and see where we end up.
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Its very competitive Armagh, Coleraine, Portadown and everyone has recruited very well.
The level of rugby in the last two years has reached a very high quality and the amount of All Ireland players has increased massively, its a high standard of rugby.”
LIMIVADY RFC
Est: 1922
Club President: Wilson Kennedy
Limivady Coach – Glen kyle
“Pre-season has went very well. There has been good numbers at training we started mid July. 6 weeks went well our first game was against Bangor. An away from home win setting us off for the season, our first home game was Dromore, we got the home result.
All going well, only two teams this year 1st and 2nds and we hope to improve our youth structures and we have alot of work to do.
Q1 is a tough league as there is not a massive difference in the sides.
Pleased with how things have gone and hope to get as high up the table as possible.”
CLICK HERE to enjoy 109 pictures from Academy v Limivady
BALLYMONEY RFC
Est: 1952
Club President: Alan Campbell
Ballymoney Coach – Jason Taggart
“Over the summer we took a well deserved rest. We had a long year with The Junior Cup, Towns Cup and league and we took a well deserved break. We started pre-season on the 1st of August fresh and rearing to go. We played Grosvenor in a warm up game.
We are going to have alot of fixtures this year and we will keep the friendlies to the minimum. We are quite a settled side with a few new guys. We all know what the score is, we know the drills, and what way to play, and we just have to brush up.
I’m happy with pre season, new guys have fitted in well!
We played Portadown 35 / 19 apart from two intercept trys we were right in it.”
BANGOR RFC
Est: 1885
Club President: Harry Williams
Bangor Coach – Mike Rodgers
“We started slowly, alot of guys had been away. We have really only started to assemble a squad, we have some new players, we have lost a number of senior players hanging the boots up. We have alot of young enthusiastic guys, the spirit is good in the senior squad, we are beginning to find our stride.
Our objective in the early part of the season is to put together a consistent performance, and to maintain as many of the younger players injury free, to consentrate now on the next couple of games on registering points and featuring further up the table.
We were out muscled by Ballymoney, a very experienced side calling on a wealth of experience. They are strong up front putting that to good use and following several missed tackles allowed ball to be worked wide on several occasions that brought the new Ballymoney South African signing to exert his presence.
A tale of two halfs. Ballymoney had the better in the first half where their experience and well drilled pack proved a bit strong and in the second half following Bangor pressure exerted on the Ballymoney line and were unfortunate not to come away with points for our efforts. Leaving the boys wondering what it is they have to do to score having gained possession, pressure and position on the ptich and have yet to turn it into points.
It seems at the moment the home advantage is quite strong for all sides in Q1. Dromore having travelled to limivady, 15-6
cooke and academy, 3-3.
Things will be very tight in qualifying one. Those teams with experienced players in their ranks will benefit in the early games. Come the second round as some of the younger sides begin to establish patterns and rythm in their play, the results may change somewhat.”
Can’t wait to follow the journey – see it unfold here – month by month interviews, match reports, league tables, pictures, videos, blogs, injury updates, controversial decisions, minor and major ctastrophies, total rugby fanaticism, total commitment, and the desire to win!
Its going to be brilliant!
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