Portlaoise Rugby Club News

This Weekend Results :

Home Team	Score	Away Team	Score
Portlaoise 3rd’s	42	Ardee 3rd’s	9
Wicklow 2nd’s	15	Portlaoise 2nd’s	10
West Offaly Lions	17	Portlaoise 1st’s	24

This Weeks Matches

Sunday 10^th April:

Portlaoise 1^st’s team are playing away to Longford in the 2^nd round of the Provincial Towns Plate . Match starts at 15:00 in The Demesne, Longford.

Portlaoise 3^rd’s team are away to either Kilkenny or Birr in their second round of the Anderson Cup . Start time is 15:00pm.

Portlaoise 4^th’s team are at home to Tullamore in the first round of the Michael Dunne Cup. Start time is 15:00 in Togher, your support would be appreciated.

Saturday  2^nd April:

Portlaoise minis are at home to North Kildare in Togher from 10:30am.

Match report on 3^rd s game   Sunday 3^rd April

Portlaoise 3^rd v  Ardee 3^rd’s in Togher, Portlaoise.

Team : 15 J.Sully, 14 K.O’Connor, 13 N.Fitzpatrick, 12 B.Hennessy, 11 M.Dowling, 10 M.McDonald, 9 M.Delaney, 8 S.Cooper, 7 T.Lynch, 6 D.Bigney, 5 D.Broomfield, 4 J.Kavanagh, 3 G.Hall, 2 P.McEvoy, 1 J.Dowling, Subs: G.Rowe, P.Hearns, D Lynch, H Griggen, A. Heffernan, O.Cuddy, C.Peters.

Portlaoise thirds played their first match in the Anderson Cup  with a thrilling game of compeditive rugby in Togher on a sunny Sunday afternoon. There was a lot of tension in the air as both sides were starting their cup campaign with strong records in their leagues. Ardee finish second in their North East league while Portlaoise finished top of their league. The match started with both sides nervously testing the other sides forward power. With 10 minutes gone, Portlaoise unleashed a back row move which saw Killian O’Connor streak over the try line and touch down directly under the posts. Kicking duties were assigned to John Scully today and he duly added the conversion. The score stood at Portlaoise 7 Ardee 0. Some 15 minutes later following sustained pressure Portlaoise conceded a penalty which Ardee failed to convert. From the resulting start Portlaoise gathered the ball and moved up the field, forcing Ardee to defend in mass but it did not stop front row John Dowling from squeezing over the Ardee try line to score a fine try. Ardee came storming back and five minutes later scored a drop goal from 35 yards. The score now stood at Portlaoise 12  Ardee 3. Following sustained pressure from Ardee they were rewarded with a penalty inside Portlaoise’s 22 which they converted. On the stroke of half time Portlaoise were awarded a penalty which John Scully duly kicked over the crossbar to leave the half time score at Portlaoise 15  Ardee 6.

The second half began and almost immediately Ardee were awarded a penalty for hands in the ruck. This they converted. Score stood at Portlaoise 15 Ardee 9 . This is the closest that Ardee got to Portlaoise on the scoreboard. Portlaoise stepped up a gear and were rewarded with tries from Garry Rowe (2) , Niall Fitzpatrick, Tom Lynch, Hugo Griffin. John Scully added a conversion to bring the final score to Portlaoise 42 Ardee 9.

Next up in the cup is the winners of Kilkenny v Birr.

Check website;  WWW.portlaoiserfc.ie and/or follow us on Facebook for further details of fixtures and coaches.