Division 3 wins for Killarney and Tralee

MUNSTER JUNIOR LEAGUE DIVISION 3 Killarney 29 Ennis 9

KILLARNEY raced into second place in the Division 2 table with a very impressive home win against Ennis. The home side are in a rich vein of format the moment and on this performance look like they could mount a serious challenge for promotion.

Killarney didn’t enjoy a great first half however and Ennis raced into a 9-0 lead thanks to 3 penalties from Ronan O’Halloran. Killarney grew in confidence as the half went on and Paudie Sheehan struck for a good unconverted try to leave his side 9-5 behind at half time.

The home side came out rejuvenated in the second half and completely dominated their opponents. The Killarney strength lay in their powerful pack who outmuscled their opponents.Ger Moynihan was central to everything good that Killarney had to offer, and he also got on the scoresheet with a good try. Killarney kept the pressure on throughout the game and they added further tries through Paudie Sheehan, Aaron Jones and Connie O’Leary, while Luke O’Shea put over the 3 conversions.

Bantry 13 Tralee 32

TRALEE made the long journey down to Bantry but completely blew away the hosts with a fine performance. Tralee are a side playing with confidence at the moment and it showed, as the gave a ruthless display in disposing of the Cork side.

Eoin O’Carroll, Jack Quilter, Fearghal Ó’Nuallain and Luke Mullally were Tralee’s try scorers whilst Ben O’Neill kicked three conversions and two penalties. Gareth Murphy was Bantry’s try scorer, and Andre Polivka kicked a conversion and two penalties.

The win sees Tralee move to fourth place in the J3 table, and their local derby against Killorglin will be a massive match for both sides.

Killorglin 21 Mitchelstown 29

THIS was certainly a game of two halves as Killorglin were the much better side in the first half but were completely overrun by a resurgent Mitchelstown in the second.

It was hard to see anything but a Killorglin victory early on as they played all of the positive rugby. The running and support play from Killorglin was excellent, and with their pack in complete control, the visitors had no answer to their dominance.

Killorglin’s Darragh O’Shea was in great form on his senior debut and chipped in with two of these, with Kyle Byrne touching down for their third. Luke O’Shea brought his kicking boots and slotted over the three conversions with minimum fuss Killorglin’s Rodi Healy made a trip to the sin bin with four minutes to go in the half but the home side’s defence held firm in spite of the numerical disadvantage. Mitchelstown’s lone score came from the boot of to leave the half time score Killorglin 21 Mitchelstown 3.

It was a different tale in the second half as Mitchelstown made their advantage count and struck for a try in the 45th minute through Jack Norris. Disaster struck for Killorglin in the 55th minute of the game when Healy was shown his second yellow, and then a red, as Mitchelstown began to launch some serious attacking forays into the hosts territory.

Withtheteamdownto14men, and indiscipline becoming an issue, Mitchelstown struck for 3 more tries through Owen Burke, Shane Molan and Denis Sheehan to seal what looked like an unlikely victory.

Killorglin will be very disappointed with the loss but will hope to bounce back when they take on Tralee on November 4.

MUNSTER WOMEN’S LEAGUE DIVISION 1 Fermoy 5 Tralee 84

TRALEE made it five wins out of five as they hammered Fermoy on their home patch last Sunday. The Tralee side now sit proudly at the top of the group standings, and they are the side that everyone fears in the division.

Tralee scored 12 tries in total with Diana O’Keeffe( 2), Sinead O’Connor (2), Noreen Murphy(2), Riona Kennedy (2), Laoise O’Driscoll (2), Ashley Sheehy and Caolainn Healy getting in on the act. O’Driscoll converted all of the tries.

Tralee have now scored a whopping 278 points in their 5 games and have conceded a mere 13.

MUNSTER U16 CONFERENCE 2 Listowel/Tralee 14 Kanturk 13

LISTOWEL/TRALEE suffered an early deficit when they fell behind to an unconverted try. Listowel/ Tralee were playing into the breeze but some great work from their forwards saw Edward O’Connor score an excellent try which Gearoid Kilgallen converted. Kanturk didn’t let this set back deter them and after scoring another unconverted try, they added a penalty on the stroke of half time to lead 13-7 at the break.

Both sides went full throttle at the start of the second half but it was Listowel/Tralee who struck first when scrum half Donnacha Fox scored a try after a brilliant sniping run. With Kilgallen adding the conversion, Listowel/Tralee led by 14-13. Listowel/Tralee continued to dominate for the remainder of the game and although there were no further scores, they fully deserved their win.