A fine display of character and spirit shown by the Tralee girls was just not enough as Abbeyfeale girls took the spoils in a tense and exciting match.
It was a beautiful, spring Saturday morning as Tralee under 17’s took on their second match of the season at Grove Grounds. The girls had put a lot of hard work and preparation in leading up to this fixture and it was evident straight from the kick off that their extra team and fitness sessions throughout the weeks had certainly paid off.
Tralee had the upper hand straight away as great interplay from the backs; led magnificently by captain and man of the match Ayesha Roche, put speedy winger Sinead O’Connor in the corner for the game’s first try. Roche had no problems at all with the conversion making it look so easy and ensuring Tralee a seven point lead with barely 5 minutes played.
Tralee continued to take the game to the opposition and were very unlucky not to score again with Roche continuing to cause problems, this time with the boot, putting a testing ball up high leading to another great attacking position for Tralee.
A lack of concentration; ball watching by the Tralee defence resulted in a sloppy try being conceded. The scores level 7-7.
Just when the coaching staff led by Marie Townsend, Andrew Brace and Sean Hurley thought the game would settle down, it didn’t, both sides persisted to play some superb end to end rugby and some may wonder how the score was just 7-7 at half time.
The second half began with Tralee again showing their determination to run the ball from all parts of the field. Some great individual runs by Katie O’Connor and Sarah Walsh at centre continued to cause problems for the Abbeyfeale defence and when the ball did get to winger Sinead O’Connor again she had a 50 metre sprint for the line. The whole Tralee side stood still watching, expecting her to run all the way - just for a last ditched tackle made by the Abbeyfeale full-back to hold her up and the score remained at 7-7.
With Tralee defence caught napping Abbeyfeale’s winger broke a few tackles and scored under the posts again. The two points were added and now Tralee found themselves on the back foot, chasing the game 14-7.
The score line remained for most of the second half but Tralee were not determined to give up, battling on to get another score they built multiple phases through the forwards led superbly by Caoimhe Marley but Abbeyfeale’s defence stood firm and were not willing to surrender their lead cheaply.
Tralee continued to throw the kitchen sink at Abbeyfeale with hard runs by Tara Kelly and Katie O’Sullivan but they started to tire and Abbeyfeale exploited this scoring two consecutive tries in the dying moments.
Overall this was a very gutsy and courageous performance put in by the Tralee girls and the result definitely doesn’t reflect how they played. Every player from one to fifteen can be very proud of their efforts, with the big positive being how much they improved over the weeks to get to where they are now. A big well done girls!
Under Age Teams 
