Boyne coach seeks early return to AIL
place was Tony Corcoran in 22:05. Next in was Peter Mullen who was 17th in 24:16, with Seamus Roe not far behind in 18th place in 24:47.
Conor Cooney continues to make a steady comeback from injury and his run of 25:38 shows that his recovery is going well as he finished with no real distress.
Audrey Corcoran was the club’s first lady home in 65th place overall in a new PB time of 32:10 and also running new PBs were Paula Floyd who was 72nd in 34:34 and Bridie Floyd who was 73rd in 34:36. THERE is no talk of the word ‘transition’ in the Boyne camp as they finalise preparations for Saturday’s Leinster Division 1A trip to Monkstown - their first league game since losing their AIL status last April.
Coach Graeme Eastwood has stayed on with the Shamrock Lodge-based club for a second season and is hoping they can bounce straight back up, boosted by a number of new signings from England, New Zealand and Australia as well as some Irish players.
And speaking yesterday (Monday) the Tyrone native was optimistic on a number of fronts ahead of the match at Sydney Parade (kick-off 3pm).
‘We have set clear goals of what we want to achieve,’ he began.
‘We thought we were unlucky in a few games last year and lost a lot of them by two or three points which was our downfall at the end of the season.
‘We had a lot of injuries as well. At one stage we had 10 players out and at least seven of them could have been first-team starters, and we didn’t have enough depth in the squad.
‘But with the players and the quality we have added, we know where we want to be. We have spoken about it as a squad and we want to go back up.
‘Touch wood, pre-season has gone very well. We started back in mid June with a very heavy weights programme, we’ve had good numbers and we’ve put in a lot of work to improve our training facilities.
‘We’ve put in an Under-20 squad this year and we’re hoping to create a pathway for homegrown players from youths rugby to Under-20s to senior, and we’re trying to achieve that.
‘I signed a three-year contract and the coaching staff felt at the end of last season that there was unfinished business, and everything is looking very positive for us.’
There have been one signficant change to the management team, with Gary Downey promoted to backs coach after acting as assistant to Niall Kerbey last season. Kerbey has left Boyne and is understood to have returned to Railway Union.
Scrum half Nicky Smith has also left Shamrock Lodge to join Barnhall, but there have been a number of incoming players, led by the half back pairing from England’s Hartbury College, Alex Cox and Tom Francis.
The new Kiwi addition is back row forward Wilson Twentyman, who has an Irish passport, and several former Boyne players have returned to the club, among them Karl Keogh (Dolphin), Sean O’Byrne (Clontarf) and Kevin Prendergast who will come up against his former team Monkstown this weekend.
Due to arrive tomorrow is Australian centre Alex Gregory and Eastwood also hopes to tie up the signing of another second row forward before the season kicks off.
Looking ahead to the Monkstown game, Eastwood concluded: ‘We’re hoping to get this week’s preparations right, and we know we have a tough enough start with Monkstown away, and Enniscorthy in our second away game, and we’ll have to work really hard to get things right.’
Fixtures
Sept 16th Monkstown (a), 23rd Gorey (h), 30th Enniscorthy (a)
Oct 14th Dundalk (h), 21st Ashbourne (a) Nov 4th DLSP (a), 18th Wicklow (h), 25th Monkstown (h)
Dec 2nd Gorey (a)
Jan 6th Enniscorthy (h), 13th Dundalk (a) Feb 17th Ashbourne (h)
Mar 3rd DLSP (h), 11th Wicklow (a)