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Virginia RFC U16s Begin Title Defence in Style
All three of Virginia RFCs Youth sides were due to begin the defence of the clean sweep of Ulster South League titles they won last year v Ballyshannon RFC last Saturday. Unfortunately their U14s and U18s couldn’t field and conceded the games to Virginia, leaving just the U16s to entertain the crowds at The Deerpark. A fine sunny morning greeted both sides and the stage was set for running rugby.
From the start it was Virginia who dominated. A solid set piece driven by John Smyth, Killian Collins and Callum Caswell laid the foundations for plenty of possession, and the half back combination of Adam Sherriff and Adam Charters brought the backs into play at every opportunity. With full back David Gibney joining the line at will this created plenty of opportunity for the rest of the Virginia backs, with two trys for Paddy Gordon, and one apiece for John Dolan, Niall Carolan, and Conor Nulty keeping the scoreboard ticking over. The forwards too played their part with Adrian Lynch and Robert Lochaden securing possession at the breakdown, and first Cai Walker and then Jamie Osbourne adding trys of their own. Two conversions from Niall, and one from the excellent James Farrelly making his competitive debut had Virginia 41-0 up at the break.
The home side rang the changes at half time, and the coaches were delighted to see that this made no difference to the performance of the side. Thomas Sheridan, Ryan McGuigan, Ryan Kennedy, and Mark Gibney all came on in the pack, with Jason Henderson keeping the tempo up at Scrum Half, and Jack Vaughan causing problems out wide. Niall added a second try, and with replacement fly half Jake White Duffy adding the extras, before Jake converted his own try which followed shortly afterwards. Callum Finane entered the fray and was electric around the pitch, and U16 debuts were handed to Ryan Moloney and Diarmuid O’Reilly who both gave good accounts of themselves. Shortly afterwards both Paddy and Niall completed their hat-tricks and Conor Nulty added his second try. Credit to Ballyshannon though who kept their heads up right to the end, and a late period of pressure saw them finish the game with a deserved consolation try making the final score 70-5 to Virginia.
An excellent performance from the lads in preparation for what promises to be a tough away trip to Fivemiletown next weekend to take on Clogher Valley RFC.
