A fearless crowd of players and supporters braved the freezing wind on an otherwise perfect sunny, dry St. Stephen’s Day for a fun day of rugby. There was a good representation from both the men’s and women’s teams and they played an entertaining game with plenty of attacking rugby and tries. With Club President Ken Kinsella refereeing, there was of course no shortage of controversial decisions and his impartiality was severely questioned when he actually joined a scrum at one point. Not content to see the adults have all the fun, the kids joined in too when Joe Ivers’s daughter Sarah and Tom Leigh’s two sons Tom and Elliot took to the field and threw themselves into the action with gusto. There was plenty of scoring but no one, including the ref, could be bothered keeping up with it, so we’ll just call it a draw!

Match highlights included (in no particular order):

Ciaran Rudd’s tackle on his girlfriend Shauna Power (if looks could kill…)

Catherine Murphy smashing Ste Kelly in the tackle (high yes, but as it’s Kelly we’ll allow it)

Andrew Rudd flipping the bird to the defence on the way to scoring a try (Ungentlemanly conduct, referee!!!!)

Caoimhe Hogan beating Catherine Murphy to a lineout

Audrey Fulham flipping to the bird to (her boyfriend) Andrew Rudd after a tackle (Unladylike conduct, referee!!!)

Adam Nolan lying prone on the ground, pretending to be hurt only to have one of the little Leigh boys slam the ball into his face!! (That’s what they teach them out in DLSP). Sporting? No. Funny? Very much so!

Ciaran Rudd smashing his brother Andrew with a sly tackle from behind

Gavin McKeon scoring two fine tries but making a balls of a hatrick by dropping a cross-kick with the line begging

Caoimhe Hogan’s brother taking to the field in a onesie, keeping a sacred tradition going

Kevin Quinn playing in a sleeveless t-shirt to show how tough Walkinstown people are

Audrey Fulham taking a re-start

 

Thanks very much to the organisers (Joe Ivers especially) and to everyone who came out to attend for a memorable and very funny day. Thanks also to everyone who made a contribution to the Charity “Cry”. Finally, thanks as always to the mighty Anne Kavanagh who provided the photos below which gives you a nice taste of the madness!

Happy new year to you all!!