1st XV Season Report 09/10

Lansdowne Champions

Following is an end of season AGM report on season '09/'10 

The season started in August with a warm up game against Leinster U.20’s which we won 10-7. The contentious ELV rules were largely shelved and we started our bid to retain the Leinster Senior Cup. In the pool stages we had good victories over Old Wesley and Bective but suffered defeat to Blackrock. We emerged from the pool to the playoffs but lost to a very good St Mary’s side who were the eventual winners

The record in the cup was:

Played 4

Won 2

Lost 2

Points For 50

Against 39

We competed in the AIB cup and having beaten Ards in the first round, extracted revenge for last year on Nenagh Ormond with a 43-8 win in the RDS. We bowed out to a strong Blackrock side in the RDS, losing 16-24 but our young side will have learned a lot in appreciating the urgency and speed required in the top division of the AIL.

The AIL started in October and we had a great start to our campaign defeating Old Wesley and Bruff away from home with try bonus victories and doing the same in our first home game against Clonakilty. At month end we played Terenure and won 22-3 in a torrential downpour that forced players from the pitch at one stage. In November a further win and try bonus was picked up against Bective. The Autumn Internationals disrupted the AIL but we had a further friendly against Bective before resuming in December. Here we had a tough one point win over Belfast Harlequins at home before winning with a try bonus against Corinthians. We went into the Christmas break undefeated in the AIL having picked up 5 try bonus points from 7 matches. The first match in January against Old Crescent was postponed due to severe weather and over the following weeks we defeated UCD with a try bonus, TCD and Thomond (with a try bonus). We won well at Greystones in February with a try bonus and were absolutely on fire. With 4 matches remaining we required just one victory to guarantee promotion, but beware the Ides of March where we just scraped victory over Highfield 3-0 at home and won in the last play of the game 20-17 away to DLSP when Ross McCarron managed to get a try in the final minute. In April we suffered our only defeat in the AIL going down 12-14 to a battling Old Crescent side before going on to defeat Malone 34-28 in a highly entertaining 5 pointer last match of the season.

We finish as winners of Division 2 with 66 points from a maximum 75 on offer and are promoted to Division 1B along with Bruff.

In the play offs to determine the champions of Division 2 we defeated DLSP 40-8 and in the final against a highly committed Bruff side we emerged 17-10 winners. The Player awards night later that evening was a real cause for celebration. The team have done everything asked of them in an entertaining brand of rugby and there is great belief that we can compete to win the AIL Division 1 championship next season.

New faces in the squad this season included Kieran Lewis, Brian McKeever and Ben Horan, all three featured in the AIL final

The AIL records Cup and League were:

Played 20

Won 18

Drew 0

Lost 2

Points for all 26 matches this season was 677

Against 311

The top points scorer over all matches was Dave Hewitt with 109 points. Both Matt Healy (15) and Ross McCarron (13) broke the try scoring record in our AIL campaign and Matt ended up as top try scorer overall with 18 tries. A total of 49 players played on the First XV.

Our thanks are due to Willie Clancy, the Head Coach, Stephen Rooney, Director of Rugby, Assistant Coaches Aidan McCullen, Steve O’Connor and Gordon D’Arcy and captain John Lyne. The team management ticket of Mick Quinn, Brian Corrigan and Paddy Gore did an immense amount of work and we are grateful for their dedication throughout the season.

Again special thanks to Paul Clinch (Fourth Official) Bryan O’Neill (Fixtures Secretary), Marc Smith (Fitness Coach) and the ever present Michael Cassidy (Video Cameraman). Dr Ian Gargan carried out the medical duties and Alan Cuffe continued to man the gate for the 14th consecutive season. PhysioDynamics provided physiotherapy services.

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