Ulster Bank League 2013-2014 talk/gossip/rumours

bamboozle

Clontarf finally finally managed to beat St Marys tonight, great win top of the league and Mick McGrath scored yet again (great clip of Clontarf Garryowen highlights on here a few pages back with McGrath burning Munster's Ronan O'Mahoney on the outside to score)

Hagz

I see Bryan Byrne scored his second try .

The Lost Sheep

Friday Night Results
1A
Clontarf 24 St Marys 13
Tarf top of table ahead of tomorrows games,
2B
Nenagh and Skerries had big wins tonight. Nenagh were 31-3 winners over Tullamore to stay top while Skerries had a surprising 32-10 win over Boyne with the margin the surprise rather than the victor.

shaungil

At Skerries game good result for home side. boyne might have flattered to eceive intheir earlier wins an had a big expereirenced pack. skerries younger more xpansive team had a braace in both halves but boyne did score the first try against skerries this eason.
Few weeks off now with armagh next an then nenagh in holmpatrick.
Again I can only say friday night lights is a great experince with 500 punters Leo the Lion all the leinster trophies and kids game at half time. great night out. gotnation

CGD

bamboozle wrote: »

Clontarf finally finally managed to beat St Marys tonight, great win top of the league and Mick McGrath scored yet again (great clip of Clontarf Garryowen highlights on here a few pages back with McGrath burning Munster's Ronan O'Mahoney on the outside to score)

What was the crowd like? Really like friday night derby games! Hopefully Tarf got a good gate and bar afterwards. A good few of Friday night games this year. Tough to get players there in time but great to get the weekend off

Hagz

Lansdowne 21 - 14 Ballynahinch
Cork Con 18 - 15 Garryowen
UCD 22 - Dolphin 7
Old Belvedere 13 - 10 Young Munster
Clontarf 24 - 13 Marys

The Lost Sheep

Division 1A:
Ballynahinch 14 Lansdowne 21
Cork Constitution 18 Garryowen 15
UCD 22 Dolphin 7
Young Munster 10 Old Belvedere 13
Clontarf 24 St Mary's College 13

Division 1B:
Belfast Harlequin 18 Blackrock College 6
Buccaneers 25 Shannon 22
Dungannon 16 Corinthians 24
Terenure College 27 Malone 10
UL Bohemians 16 Dublin University 13

Division 2A:
Ballymena 21 Old Wesley 6
Banbridge 20 UCC 23
Bective Rangers 28 City of Derry 28
Galwegians 28 Queen's University 0
Highfield 5 Cashel 16
Naas 17 Seapoint 17
NUIM Barnhall 15 Old Crescent 0
Rainey Old Boys 10 Bruff 9

Division 2B:
De La Salle Palmerston 13 Midleton 7
Instonians 10 Greystones 11
Richmond 6 Armagh 0
Sligo 19 Thomond 19
Sunday's Well 9 Ards 10
Suttonians 19 Navan 24
Skerries 32 Boyne 10
Tullamore 3 Nenagh Ormond 31

So its UCD, Ballymena, Terenure and Nenagh leading each of the divisions after 4 rounds of games.
UCD look very good at the top of the top tier and lead from the only other unbeaten side in the top tier, Cork Con(albeit with 3 wins and a draw) by 2 points.
The students clash with third placed Clontarf next Friday night will really show how good the Belfield lads are and how theyre set for pushing on towards the AIL title.

In Division 1B Trinity are now the only side winless following Belfast Harlequins 18-6 win over Blackrock and the students will have to work hard this week to avoid a big loss against league leaders Terenure when the two sides clash in the students adopted ground for the season, Sydney Parade, next Saturday afternoon.
Next weekend will see 1 of the 2 Connacht sides lose their unbeaten record when Buccaneers travel to Galway to take on Corinthians in one of 2 Friday night clashes next weekend. Both sides had tough wins today, Bucc's were 3 points winners over Shannon in Athlone while Corinthians had a fine 8 point victory up in Dungannon and the Galway men will look to the boot of 18 year old Sean O Hagan, who has stood up from underage rugby to Senior adult rugby without much ado the past few months and done very very well, to guide them next weekend against their provincial rivals.

In the third tier Ulster clubs are taking control with three of the five northern sides in the division occupying three of the four top places including most importantly the two automatic promotion places.
Things are looking slightly better for Bruff this evening despite another loss today. A 1 point loss up in Magherafelt against Rainey is nothing to be too disappointed with and next weekend when the West Limerick men host Old Wesley Brian Cahill's charges could see their first win of the AIL season.
No games in the third or fourth tier for 3 weeks with games recommencing on November 23rd

And to the fourth division, Nenagh lead the way from Skerries. Both sides played Friday night and had good wins. Nenagh travelling to Tullamore and had a fine win over a good Tullamore side. Nenagh looked a different level to their opponents in their first season in the senior ranks and inspite of Tullamore coach, Johnny Moylan using some knowledge of his home club the Offaly side were well off a Nenagh side that will be aiming at promotion to the 3rd tier.
Surprising results of the weekend included 'Palmo beating Midleton in the clash of the 2 sides relegated from division 2A last season as Midleton had had the much better start to the league prior to this weekend.
Other results that were surprising were Richmond beating Ards 6-0 on the canal bank in a win that was Richmonds first win since they rejoined the senior ranks at the end of last season.

Risteard

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

Other results that were surprising were Richmond beating Ards 6-0 on the canal bank in a win that was Richmonds first win since they rejoined the senior ranks at the end of last season.

Fantastic defence in the second half. Pinned in our 22 for most of it due to a strong breeze but held firm and got the win.

good_afternoon

Predictions for the weekend?
Some close calls.
can be very hard to tell.

Hagz

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYXc5xG3WM8

The Lost Sheep

Did small preview of games on saturday but may as well throw up a proper one now
10 games 8 of which could be considered derby games. Great weekend in store
Weekend kicks off tomorrow night with what look like four crackers of games.
Tarf v Students - 3rd v 1st. UCD have started very impressively winning their opening three games by 13, 14 and 15 points respectively but tomorrow nights game will not continue that sequence. Close game that should see the Students get the points and maintain their first place in the standings
Cork Derby in Musgrave. This game is being streamed live on irishrugby.ie and Con as the only side yet to lose in this division apart from the Students who lead the way should take the win. Dolphin will be hoping their discipline has improved as 3 second half yellow cards did not help their cause against UCD last weekend.
It says something about the drop in fortunes of Limerick clubs and rise in fortune for clubs from the capital that the first Limerick derby of the season in Division 1A is only occuring in week 4 of the season and the clash friday night between the Cookies and the Light Blues should be a classic. The Dooradoyle men have struggled this season with their only competitive wins this season coming in the Munster senior Cup against Division 2B side Richmond and Division 2A side Cashel.
In the second Dublin derby on friday night last seasons champs Lansdowne travel to Templeville road to take on St Marys College. Both sides are hovering over the relegation places at the moment and will want a win to kick start their season as we approach the first third of the season being completed.
Fourth place Belvedere and ninth placed Ballynahinch will know exactly what theyve to do to improve their league position as they clash in the only Saturday game in the top flight which kicks off at 2pm on Anglesea Road to give fans loads of time to attend both this and the first of Irelands November Internationals.

In Division 1B The action kicks off Friday night in Galway with the mouth watering Connacht derby between Buccaneers and Corinthians. Corinthians have been playing fantasically and have surpassed a lot of peoples expectations for them this season and have been playing a great brand of rugby but may struggle with Buccs, who will be boosted by the availability of several Connacht contracted and academy players with no Pro12 action this week due to the Internationals, and their availability may swing the game in favour of the Athlone men but Corinthians have been surprising sides all season so may yet be top of the table following Fridays game.
Top play bottom on Saturday when Dublin University host Terenure. The students have only 1 point to show from their opening four games, a losing BP against UL Bohs last weekend, and its hard to see them getting anything when the league leaders travel to Sydney Parade.
Shannon have taken some adusting to the second division with only 1 win from their opening four games but may struggle against their fellow Thomond Park tenants on Saturday who have done well this season, opening day hammering up in Terenure to the league leaders aside, after also being relegated from the top flight last season.
With things so tight after 4 rounds of games a win in the Belfast derby between Malone and Belfast Harlequins will really shake things up a bit at the bottom and both sides will want to get away from the relegation places especially ahead of Saturday weeks clashes with Blackrock and Dublin University respectively.
Div1A
Fri 8th Nov 13
19:30
Clontarf v UCD
Dolphin v Cork Con
Garryowen v Young Munster
St. Mary's College v Lansdowne
Sat 9th Nov 13
14:00
Old Belvedere v Ballynahinch

Div 1B
Fri 8th Nov 13
19:30
Corinthians v Buccaneers
Sat 9th Nov 13
14:00
Blackrock College RFC v Dungannon
Dublin University v Terenure College
14:30
Malone v Belfast Harlequins
Shannon v UL Bohs

CGD

My shot in the dark predictions this week are:

Div1A
Clontarf v UCD - Tarf
Dolphin v Cork Con - Dolphin
Garryowen v Young Munster - Garryowen
St. Mary's College v Lansdowne - Lansdowne
Old Belvedere v Ballynahinch - Belvo

RobbieRuns

I'd agree with CGD there in 1A.

The interesting thing for 1B is the derby element to the games this week, other than Rock v Gannon they could all be local derbies in each province, the buccs v Corinthians will be a cracker as both unbeaten but buccs are bringing out the big guns as Lost Sheep says and they will take it I think, 12 contracted players in Connacht going to play for them.

Bohs and Shannon will also be a cracker, I think Shannon are improving and getting closer with a good young team and should win. Malone will find Quins very tough and hard to beat. Nure to win easily against the students and I will go for a home win for Rock but it will be very close in that one.

turtleshead

RobbieRuns wrote: »

I'd agree with CGD there in 1A.

The interesting thing for 1B is the derby element to the games this week, other than Rock v Gannon they could all be local derbies in each province, the buccs v Corinthians will be a cracker as both unbeaten but buccs are bringing out the big guns as Lost Sheep says and they will take it I think, 12 contracted players in Connacht going to play for them.

Bohs and Shannon will also be a cracker, I think Shannon are improving and getting closer with a good young team and should win. Malone will find Quins very tough and hard to beat. Nure to win easily against the students and I will go for a home win for Rock but it will be very close in that one.

Was there not some law introduced last year where you could only play 2 fully contracted players on any given match day?

I would agree with CGD on the predictions for this week in 1A

The Lost Sheep

turtleshead wrote: »

Was there not some law introduced last year where you could only play 2 fully contracted players on any given match day?

I would agree with CGD on the predictions for this week in 1A

Assume Robbie is talking about contracted players as academy, development and fully contracted players. There'll be 4/5 academy players involved per side, as well as some fully contracted players playing

CGD

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

Assume Robbie is talking about contracted players as academy, development and fully contracted players. There'll be 4/5 academy players involved per side, as well as some fully contracted players playing

It is for fully contracted players and I think you can only have one forward and one back in squad

IngazZagni

Some great derby games on tonight. Hopefully there will be some good attendances. I will be at the Marys vs Lansdowne game hoping Lansdowne can make it 3 wins in a row.

The Dolphin vs Con match will be streamed on the IRFU website tonight for those not going to games tonight. That should be a good game.

http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/30050.php

CGD wrote: »

It is for fully contracted players and I think you can only have one forward and one back in squad

Yeah it's fully contracted players I believe and only one forward but it can be two backs.

RobbieRuns

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

Assume Robbie is talking about contracted players as academy, development and fully contracted players. There'll be 4/5 academy players involved per side, as well as some fully contracted players playing

I was, Academy, development etc.

Buccaneers have a lot of top Connacht talent in their ranks, fair play to them. This game falls well for players like Dave Heffernan, Tiernan O'Halloran, Jack Carty, James Rael, Conor Finn (if fit) Shane Layden, Danny Qualter, Steve Macauley, Peter Reilly etc who would be involved with Connacht if they had a Rabo game, hence what I meant by bringing the big guns out

They should along with some good academy players, Conor Kindregan, Rory Maloney etc will bring them over the winning line

wp_rathead

Corinthians v Buccs is tasty - O'Hagan v Carty gonna be worth admission alone

Gonna head out to this as a neutral so just hopin for good game

RobbieRuns

Dave Heffernan and Macauley only subs, some team that. Buccs have the best team in the division for me. Great to see such good teams for an AIL game out west and good to see such interest in the game

backgreen

RobbieRuns wrote: »

Dave Heffernan and Macauley only subs, some team that. Buccs have the best team in the division for me. Great to see such good teams for an AIL game out west and good to see such interest in the game

good but not great ,they were lucky enough against shannon..i have watched both play shannon but will go with corinthians some fine running backs bit in the ucd mould

chippers

Great to have a stream and with commentary but they've positioned the camera behind a pillar. Every time the camera goes to the right there is a pillar in the middle of the screen!

blackdog1

How is your feed? Mine is all stop start...

chippers

mine is really good. going smoothly

The Lost Sheep

Buccaneers leading Corinthians 11-0 at halftime. Try Shane Layden and 2 Pens Jack Carty
3-3 in Dolphin Con game. Hasn't been that bad a game on the stream. On what ive seen Dolphin looking better side

Berticus

16-9 to tarf, 20 to go

Stanza2

wprathead wrote: »

Corinthians v Buccs is tasty - O'Hagan v Carty gonna be worth admission alone

Gonna head out to this as a neutral so just hopin for good game

Cracking game, Buccs forwards are winning it for them. Corinthians came back to 11-10 and then Buccs got soft try so 18-10 now with 10 mins to go. Carty and O'Hagan both playing well. Great cross field kicks to set up try. O'Hagan great hands but less ball than Jack, he scored fantastic conversion from sideline

Stanza2

Another 2 O'Hagan penalties 16-18 few minutes left. All Corinthians now Rory Maloney just sent off (yellow) only few mins left tho.

Stanza2

Last kick of the game from sideline between 22 and 10 metre line a young 18 year old fly half kicks a winning penalty ! Fantastic game of rugby.

A bit of a cliche but......scenes of joy here

Game over 19-18 to Corinthians

CGD

Win for Clontarf v UCD red card in that on and Lansdowne bet Mary's

Berticus

Final score 29-19 to tarf!

guapos

Great game between Clontarf and UCD. UCD started stronger but their reluctance to kick the ball and Clontarf's excellent defence won it in the end.

Was a definite red card for the high tackle by the Clontarf sub and we all felt UCD would go on to win especially as they got a try when the ball came off the post from the resulting penalty.

Berticus

Personally, I thought that it was a yellow!

madds

Barnhall NUIM 13-6 Naas

Barnhall bet Naas yesterday evening in Donnybrook courtesy of a last-minute Rob McGrath try (conv by Simon Gillespie) to win the Leinster League.

Congrats to Barnhall and commiserations to Naas on what was a hard fought match between two evenly matched teams.

wp_rathead

Stanza2 wrote: »

Last kick of the game from sideline between 22 and 10 metre line a young 18 year old fly half kicks a winning penalty ! Fantastic game of rugby.

A bit of a cliche but......scenes of joy here

Game over 19-18 to Corinthians

Great second half - buccs were so dominate upfront first half was rather one sided
Pure Disney ending there at the end though with young O'Hagan getting a near impossible kick on sideline

Hate to be the Buccs No.8 kicking the ball out thinking time was up when 18-16 up..

Both teams played good open rugby though - very enjoyable

Thomas D

madds wrote: »

Barnhall NUIM 13-6 Naas

Barnhall bet Naas yesterday evening in Donnybrook courtesy of a last-minute Rob McGrath try (conv by Simon Gillespie) to win the Leinster League.

Congrats to Barnhall and commiserations to Naas on what was a hard fought match between two evenly matched teams.

What teams were eligible for this cup? All senior and junior leinster clubs below 2A?

The Lost Sheep

Thomas D wrote: »

What teams were eligible for this cup? All senior and junior leinster clubs below 2A?

This was the final of the Leinster Shield which is only for senior clubs in Leinster.
It was a pre AIL competition with each side getting 3/4 games in group stage in August and September to prepare for AIL

backgreen

shannon 13 bohs 9 ..today

The Lost Sheep

10 games 8 derbies. Fair play to IRFU for scheduling weekends like this especially the Friday Night games which are great for getting bigger crowds to games which is great for the club game.

Clontarf are the new leaders of Division 1A after they beat the leaders UCD 25-16 last night with David Joyce kicking 20 points for the victors. Old Belvedere's bonus point win over Ballynahinch lifts them above Young Munster into third place. Ballynahinch yet again lose but yet again get a losing BP and will win sooner rather than later.
Dolphin beat Cork Con in the featured game on irishrugby tv with Darren Sweetnams 2nd half try being the difference between the sides in a game that resulted in a 14-9 win for the Musgrave Park.
The Limerick Derby resulted in an away win for Young Munster who beat Garryowen 9-8 in Dooradoyle.
In the second Dublin Derby of the night last seasons champions Lansdowne beat St Marys in a high scoring game, 33-28, and this win for Mike Ruddocks men opens a 7 point cushion between themselves and their opponents who are in eighth place sitting 3 points above the automatic relegation places after 5 weeks of action.

In Division 1B the big game of the weekend was played last night in Galway where both Connacht sides in the division faced off putting their unbeaten records on the line. Corinthians will be very thankful to their young out-half Sean O Hagan who is helping marshall Corinthians excellent brand of rugby this season and last night the youngster kicked 14 points in a 19-18 win over their Athlone rivals.
In the 4 games played today Shannon won the Thomond Park tenants derby with Greg O Sheas try being the difference between the sides. Terenure, Belfast Harlequins and Dungannon were the other winners this weekend

guapos

Berticus wrote: »

Personally, I thought that it was a yellow!

I don't know, it was quite the clothes line on a player moving at full pace

bamboozle

guapos wrote: »

I don't know, it was quite the clothes line on a player moving at full pace

No real complaints about the red, great win for Clontarf, some serious talent on show for both teams. Leavy & Gilsenan are class, Tadhg Furlong had the tarf scrum purring - this time last season Furlong was locking the scrum against Jack McGrath, this time 12 months McGrath, Moore and probably Furlong will be competiting at Rabo & HC levels...Furlong still only 20



BY the sounds of things we're going to be hearing a lot more of young O'Hagen. It would be great for the AIL to have a connacht team up in 1A and with the academy and dev players channelled to that team (whether it would be Buccs or Corinthians) they'd be a serious prospect.

RobbieRuns

bamboozle wrote: »

No real complaints about the red, great win for Clontarf, some serious talent on show for both teams. Leavy & Gilsenan are class, Tadhg Furlong had the tarf scrum purring - this time last season Furlong was locking the scrum against Jack McGrath, this time 12 months McGrath, Moore and probably Furlong will be competiting at Rabo & HC levels...Furlong still only 20



BY the sounds of things we're going to be hearing a lot more of young O'Hagen. It would be great for the AIL to have a connacht team up in 1A and with the academy and dev players channelled to that team (whether it would be Buccs or Corinthians) they'd be a serious prospect.

I agree Leavy and Gilsean are class acts, they have been amazing players for Ireland at age grade and the progress is fantastic to be seen in the AIL.

Been following Corinthians for years and the promotion to 1B was huge for the club, the only Galway club in the first division and now after Friday, the top team in Connacht for the time being at least ! Buccs and Galwegians normally have way more of the Connacht academy players than us, the ones that we do have, I would not swap, particularly O'Hagan, Bealham, Connolly, Masterson and Aron Connelly.
The players who are heroes to me though are the two Centres James Buckley and Finn Gormley, they along with Mickey Murphy the scrum half have been kinda looking after the young fly half. Also players like Gary Warde and Joey Merrigan who are stalwarts in the forwards. Denis Buckley is just a class player and it shows everytime he plays for us, can't say how good he is and getting better every game. Ultan Dillane if he stays fit will come on loads, but has been suffering with injuries. Because of his age O'Hagan does deserve some plaudits, I thought that he was good when I saw him first, but in truth he is way better than good. I never thought that someone so young could have such an impact at this level. His hands, off loads and movement is great and his kicking is just top drawer. He has been a missing link for us and it shows this season in particular. We were favourites to get relegated this season, now we have to look upwards. I do not think that we will get promoted if I am honest, but we will give anyone a good game with this team.

niallerm

I wonder what will happen with buckley, this time last year he was being talked about with Kilcoyne as potential ireland squad members...

niallerm

Josh Murphy, Ross Byrne, Ross Molony and Nick McCarthy all got scholarships to UCD.

durkadurka

Ha ha , two Rosses! Please tell me they went to Rock?

niallerm

durkadurka wrote: »

Ha ha , two Rosses! Please tell me they went to Rock?

all 4 went to Michaels.

durkadurka

niallerm wrote: »

all 4 went to Michaels.

Good enough

Hagz

Looks like Murphy's the same height as Molony. Maybe a future at lock?

niallerm

Hagz wrote: »

Looks like Murphy's the same height as Molony. Maybe a future at lock?

has always been of similar height.. possibly a future at lock, super talented and athletic kid.. still under 19..

played his rugby for Michaels last year at 8 and for Leinster at 6.
don't think he ever ran out at lock for leinster

The Lost Sheep

bamboozle wrote: »

No real complaints about the red, great win for Clontarf, some serious talent on show for both teams. Leavy & Gilsenan are class, Tadhg Furlong had the tarf scrum purring - this time last season Furlong was locking the scrum against Jack McGrath, this time 12 months McGrath, Moore and probably Furlong will be competiting at Rabo & HC levels...Furlong still only 20

BY the sounds of things we're going to be hearing a lot more of young O'Hagen. It would be great for the AIL to have a connacht team up in 1A and with the academy and dev players channelled to that team (whether it would be Buccs or Corinthians) they'd be a serious prospect.

Yeah Furlong is 21 in next week or two. Only 5/6 weeks overage for last summers 20s world cup
Great to see all the youngsters especially props playing regularly and doing well in AIL. tough job
AIL does need a Connacht side in top flight. Would be great to see best in all provinces in top division and maybe not the academy and dev players channelled to them but more of them would gravitate to them

niallerm wrote: »

Josh Murphy, Ross Byrne, Ross Molony and Nick McCarthy all got scholarships to UCD.

so? not dismissing the achievements but this has no relevance to this thread.


No AIL games next weekend in any division but plenty of sides will be in competitive action.
In Munster the semi finals of the Munster Senior Cup and Plate are scheduled to be played. In the Cup there is a Limerick derby in one semi final, Shannon v Garryowen, and a Cork derby in the other, UCC v Cork Con. Both games scheduled to be played on Saturday.
In the Plate two sides from the Northern half of the province are due to travel to face Cork sides and both of the travelling sides will be expected to emerge victorious. Young Munster travel to take on Highfield while Sundays Well host Nenagh.

The Leinster Senior League Cup final will be played Friday night under lights in Donnybrook and the clash between UCD and Terenure promises to be a classic.

In Ulster City of Derry host Ballynahinch and Banbridge travel to Belfast to take on Queens University in the Ulster Senior Cup semi finals in a line up that will surprise people.
City of Derry shocked plenty when they defeated Dungannon in the quarter finals a couple of weeks ago but their cup run should end on Saturday against their Division 1B opponents.
Queens will be favourites against Banbridge and will be in confident mood after Saturdays big 50-15 Ulster Senior League win over City of Derry.

No competitive games scheduled for next weekend for any of Connacht's senior clubs though they may, like plenty of sides across the country, play a friendly over the coming days/weekend.