Under 20 B Coaches Diary – April 5th – April 9th 2009
MOTTO for the week: WWDD
Sunday April 5th
1630 – Final Whistle in Malahide, need to get the lads in the ice bath, Philip McCarthy doing a great job getting the ice sorted. Tom (Dr Tom Field) looking at Douche – sternum injury no major damage but he looks uncomfortable. Sarah (physio – Sarah Gleeson) to look at Noley (Neal Foley), he looked ok during game but need to make sure he is ok for Thursday, will be gutted for him if he doesn’t make it.
Lads in Ice bath apart from Mike O’Sullivan who appears terrified of them (big girl – should bring him to the forty ft some time), even Tim Gleeson did them although I have my doubts about James Finnegan, think he just spent the time walking from the showers to the pool.
17:00 – John comes in and re-confirms ref got the call wrong when Kevin Haugh was binned (Kevin was our ten so we took Douche (6) out of the scrum to play centre, ref didn’t allow it, then allowed them seven in the scrum later in game !) Lads remind me to include news of Joe’s six month anniversary in the match report. Villa one all with Man U – happy days, Eoin Daly giddy with delight.
1730 – Car loaded up and heading home, phone John Hammond (legend) to tell him we will be back for 1745 with gear. Giving Pete a lift home, need to shut up about final as I think Pete is thinking of getting out and getting the bus! We have some more tough decisions re selection for final ahead of us.
1815 – Get home after leaving at midday, am starving as Shane O’Connor needed food before game and gave him my lunch, borrowed a few Jaffa Cakes from Noley to tide me over though. United score late winner – jammy ba***rds.
1930 – Text Douche to see how he is, he isn’t great recommend him going to A&E, tell him to let me know how he gets on.
Monday April 6th
1200 – Get match report done and into Rosemary (another legend) and ask her to remind everyone about the League final on Thursday night. Eight tries scored yesterday there is no way I am describing them all (even if I could remember them) in the report. Confirm Josh got four. Douche ok after X-ray, but will have to see how he is later in week. Talk to Jono (& IRB site) re referee on Sunday. Thank Malahide for use of their recovery facilities.
1700 – Meet lads for another recovery session, Eoin Daly, Daryl, Noley & Conor Farrell first in (you can see they want this game on Thursday which is good). Even Ross gets in unlike Mike who is nearly in tears at the thought of getting in, he says he prefers his bath to be warm and be surrounded by candles. Catch Robbie trying to put hot water in the baths, after ice baths cover a few points re Thursday with the lads, try to keep it as short as possible, Mike & Daniel emphasise the need to look good on Thursday night (hair done, fake tan etc), they ask a few of the lads to make a special effort . Mayser says he can help with the hair!
2030 – Get the usual texts from the lads re training, and some asking will we be coming back in after the warm up on Thursday!
Tuesday April 7th
0600 – Hit the gym, thinking of getting someone in to talk to the lads, someone who has experienced the big occasion, thinking of Rob K but the Munster lads might not be too keen. Possibly Brian but he is probably busy checking out hotels. Of course it’s obvious…Joe McGinley who carried the 1st XV to victory in the Dudley Cup.
0830 – Pete checks in to see how the Ice Baths went, tell him they went well, go over what we want from training tonight.
0900 – Great to see Gilly and the J4’s had a great win, Fred, Crokey & Joe obviously doing a great job.
1100 – Check weather forecast for Thursday to see if it has improved, it hasn’t. Ross will be gutted. Need to get some work done, looking forward to the budget this afternoon!!
1200 – Talk to John McClean and get his opinion re selection for Thursday night. Again WWDD.
1800 – Training, get balls cones etc. good to see Vinny (potential legend) again it’s been a while. Vinny now he has his IRFU car gets to park in the dressing rooms, has a sticker on the windscreen…official IRFU business….IRFU Grand Slam champions 2009!
1900 – Training goes well despite the weather, announce team. On a serious note the people we have to leave out for Thursday night don’t deserve to be left out, they have all contributed significantly to the success this year and it’s not easy on them, just have to be honest with them. Hopefully cup will go well and we can use them all because they are all very good players and good lads. Graeme Symonds (sky sports) in town to record segment for The Rugby Club ahead of Thursday night.
2030 – Conor Farrell in a hurry to get home apparently America’s next top model is on! Sean Tevlin also in a hurry home as he misses Siobhan and it has been two hours since he spoke to her.
2130 – Mossy (Maurice Deasy) doing interview for Off the Ball on NewsTalk 106 ahead of game, think they miss Ger Gilroy on the show. Daniel Joe & Mike doing the ‘Seoige’ show tomorrow afternoon. Josh on standby for this if one of the lads drops out (my money would be on Joe here…….).
Wednesday April 8th
0830 - Joe McGinley cannot talk to the lads ahead of final but Gilly (Paul Gilligan) can, might give that a miss though. Eddie Fox, Peter Condon & Jack Hogan send their best wishes for the final. Killian Keane offers his services to talk the team but he is looking for 5K….Reggie was only half that cost!
1000 – Talk to Rob Lee ahead of C’s game – make sure they are ok for tonight. Rob doing a great job with the C’s, noticed he had big numbers out last night.
1100 – Get a call from John O’Sullivan (ex CBC boy) re comments from Bective camp. Apparently they don’t like us very much and they take greater satisfaction when they beat us. Told him no comment and he asked was this true for us, I replied that I did not think this to be the case as the recent UCD dinner was pretty much a Bective lovefest!
1130 – David Carrigy calls re players moving on to junior club next year and to wish us the best of luck. He apologises that he won’t be at the game but he is away in South Africa meeting Nelson Mandela.
1900 – Have a light team run tonight (avoid the danger of going too long), clarify tactics especially if weather is as bad as forecasted. Make sure we have water bottles and hit shields for tomorrow night.
2030 – Team run went well, everybody looking forward to tomorrow. It would have been a great night for a game, no wind, sunny & warm unlike forecast which isn’t great to say the least. Great to see the C’s win against Edinburgh Uni, Rob and Pat Banahan doing a great job, they had nearly thirty players playing tonight – hopefully all of them will be around next year.
2130 – Watched the second half of the Liverpool game, refrain from texting Ross & Eoin.
Thursday April 9th
0600 – Hit the gym, difficult to sleep with the excitement and the fact that my two year old was in bed with us.
0830 – Collect gear (medical bag, ice box etc) from house (currently staying with my parents in law while we have the builders in, who are doing a great job by the way – BCP construction if anyone is getting some work done).
1000 – Confirm with John Hammond when gear can be collected from Donnybrook Laundry, John says he has it and is currently ironing it, what did I tell you…..legend. Tell John I will collect it at lunchtime.
1300 – Get some lunch and collect gear. Kiely’s starting to fill up with crowds for the game.
1400 – 1700 Try to do some work…..thankfully manager is off today.
1700 – Head to Donnybrook, get text from Mairead (team manager Mairead Buckley) wondering how to get to Donnybrook. Need to ensure that we get a decent room and that we are not squashed into one room. Sarah & Tim Gleeson already there.
1800 - Colm McSharry arrives to help out, great to see him, it’s been ages since we have seen him. He has had a nightmare of a year with injuries and we have missed him.
1900 – 2030 – Bective Rangers 11 UCD Under 20 B 8.
The Pennant final proved to be a hugely disappointing end to our league campaign as Collidge went down by eleven points to eight to a very good Bective side. Having beaten Bective narrowly in the league UCD knew that Thursday’s nights final was going to be another close match.
Bective playing with the wind in the first half started the game faster and had the students under pressure when they blocked down Daniel Clifford’s attempted clearance but some good defence kept the UCD line intact. Bective were first to score when James McAlister went off his feet at a ruck on the UCD twenty two and the Bective kicker calmly slotted the three points. UCD were next on the scoreboard with a superb try that started inside the twenty two when fullback Joe Mackenzie fielded a kick from the Bective out half. Mackenzie beat two tackles and raced away where he linked up with left winger Josh Morton, who took the ball into the Bective twenty two where he fed Ross O’Brien. The Bective defence scrambled well but Collidge managed to recycle the ball and then scrum half Shane O Meara fed Daniel Clifford who had brilliantly switched the play to the blind side and quick hands from the UCD backs saw Morton go in at the corner for a very well taken try. The difficult conversion was missed but a subsequent penalty from Ross O Brien gave UCD a five point lead after 25 mins or so.
This lead was wiped out when Collidge turned the ball over just outside their twenty two and (to their credit) Bective quickly moved the ball away from the breakdown to score a very well taken try in the corner. The touchline conversion was missed and the half time score was eight points all.
Collidge started the second half much better than they did the first half and some strong ball carrying from Conor Farrell and Maurice Deasy soon had the Bective defence scrambling. Following on from these two carry’s Shane O’Meara was harshly penalized for holding on just inches from the Bective line, naturally Bective cleared the danger. This basically summed up the second half as Collidge were unable to build any telling pressure and failed to secure the necessary points when they visited the Bective twenty two.
The match winning drop goal came from the Bective number thirteen and followed on from a period of Bective pressure which included a miraculous cover tackle from UCD’s James Finnegan. DespiteUCD’s best efforts Collidge were unable to get another score and a last minute penalty sailed wide and with it the game was over. In fairness this is a very good Bective side and they played very well on the night and we can have no complaints about the final score.
Everyone associated with the team was immensely disappointed after the game but all the players contributed enormously to an otherwise successful league campaign and I would like to thank them for all their efforts so far this year. We would also like to thank all those who came out to support us in the final and I can’t help but feel we let you all down, hopefully we will make amends in the Cup.
2100 – Head to Kielys and get the lads a few drinks after the game (well someone had to), they totally deserve it. Lads head off to someone’s house for the after game party. God help the neighbours!
2330 Head home for another sleepless night…have a feeling there might be a few of those coming up!
Thanks to Dr Tom Field, Mairead Buckley, Sarah Gleeson and Pete Herangi for their invaluable contribution to this league campaign.
Next up for the 20 B’s is a very tough cup game against DLSP on Sunday April 19th in Belfield. Once again all support would be appreciated.
WWDD – What would Declan Do !!!!
UCD Under 20 B League Squad
K. Finlayson, M. O’Sullivan, F.Lynch, C. Kavanagh, H.Boylan, R.Hannan, N.Foley, P. McCArthy, C. Cremin, T.Kenny, L. Hickey, S.Tevlin, R. Field, I.Mays, E. Daly, W. Courtney, K. McKenna C. Farrell, J. McAlister, M. Deasy, J. Hogan, D. Quinn, R. Whelan, N. Eivers, D.Memery, T. Gleeson.
S. O’Meara, M. Conway, S. Ethell, D. Clifford, R. O’Brien, K. Haugh, J. Morton, J. Finnegan, S, O’Connor, D. Fahy, P. Reddy, S. Conway, T. Fletcher, J. Mackenzie, J. Dunne, N. Murphy, J. Conroy, B. Cummiskey, C. McSharry, P. Condon, E. Fox.