Buccaneers U16s 27 v Barnhall RFC 25 | News | Buccaneers Rugby Club Athlone

The Buccaneers U16s recorded their first win in province Leinster when they overcame Barnhall RFC by the narrowest of margins. As is their trademark the young Buccs refused to win easy and traded their usual quota of brilliantly executed scores with sloppy defensive errors to deliver an exciting performance on the well manicured lawns of the Leixlip venue.

To the backdrop of the falling snow the Barnhall side kicked off and dictated the early phases of the match moving the ball wide and testing the fringe ruck defence of the visitors. This quickly led to the concession of an early converted try and the Buccs were in familar territory having conceded the games first points. To their credit they faught back to record a very important long range penalty by Captain Carty which settled his team to the task at hand. This was quickly followed by a spectacular try by Murray who finished off a sequence of rucks by the fowards, quick hands by the backs and a perfectly timed scoring pass by centre Cooper.

Alas Barnhall easily regained the initiative with a penalty and when the the Buccs failed to deal with the restart the Barnhall attacked the fringes of the ruck again to great effect to record another try. The Buccs were not found wanting as they again retrieved the lead when a judicious chip by Carty was gathered by Ryan at full tilt to storm over for the maximum seven points. Barnhall were not going to lay down either and added a further penalty as the game neared it’s defining moment.

The game ebbed and flowed as both teams probed each other for any potential weakness. A blatent knock-on by a Buccs player was not blown by the referree and while all other players ignored the time honoured tradition ‘play the whistle’ Ryan seized the initiative. Two well judged grubber kicks later Ryan grounded the ball for the defining try and victory for his delighted teammates.

Barnhall finished the game stronger to record yet another deserved try and while they may rue the referee’s decision would not begrudge the Buccs their moment in the snow. Best for the Buccs were Jamie o’Keefe, Ross Cooper, David Jacob and Ian Connor.

THE SQUAD Conor Murray, Conor Kelly, Brian Daly, Ryan Jinks, Brian Finlay, Luke Carty, Patrick Browne, Jake Berry, Conor Cleary, Jack Ryan, Tristram Ryan, Paul Daly, Kieran Rigney, Ian Connor, William O’Meara, Jamie O’Keefe, Fergus Groehendijk, Ziggy Zygimantas, David Jacob.