February 9th, 2013 
Rob 
Tullamore RFC’s bid to win all before them continues apace after they secured the All Ireland Junior Cup crown for the second season in a row with a 29-10 victory over Enniscorthy on Saturday.
The victory was about as comprehensive as you could hope for in a cup final as a firery Wexford challenge in the opening quarter proved to be nothing more than that once the Offaly men found their groove.
Ivan Poole had opened the scoring for the underdogs but Conor Molloy’s try was the first big score midway through the half and Aaron Deverell’s penalty had Tullamore in control.
The victory was sealed in a four minute spell either side of half time, Tullamore finished the first half with a brilliantly crafted try finished off by David Clavin and the centre sparked the attack that led to Ger Molloy crashing over for the third try.
The game was won at that point but Brian Geraghty crowned the victory late on before Paddy Waters notched a consolation score for Enniscorhty.
VIDEO: David Clavin scores Tullamore’s second try late in the first half.
Posted in
Well done lads keep it going, and three try’s
scored by the back line.
Well done to everyone in the club from the
U8 coaches upto and including the first and all
The committees, exec. All the hard work is
paying off
As predicted Tulliers romped home. The power up front and the pace out wide. The big question is can anybody stop them? When we add the PTC and the round robin to the three titles we have already won. We will without doubt become the greatest junior team of all time!!!!!!. Maasaaagnificent Tulliers.
Ah here, had a good laugh but please stop trying to make Tullamore look like a shower of dopes.
Excuse me Direct Line but are you trying to undermine what will be a magnificent achievement and unprecedented. Who’s the dope now!
biffo we all know you are not a tullamore man stop stirring shit
have to say while yesterday’s game was very enjoyable and both teams gave their all, the irfu let themselves down badly with their poor effort at staging the final! there were only a handful of match programmes given out and these were dreadful with no player profiles/pictures or even a summary of who each team had beaten on the way to the final.
there was no scoreboard or pa system so most people couldnt hear the after match speech.
it’s a far cry from the huge effort and coverage that went into the same final a few years ago in dubarry park. its a real shame as this competition is a real boost to junior rugby, but it seems like the irfu now see it as more of an inconvenience than anything else.
Have to agree. Junior Rugby is a pain in the arse for the union. If you think about it logically the union don’t want people playing Junior Rugby. They want them going to the RDS or Ravenhill buying replica jerseys, buying season tickets etc. Junior rugby clubs are denying the Provinces of additional revenue streams. It’s not in the interest of the Union or the provinces to have people out playing junior rugby in their free time plain and simple.
id agree with this and the lack of players playing over 30 compared to 10 years ago is striking and it has a huge knock on effect in clubs with many clubs struggling to field 2nds. while the recession is having a huge effect on players finding it harder to take time off work for games and not being able to afford to get injured etc, the irfu has to take some of the blame with some of the fixture scheduling just daft. the scenario where junior rugby often clashes with magners league games makes no sense at all.
even some of the ail 1a games ae fixed for the same time as heineken cup/magners league matches!
The comments on this site are just a waste of everyone’s time. You are either whinging, bitching, accusing, trolling or insulting. For every positive comment there are 10 negative ones. If these comments were a true reflection of grass roots rugby, it would take a long hard look in the mirror and smash itself to pieces.
well you obviously arent actually involved in a rugby club as if you were then you would realise the comments made are true and accurate and will ultimately lead to many junior clubs fielding a 1sts team in 10 years let alone a 2nds!
Here are a few FACTS for you which you can consider negative if you like but they are FACTS:
1) Last season there was a 3rds league for leinster rugby played on sundays. 8 clubs had a thirds side in this. Sometimes clubs couldnt field but by and large most of the games went ahead and it was a chance for fringe players/younger players to get a taste of adult rugby even at a lower level. This year there is no thirds league. The only club that fielded a 3rds was enniscorthy, in div 2b 2nds league. So 7 teams x 15 players means that around 100 less players played rugby in leinster junior alone this year and this is only in junior rugby. I believe the problems are similar in senir rugby.
2) The number of clubs able to field an under 20′s have decreased alarmingly. The situation whereby many clubs have half their team composed of young players under 20 means thatt because the branch in their wisdom fix u 20′s/2nds for the same wkends, something has to give – skerries in particular had this problem last year and had to concede 2 games at 2nds level. So agin, the fact is that there are less players under 20 playing the gamne this season.
So negative or not, there are less players playing the game. Is this a god or bad thing for the game in ireland as a whole? Would the union prefer for there to be no 2nds league and for these players to go watch leinster vs zebre on a sat evening instead of playing?
Your comments on player participation have a certain validity, no denying that but Ireland are in the middle of a recession and socioeconomic factors are the biggest culprit to player numbers dropping not game promotion. Emigration is a massive factor, students having to take up part time jobs at weekends to supplement living and tuition expenses, volunteers to run teams are disappearing, it’s apparent during recessionary times volunteer numbers drop due to the fear of been out of pocket as clubs can’t afford to reimburse expenses. Students can’t travel home for training, fuel costs money. Lots of guys can’t risk injury and be out of work. Added into the fact that we are also in the middle of a baby boom and many new parents are in the 28-35 age group result in their numbers dropping due to family commitments. So the easy task is to blame the Union or Fine Gael, can you at least be constructive and offer solutions, the International game funds everything from the clubs of Ireland scheme to ensuring all games have qualified referees who aren’t out of pocket.
The game Saturday was €5, fantastic value I thought but no lets have a pop over no Scoreboard (Surely Cill Dara’s fault?), no PA system. There was also ample parking, plenty of room for the kids to play and the usual refreshments. Also couldn’t believe the quality of the pitch, a much better pitch for the players (who are important) than Dubarry Park pitch would have been after the u20s International Friday night. Athlone would also have been a 2 and 1/2 hour drive for Enniscorthy who brought a much bigger support than Tullamore I might add, would that have been fair?
Anyhow well done Tullamore on their victory, a very clinical confident side, commiserations to a good Enniscorthy side and well done to Cill Dara and the IRFU for an enjoyable day.
ok here are 3 solutions that i think would help:
1) Branch to fix as many junior games as possible at night time/evening kick offs with 2nds at 5.00 and 1sts at 7.00.
This should be no problem at all for teams within an hour distance of each other. I know for a fact players find it easier to play in the evenings as they can still do a days work.
2) For fnals try combine several games the same day to make a better all round day with more media exposure.
The ail junior final and the spencer cup final could very easily have been played in the same venue with one game at 2.30 and the other at 4.00. Somewhere like donnybrook would have been ideal for all 4 teams.
3) use a bit of common sense when scheduling junior games so as not to have the scenario where teams are playing the same time magners/heineken cup etc is on
Well done to Tullamore great victory for a great club and a great bunch of people,fantastic ambassadors for their town when they visited us,we recieved best wishes from them before our big match last Saturday and we also sent ours,the way it should be ! All the best to move onwards etc.
Well done to kanturk on their challenge cup win last weekend, when tullamore played there they pulled out all of the stops to welcome us to their club, and for our players and supporters it was definitely the highlight of the year with a great crowd and atmosphere.
I am thirty, going on 31 and I have 3 kids and a demanding job. I love the game of rugby and the craic of the club. And its a great cause to stay fit and engaged in the community. I may not be as quick as I was but still can positively contribute to the team effort – so I there is no physical/injury related reason as to why I should retire from the game. I am guessing I am like a lot of lads however where the balancing act can get too stressful expecially when your in the door grabbing the gear bag and running out the door with only a quick hello and goodbye to the wife and kids. Then away again one of the two weekend days. This is probably my last season for these reasons. I think there are plenty who have it even tougher than I in terms of family/work/sport balances. If I am a barometer of guys my age then probably a decline in the average playing age is not so surprising. The only thing I can think of that would help would be more evening games to free up weekends a bit more.
im still playing a reasonable standard at j2 and going on 33 but it does get harder each year. sometimes we might not have a game for a few weeks then because of a backlog of fixts we could have to play 4 or 5 wks in a row, which makes it harder on the older fellas to recover. still, im not complaining and love being involved and seeing different clubs and towns when we are away.
im lucky that my job is flexible enough so i can get off for the matches but know lots of lads that find it fierce hard to get off especially for the early matches at 1.00 on saturdays. there are lots of lads in every club not playing any more that could play if there were more evening kick offs and the branches should try to do this as much as possible as it also usually gets a bigger crowd etc too.
i know a few clubs where their 2nds rely on a good few u 20′s, if the games were on the same day and same venue then the u 20′s could play 2o’s then sub 2nds it would be easier to field teams for both sides.
young but too old: keep playing as long as you can, you will be retired long enough!!
Well done Tullamore.
Pat Mustard mentioned that there was no J3 league. In the North East there is a very successful league running for the last few seasons. It caters for a few J3 clubs and the 3rd sides of some of the bigger clubs. Keeping it local and minimising travel as well as matches under lights has really worked. So there is a solution and it does work with a bit of thought!