Senan’s narrowly defeated by Bruff

Bruff    16

St Senan’s   15

ST Senan’s travelled to Bruff for their Transfield Cup encounter with some new additions to last year’s squad. The Clare side was hoping to cause an upset against a strong Bruff side and for much of the game it looked like this might happen.
Playing with the benefit of the wind, it was Senan’s who started the stronger and they continually forced the home side backwards but could not break through their strong defensive line to develop clear-cut scoring opportunities.
St Senan’s missed a penalty early on before opening their account with a well-worked try by Fergal Lawlor in the 21st minute. The difficult wind dragged the conversion attempt wide.
Senan’s were not able to extend this lead, despite mounting some very strong attacks, before Bruff made a rare visit to Senan’s half of the pitch on 28 minutes and won a contentious penalty in front of the posts, allowing them to reduce the deficit to 3-5.
It was Senan’s who once again dominated play and extended their lead to 10-3 when Neil McDonagh took a good pass from Fernando Gallant to score the Shannon club’s second try.
Senan’s continued to pressurise Bruff and finished the first half ahead 15-3, after some strong play by Ian Fitzgerald freed up Barry Murphy to score Senan’s third try.
Senan’s started the second half as strong as they had finished the first but made an error with a quickly taken line-out, leading to them conceding a penalty for Bruff to reduce the deficit to 6-15.
This score seemed to give Bruff belief that the game was still there for them to win and when they broke down a Senan’s attacking move they caught the visitors on the hop and ran in a try, which was converted. This reduced Senan’s lead to 13-15.
Another penalty soon followed and Bruff took the lead for the first time in the game.
The final 10 minutes of the game saw Bruff under pressure as Senan’s pushed hard to regain the lead but their defence held and Bruff ran out 16-15 winners.
This Sunday, St Senan’s will entertain Ennis in a friendly game at 2.30pm, while on Saturday, St Senan’s will have a home tie against UL-Bohemian’s in the McInerney Cup quarter-finals.
St Senan’s: Pa Ryan, Fergal Lawlor, Timmy Larkin, Aaron Skerritt, Aidan O’Callaghan, Jamie Keogh, Ian Fitzgerald, Mike O’Connell, Fernando Gallant, Noel Hoban, Brian Collins, Hugh Murphy, Neil McDonagh, Barry Murphy, Declan Collins.
Replacements: Jake Egan, Darragh McCoy, David Webb, MJ McDonagh and Paul O’Halloran.

Ennis
ENNIS Rugby Club will hold its registration day on Sunday at 11am at the club’s headquarters at Drumbiggle. Registration will take place for players U-7, U-8, U-9, U-10, U-11, U-12, U-13 and U-14.

Kilrush
MUNSTER and Irish prop forward, Marcus Horan will be in Kilrush on Sunday to launch the club’s second pitch development programme. The launch will take place at 12.30pm.
Former Kilrush player Brian Haugh, a native of Kilkee, played for Munster U-20s last week when they were beaten 17-9 by Ulster at Belfast Harlequin’s.
Another former Kilrush player, James McInerney from Doonbeg, played for the Munster U-19s. In their group A game, Munster had a 6-0 win over Ulster to add to their 13-13 draw with Connacht a week earlier.
Meanwhile, another former Kilrush player, Trevor Downes, now playing for the University of Western Australia in Perth, helped his side to beat Nedlands 15-13 in front of a packed attendance last week.
Last weekend, the Kilrush U-15s lost 8-22 to Thomond, while the U-13s received a walkover from Presentation.