A NOVEL end-of-season celebration of rugby took place in Thomond Park, Limerick when 34 players selected from Kerry clubs took on touring Catalan side Barcelona.
The talented and eager young Kerry stars fielded two different sides for the two 30-minute halves and served up a feast of running rugby against the celebrated visitors.
Killarney were well represented with seven players showcasing their skills. Peer promoted captain for the day, Brendy O’Donoghue, powered early into prominence, bursting through the defensive cover to score in the left corner after five minutes. He repeated the trick in the 12th minute, this time touching down under the posts.
Killarney’s well-oiled combos were functioning well with scrum half Peter Walsh, out half Donnchadh Grealy and first centre Ozdenis Koyun controlling the tempo, varying the backline attack patterns and orchestrating the defensive set up.
Hooker O’Donoghue again combined superbly with no 8 John McCarthy in lineout exchanges and their explosive bursts from open play caught the eye.
Barcelona displayed an array of attacking plays, running the ball from deep and using clever kicking ploys to stretch the defence. Their counter rucking was highly impressive and any unprotected ball was clinically overturned. Their astute attacks delivered two well worked first half tries and one conversion.
John McCarthy stepped and crashed his way to a try in the 25th minute and with Donnchadh Grealy adding two conversions the half-time score was 19-12 to the Kerry boys.
The high standard was maintained when an entirely new Kerry team emerged for the second half. With his first touch of the ball gathered, just outside the 22, Thomas Clifford took off and sliced through the opposing defence to score a scintillating try.
Castleisland’s giant forward Taylor O’Donoghue also crashed through for a five-pointer that was successfully converted by Killorglin’s James Byrne and that completed the scoring for the Kerry boys.
Killarney’s other representative winger, James Kenneally, relished the full out attack mode of the second half combo and came very close to scoring in the right corner. Barcelona finished strongly and bravely forced their way over the try line twice in the last 10 minutes to leave the final score at 29-22.
The standard and depth of talent on display illustrated the incredible work being carried out at ground level throughout the south west region. Well done to Munster coach Ray Gadsden on a job well done, orchestrating the event and coaching and managing the side.
Both teams enjoyed a meal together after the game and got to socialise before journeying on to the Munster and Connacht game.
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