Longford RFC Club News 05/10/2020   05/10/2020

By Tommy Butler Longford RFC PRO lrfconnects@gmail.com 

Longford Senior Men at home for first Leinster League game

Due to Covid-19 Longford first scheduled league match away to Clondalkin after being initially confirmed as on was postponed.  Longford now welcome near neighbours Mullingar to CPL Park this Sunday in what will be their first league game of the 20-21 season.  Mullingar were promoted from 2A as Champions last season after spending a couple of seasons there, while Longford finished second in 1B last season.  They met twice last season in the Midland League with the spoils even.  Mullingar’s game against Boyne went ahead, where they suffered a 20-30 loss at home to the men from Drogheda.  Undoubtedly it is going to be a tough fixture to kick off the league but one Longford will be really up for.  Matches against near neighbours Mullingar are always committed, full on games and there is no better way to kick off league action for the season in CPL Park.  The 1st team will kick off at 3 pm with the 2nd XV at 1.30 PM.   We will have live updates on Twitter.

Best of luck to Glenn, his coaches, to 1st XV Captain Benny McManus and all the players in this year’s Leinster League campaign.

Longford Senior Men’s Provisional Fixture List 2020-2021 Fixture List

Sunday October 4th Leinster League Clondalkin (A) J1 3

Sunday October 11th Leinster League Mullingar (H) J1 3 J2 1.30 

Saturday October 17th Leinster League Boyne (A) J1 3 J2 1.30

Sunday October 24th Leinster League Clondalkin (A) J1 3 J2 1.30 

Sunday November 1st Leinster League Mullingar (A) J1 2.30 J2 1

Sunday November 8th Leinster League Clondalkin (H) J1 2.30

Saturday November 21st Leinster League Boyne (H) J1 2.30 J2 1

Sunday December 6th Leinster League Cill Dara (A) J1 2 J2 12.30

Sunday December 13th Leinster League Tullow (H) J1 2 J2 12.30

Sunday January 17th Leinster League Wicklow (A) J1 2.30 J2 1

Sunday January 24th Leinster League Carlow (H) J1 2.30 J2 1

Sunday January 31st Leinster League Tullow (A) J1 2.30 J2 1

Sunday February 21st Leinster League Cill Dara (H) J1 3 J2 1.30

Sunday February 28th Leinster League Carlow (A) J1 3 J2 1.30

Sunday March 7th Leinster League Wicklow (H) J1 3 J2 1.30

Sunday March 20th Provincial Towns Cup 1st Round v TBC J1 3

Sunday March 27th Provincial Towns Cup 1st Round v TBC J1 3

Longford Senior Women

Longford Senior Women travelled to New Ross for their first game of their Division 3 Leinster League campaign coming away with a losing bonus point.  They continue their league campaign next weekend when they welcome Garda/Westmanstown to CPL Park on Sunday at 1.

Olivia Mollaghan on the way to scoring Longford's first try.

04102020 Leinster Women’s League Division 3 New Ross 19 Longford 14

Longford travelled to New Ross on what ended up being a very wet and windy day for the first game of the season. The Longford team had quite a few new players making their debut. New Ross kicked off to Longford who immediately started putting pressure on the home side.  Some great work between the forwards and the back line brought Longford inside the New Ross 22.  A Longford line out gave the ball to Aine Cox who made a fantastic run on her first game for the Senior team. Some impressive work in the forwards led to the first try of the game by Longford scored by Olivia Mollaghan, who was also making her debut. Hannah O’Shea (Captain) kicked the conversion bringing the score to 0-7. 

New Ross fought back well and put Longford under pressure.  However, the Longford defence stood strong and managed to prevent a try, as it was held up by brilliant strength and communication between the forward and the backs. This led to a 5 metre scrum for New Ross. A mistake from the Longford defence yielded a New Ross penalty which saw the home side cross the line for a converted try.

Following the New Ross try both sides gave each other as good as they got with the weather causing mistakes on both sides.  However, before half time, Longford made some good ground and after some brilliant phases brought the ball over the line for their second converted try from Jess Stewart to leave the half time score 7-14 in the away sides favour.

From the kick off of the second half, both sides struggled to keep possession and some messy play on both sides led to penalties. However, the Longford side continued to fight and defend and made some great breaks. Again, poor weather conditions led to a mistake on the Longford side and led to New Ross scoring their second try, which was unconverted.

New Ross continued to put pressure on Longford and made some ground via their line outs and scrums, eventually scoring another try, which was converted with Longford suffering a narrow loss on the road but picking up a losing bonus point.  

Longford: Hannah O Shea, Tara Gilna, Jess Steward, Rebecca Duffy, Amanda Sheridan, Rebeka Stovas, Oliva Mollaghan, Dora Ledwith, Emma Dardis, Aine Cox, Leanne Keegan, Lisa Keegan, Leona Hoare, Eimear Kelleher, Rebecca O’Hara, Erica O’Reilly, Louise Hillary, Bronagh Kirk, Mary Sheridan, Fidelma Fallon, Tanya Farrell,  Irene Murtagh and Monica Bannon.

Amanda Sheridan competes in the lineout

Longford Senior Women’s Provisional Fixture List 2020-2021 Fixture List

Sunday October 11th Leinster League Garda/Westmanstown (H) J1 1 

Sunday October 18th Leinster League Naas (A) J1 1 

Sunday November 1st Leinster League Greystones (H) J1 1

Sunday November 8th Leinster League Portlaoise (A) J1 1

Sunday November 15th Leinster League Clondalkin (A) J1 1

Sunday November 29th November Leinster League Arklow (H) J1 1

Sunday December 6th Leinster League New Ross (H) J1 1

Sunday January 17th Leinster League Garda/Westmanstown (A) J1 1 

Sunday January 31st Leinster League Naas (H) J1 1

Sunday February 7th Leinster League Greystones (A) J1 1

Sunday February 21st Leinster League Portlaoise (H) J1 1

Sunday February 28th Leinster League Clondalkin (H) J1 1

Sunday March 14th Leinster League Arklow (A) J1 1

Mini/Youth Rugby is back

It was brilliant to see Youth rugby back at CPL Park over the weekend with many of our Youth sides taking the field against some of our Midland neighbours.  A round up can be found below.

U18 Longford 14 Tullamore 34

Longford played well in going down to a well drilled Tullamore side who featured a couple of Leinster players and an Irish international.  Longford will be looking forward to locking horns with Tullamore later-on in the season, when the team should have come on a lot.  Longford had some good performances from Jamie Byrne, Cormac McDonagh, Sam Burgess, Ronan Kavanagh. Kevin McDonagh and Ultan O’Sullivan.

U15 Mullingar 46 – Longford 17

Longford U15’s travelled up to Mullingar for their second Midland League fixture on the 3rd of October.  Mullingar have two teams in this competition and later in the season they will be competing in the Premier Division of the Leinster League. With 20 of the County Westmeath Gaelic panel players in their squad, they have strength in all areas of the field.  This was going to be a hard task but it was felt that if the lads played as they can, a surprise might be on the cards.

It what was a lovely day for football, Mullingar started well and exploited the wings, passing the ball with speed and accuracy, they crossed the whitewash twice before Longford got up to the speed of the game.  Longford got into the Mullingar 22 and were awarded a penalty.  Olan Bracken took a quick tap, passed the ball out the line and with James Grehan running at pace he drove for the line.  He was initially held up but recycled the ball, it was picked again and once again stopped short of the line, then James picked the ball and with assistance of Sean Molihan was driven across the line to score Longford’s first competitive try of the 2020/21 season.

Mullingar stuck to their task and ran in another 2 tries with one of these converted.  The Longford lads did not give up and Alex Forde picked up the ball as it squirted out of the side of a ruck and ran straight at the Mullingar defence, side stepped the first Mullingar defender, handed off the second tackler and had too much speed for the 3rd defender to score to the left of the sticks.  This left the team behind 22-10 at half time and still in the game.

With 7 set of fresh legs coming on at half time, the slightly unsettled side once again allowed Mullingar to score 2 tries before the new Longford lads got up to the pace of the game.  Then some quick thinking by the scrum half Conor Mulligan, go the ball out to Matthew Farrell on the wing and for the first time was able to stretch his legs and sprinted by 2 Mullingar defenders and scored under the posts. This was duely converted by Rian Browne.  The team started to run out of energy and Mullingar ran in a further 2 tries to leave the final score of 46 – 17 to the home side.

It was good to see the lads back scoring tries again and some players have had a good run out as they returned from injury.  There is plenty of areas to work on but we have held our own against two of the strongest teams in this league.  Off to Edenderry next week, so hopefully we will learn from our last 2 outings.  Training on Monday and Thursday 7-8:30pm as usual.

Panel:  Sean Molihan, Oran Lyons, Cathal Byrne, Caelum McGee, Kurtis Bennett, Alex Forde, Olan Bracken, James Grehan, Jack Reilly, Rian Browne, Fionn Crossan, Jack McWeeney, Diarmuid Glannon, John Sheridan, Oran Gallagher, Daniel Galvin, Jack O’Hara, Matthew Farrell, Ryan Sheridan, Jamie Dorr, Conor Mulligan, Patrick Murphy.

U14 Longford 07 Edenderry 31

In a reverse of last week’s good performance, Longford U14s allowed an average Edenderry team race into an early lead going 26 points down within 20 minutes of the kick off.

Where holding our width was better this week, the lads stood off and the opposition took full advantage. The powerful No.8 ran in two easy tries off scrums in their own half completely untouched.  Longford hit back with a try from Daniel Corr in the second half with some good build up play, Senan Murphy added the conversion.  Longford might have added further scores but ran into a brick wall of defence rather than spreading the ball to the fringes where we had numbers. It was a lesson learned. Team Captain Jamie Donohue worked hard and demanded better from his team. Dan Donohoe made some good tackles and was effective in rucks. William McEntire worked hard from full back along with Shane McGuigan at 13.

The second half was 07-05 in our favour but the damage had been done in the first half.

Longford: Ryan Spollen, Darragh Walsh, Conor gallagher, Conor O’Grady, Danny Kelly, Derek Belton, Dan Donohoe, Daniel Corr (1 try), Mel Mulligan, Senan Murphy (1 conversion), Niall Connaghton, Jamie Donohue, Shane McGuigan, Harry Byrne, William McEntire, Aaron Marshall.

Mini/Youth Fixtures Weekend October 10th-11th 

U18 v Ravens (TBC)

U17 v Tullamore (Away)

U16 v Midland Warriors (Away)

U15 v Edenderry (Away)

U14 v Mullingar (Away)

U13 v Edenderry (Away)

Pro 14 20-21 Fixtures released

It was a great starting weekend for the Irish provinces, all coming away with encouraging wins.  The next few weeks are the best chance a lot of players have to force their way into Andy Farrells plans.  Leinster travel to Italy next weekend to face Benetton.  As discussed last week it was confirmed that the Pro-14 will be morphing into the Pro-16 as early as 2021 with the four leading South African franchises; the Bulls, Lions, Stormers and Sharks joining.  Interesting times are most definitely ahead.

Leinster Pro 14 Confirmed Fixtures

Round 2: Benetton v Leinster Rugby, Saturday, October 10, Stadio Monigo – 5.15pm (Irish time)
Round 3: Leinster Rugby v Zebre, Friday, October 23, RDS Arena – 7.35pm
Round 4: Glasgow Warriors v Leinster Rugby, Monday, November 2, Scotstoun Stadium – 8.15pm
Round 5: Ospreys v Leinster Rugby, Sunday, November 8, Liberty Stadium – 3pm
Round 6: Leinster Rugby v Edinburgh, Monday, November 16, RDS Arena – 8.15pm
Round 7: Leinster Rugby v Cardiff, Sunday, November 22, RDS Arena – 5.15pm
Round 8: Scarlets v Leinster Rugby, Sunday, November 29, Parc y Scarlets – 5.15pm

Ireland’s Six and Eight Nations

Many of Irelands provincial players will now turn their attention to the remaining Six Nations fixtures versus France and Italy and Novembers inaugural Eight Nations competition.  Covid-19 put pay to Ireland confirmed November Internationals so instead a new competition to bridge the gap has been added where the Six Nations side will play a mini tournament along with Fiji and Georgia called the Eight Nations.  Ireland are in a group with England, Wales and Georgia and will play each team once.  The other group comprises France, Scotland, Italy and Fiji.  After the pool fixtures are played, all the teams will play one final game against the team that finishes in the same position of the other pool, with the winners of the match between the teams that top each pool declared the inaugural Eight Nations Champions.  Ireland are still in the running for the Six Nations title but will probably need 10 points from their last two games. Irelands confirmed fixtures for the rest of 2020 can be found below:

Ireland Eight Nations Fixtures

Saturday October 24th Italy Home 3.30 PM

Saturday October 31st France Away 8 PM

Friday November 13th Wales Home 7 PM

Saturday November 21st England Away 3 PM

Sunday November 29th Georgia Home 2 PM

Saturday December 5th TBC Home 2.15 PM

Senior Training

Longford Senior Men train every Tuesday and Friday night at 7.45 with matches generally on a Sunday.  It is great to see so many of last year’s U18s in at training over the last few weeks along with so many of our regular players.  If you would like to play rugby, want to restart your rugby career or are new to the area you are very welcome.  Please give Director of Rugby Niall Moran 0879185073 or Head Coach Glenn Baskett 0876036175 a ring if you are interested.  Please note a Covid-19 questionnaire needs to be filled in before starting training.

Our Senior Women are also back training and are welcoming new and returning players.  If you would like to give rugby a go (you do not need to have played before or be very fit) you will be very welcome.  Training is on Tuesday and Friday nights at 7.30 PM. Please give Women’s Head Coach Nuala McGoey a ring on 0862482005.  Again Covid-19 questionnaires needs to be filled in before training.

Minis/Youths Training

The good news for all our Underage players is that rugby is back.  The work that has been going on behind the scenes to ensure compliance with Governments Covid-19 guidelines is immense and thanks to Gerry Carthy (Mini/Youths Chairperson), Gerry Larkin (Club Covid-19 Officer) all the coaches, parents and players on making it work.  Each group has their own compliance officer.  Everyone is loving being back to training and cannot wait to play a few matches.  In the meantime, they are working hard on their fitness and skills.  Again Covid-19 questionnaires needs to be filled in before training.  We welcome new/returning players at all levels.

Minis

U7-U10 Sunday 10.30-11.30

U11 Thursday 7-8 (check with coaches for following week) (born 2010)

U12 Sunday 10.30-11.30 (born 2009)

Boys

U13 Thursday 7.00-8.30pm (born 2008)
U14 Thursday 6.30-8.30pm (born 2007)
U15 Mon 7.00-8.30pm and Thursday 7.00-8.30pm (born 2006)
U16 Tuesday 7.30-9.00pm (born 2005)
U17 Wednesday 7.30-9.00pm (born 2004)
U18 Wednesday 7.30-9.00pm (born 2003 & up to 01/07/2002)

Girls
U12&U14 Thursday 7.30-8.30pm
U16&U18 Wednesday 7.30-9.00pm

Contact 0862526741 for more information.
Longford Rugby Club is a 'Minimum20' club. Youth teams up to U15 promote minimum 20 minutes game time for all players on match day squads. Longford Minis rugby promotes equal game time at all times during games or blitz events.

Longford RFC Mini/Youth Boot Room

As we move towards getting back out on the pitch, there are a lot of players who need bigger boots.  So instead of spending big on new ones why not use the #LongfordRFC Boot Room instead?  It is a great concept where growing members swap the boots they have outgrown for nearly new bigger ones.  They donate the ones they have outgrown back to the boot room.  It benefits everyone and is way members can support each other post Covid. 

The Boot Room Concept

How many months use do you get out of a new (and very expensive) pair of boots before your child moves up a size and a new (and equally expensive) replacement pair is required? Aimed particularly at Minis and Youths we are going to set up a “Boot Room” where you can trade your perfectly good (but outgrown) pair of boots for a larger pair.  Boots will not be for sale – the Boot Room will operate on the basis that you trade in your own pair for another pair.  In this way, the plan is that the Club will have a self-replenishing supply of boots available to anyone who has a decent (but outgrown) pair which can be traded in return.  To set up the Boot Room we are asking you, the parents, to scour your garage, utility room, footwear box, kit bag or whatever for any outgrown or unloved pairs of boots which you would be willing to donate or trade.  We would only be interested in good quality boots without rips or tears and which can be used for playing rugby (ie. no blades).  If you have any, you can bring the boots to training and give them to any of the coaches, bring them to the Minis training on Sunday, leave them at the Club for the attention of Padraig Murphy or Gerry Carthy or any or your coaches.

New 4G Pitch

We are delighted to announce that the sod had been turned on our new state of the art 4G artificial pitch.  We will have more updated over the coming week so keep your eye on the notes.

Volunteers/Players for the coming season

Longford Rugby Club is a progressive club that fields Men’s/Women’s teams at Senior Level and has more than 400 Mini/Youth Players training every week both male and female from U6 right through to U18. We are looking for more players, coaches and volunteers at all levels of the club. If you would like to join Longford Rugby Club at this exciting time, please contact any club coach or volunteer.

The Sin Bin

The Sin Bin Bar & Restaurant at Longford RFC is one of the best club house facilities in the country. It offers a welcoming atmosphere, great food and drink and is the perfect place for members and friends to hold functions/events with lots of free parking and is just outside Longford Town. As of July 2020, it is now under the management of Andrew Reynolds who is a very experienced operator in the food/beverage area.

There has been very positive feedback on the great food being served all in a Covid 19 compliant setting with lots of social distancing between tables.

For reservations and enquiries about functions/events, please ring Andrew on 087 1631075.
Food is served at lunchtime from 12-4 Wednesday to Sunday and dinner Friday to Sunday from 5 PM. Please like and follow the Sin Bins Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/thesinbinlongford/ for updates and specials.











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