Cumnock U16 Irish Tour

Report by Ian Park

Arriving late at Crawfordsburn the party of boys, coaches and parents settled in their accommodation and finally got to bed in anticipation of the first game of the tour against Malone on the Saturday.
After an early start we travelled to Belfast to take on Malone Rugby Club and on the Malone first pitch the boys put in a great effort against the bigger team. After the first 20 the scoreboard was still blank with the Cumnock forwards taking a bit of a pounding but they eventually found their feet and matched their bigger opponents. The score was tied at half time 12 each. In the second half the Cumnock boys left it late but eventually realised that playing the ball through hands was the way ahead and scored two late trys for the hard fought win 19 - 31.
The boys and parents then took part in the activities available at Crawfordsburn, luckily there were no further injuries from the archery, skywalking or the assault course.
With the weekend starting to take its toll, on the Sunday we travelled to Newtonards to take on Ards Rugby Club. Unfortunately for the boys the Ards team turned out to be even bigger than their Belfast opponents. The big size difference took its toll on the Cumnock team who were two scores down by half time. But as a team they never backed down and for long periods were camped in the Ards half with no result. Playing with the wind in the second half Cumnock continued to force the score but the bigger team closed out the game 34 – 10.
Over the two days and two games the boys put in a huge effort that will see a closer knit team and set them up for the season ahead.

Photos of Tour by John Andrew are available to members of website by following Saturday link, Malone
and Sunday link Ards