Mill Road men ready for Enniscorthy challenge
DUNDALK RFC’s preparations are almost complete ahead of their new Leinster League campaign which kicks off this Saturday with the toughest possible start - a trip to old foes Enniscorthy.
The Mill Road side find themselves back in the junior ranks after a rather chastening first taste of All-Ireland League competition that saw them finish bottom of the Division 2C table last April.
New player coach Mike Walls, who replaces John Murphy, is anxious to draw a line under that disappointing season by re-discovering a habit of winning matches, but ahead of the new campaign he was careful not to talk up the team’s chances of bouncing straight back to the AIL.
‘We are targeting winning every game we play in and we will see where that leaves us,’ said the 36-year-old Mullingar native, who returned home from England in 2013 to coach Boyne and moved to Dundalk as a player mid-way through last season.
‘The aim is to play as well as we can and play a good brand of rugby and use the experience we gained from playing in the AIL.
‘That was tough. We had lost a few players from the year before and the set-pieces, which are particularly important, were one of the weaker areas of our game.
‘We didn’t pick up many wins, so psychologically we need to get the mindset right if we are to develop a winning habit in this league.
‘But I’m really looking forward to the season. Dundalk is a well-supported club and there’s great facilities, and this year we need to get the reputation of the club back on track.’
On the playing side, the key recruit looks to be Cole Stewart from Wellington in New Zealand who will act as forwards coach as well as taking up position in the second row.
‘We got him through a contact from the old Dundalk coach Ene Fa’atau who’s down in Galway Corinthians now,’ explained Walls. ‘We were on the hunt for a second row and he’s been over for about a month now and is settling in well.’
Stewart apart, there are plenty of familiar names who have opted to stay with Dundalk. David Whately has been appointed club captain and is joined in the squad by brother Paul and cousin Greg, while there are four Williams siblings battling for first-team places - Johnny, Derek, Robbie and 18-year-old Andrew. Out half Gearoid McDonald and winger Stephen Murphy are still part of the set-up and young Darragh Conroy will vie for the number 9 jersey with coach Walls as Thomas Campbell has moved on.
Dundalk continued the count
down to the Leinster League season with a game against Buccaneers in Athlone where they spent the weekend on what Walls called a ‘team-bonding session’.
But most players in the squad are familiar to each other and that continuity in the playing ranks will be important as Dundalk prepare to face what looks on paper to be their most difficult game of the season on day one.
Like it or not, Enniscorthy will be seen as favourites to retain the Leinster League title and they only missed out on promotion to the AIL last time by one bonus point after going through the three-match round robin stage unbeaten.
‘Everyone knows how tough it is going to be and after last season people will be thinking we will be an easy target, but there’s been a lot of talk in training about making sure we’re ready for Enniscorthy,’ said Walls.
‘Preparations have been pretty good. We lost to CIYMS up in Belfast and Banbridge away and we won against Athboy, also away, and they were good runouts. Banbridge had a very strong team out, including Mike Bentley who was with Dundalk before.
‘We’re trying to use the tough start as a positive. We have a good few players who would have played against Enniscorthy before and we need to start the season with a bang.’