By Tommy Butler Longford RFC PRO lrfconnects@gmail.com 

 Senior Men

Unfortunately, there is no positive news to share at this stage, but we are publishing a feature length interview with Senior Men’s Captain Benny McManus separately.

Ireland

It was great to see the Irish rugby team to take to the pitch for the first time in eight months yesterday in an eerily empty Aviva Stadium, although we are getting somewhat used to watching elite support played behind closed doors at this stage!  Firstly, Andy Farrell and all the players would have taken the 50-17 score line before the match began.  There were a lot of positives, great debuts from Hugo Keegan who bagged two tries and would have on another day been awarded a third and the chop tackling machine that is Will Connors who also helped himself to a try.  Ed Byrne at loosehead and Jamison Gibson Parke at scrum half also had positive debuts.  The defence by Ireland for most of the match was excellent and the set piece looked solid.  On the downside the Italians are an extremely limited side who Ireland made hard work of at times.  Ireland scored nearly all their tries from Italian errors, which is really encouraging as this is something the All Blacks often do, however they struggled to break down Italy in phase play which is somewhat worrying and made a lot of handling errors.  From watching Frances win versus Wales yesterday, the French will definitely give you opportunities and give away penalties but equally looked lethal from broken play, where they converted small opportunities into points to win out easily in the end.  Overall, it was a very positive return to rugby but Andy Farrell and all his squad will know that they will need to seriously step it up, if they are going to come away from Paris with a win.  The ‘City of Love’ has never been a very happy hunting ground for Ireland and securing a four try bonus point win looks even more unlikely, however, Ireland’s is the last match of the day, so they will know exactly what they have to do lift the Six Nations title and can throw caution to the wind.  Basically, assuming England notch up a big bonus point win against Italy in Rome, it is probably going to take an Irish bonus point win in Paris to lift the title, a very tall order but not impossible!

A foot note to the above is Gary Ringrose was reported to have broken his jaw so will be out for at least 5-6 weeks.  Robbie Henshaw did everything right when he came on for him and looks odds on to start on Paris with Munster’s Chris Farrell probably coming on to the bench.  In a positive injury story, it was brilliant to see Dan Leavy come off the bench in Leinster’s facile win versus Zebre on Friday night in the RDS after 18 months out.  A fully fit Dan Leavy will undoubtedly be a massive boost to Leinster and Ireland going forward.

Leinster Pro-14 Fixtures

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

Autumn Ireland Fixtures

Saturday October 31^st France Away 8 PM (Six Nations)

Friday November 13^th Wales Home 7 PM (Eight Nations)

Saturday November 21^st England Away 3 PM (Eight Nations)

Sunday November 29^th Georgia Home 2 PM (Eight Nations)

Saturday December 5^th TBC Home 2.15 PM (Eight Nations)

Senior Training

Senior Training is currently suspended during Level 5 restrictions for both the Men’s and Women’s squads.  All players are asked to work individually to maintain their skills and fitness.  A return to rugby plan will hopefully be devised in the coming weeks. 

Great news: Underage rugby allowed to continue during Level 5 restrictions

With the back drop of the Level 5 lockdown restrictions we have some great news, due to the physical/mental benefits of training outweighing the chances of Covid transmission especially with all the extra precautions in place, non-contact, max pods of 15, Covid screening etc. the Level 5 Irish Government guidelines allow school age children to continue attending training.  Furthermore, the 5 km/within county restrictions do not apply for dropping our Mini/Youth players to training.  The club weighed everything up carefully but think our players need an outlet during these times.  So, get your gear out and get down to training there is lots we can do and it will mean that we will come fitter and more skilful when we get back to doing what we love; playing competitive rugby.

Some changes to training times may be made, with some groups moving training to the weekends, as there are no games.  Coaches will send any updates out in their WhatsApp groups.

Minis (Boys/Girls)

U6-U12 Sundays 10.30am-12.00pm.

Boys

U13 Wednesday 7.00-8.30pm (born 2008)
U14 Thursday 7.00-8.30pm (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.

New 4G Pitch Progress Update

Work continued last week on the pitch.  Unfortunately, it hit its first snag with the torrential rain during the week slowing down progress.  However, out new international standard new pitch is still on schedule for completion in late December/early January.  All top soil has now been stripped with foundation works underway.  We will post regular updates on its progress. 

The cost of project is c€600,000.  Although we have received a sizeable grant from LCDC of Longford County Council through the Leader programme, we still need to raise the balance of the funds.  Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far.  We still have some way to go, however.  If you can contribute, please contact Derick Turner on 0862559624.  An innovative scheme is available where any contributions can be spread via a lost cost monthly direct debit.