Kilkenny Rugby Firsts went down by 6 points in their Leinster League Division 1A game on Sunday at the hands of Ashbourne.
20-14 is how it finished up.
Its a come down after a bonus point win over Suttonians last week.
Ladies Rugby
The Carlow Coyotes conceded to Mullingar in Division 1 of the Leinster League while in Division 2, Kilkenny beat Suttonians by 37 – 10 and Tullow beat Tullamore 7 – 0.
Carlows Seconds team were in action in the Seconds Cup.
Read the match report by John Shirley…
Birr 12 – Carlow 11
Carlow’s J2 side travelled to take on Birr’s J 1 side in the Leinster Seconds Rugby Towns Cup with a high hopes of a win. The team had had a good Leinster League season and a few players were coming back after injury.
And so it proved up till the 75th minute that Carlow held a small lead of 11 pts to 7. But then Birr scored an unconverted try that got their noses in front by that vital single point at 12 – 11.
In the last few minutes Carlow did have two longish range penalty attempts. One was narrowly wide. The other fell well short of the sticks.
With an Arctic wind blowing across a greasy pitch handling was difficult but both sides were willing to run the ball. Carlow got the first points when full back Nico Kretschmer converted a 35 metre penalty in the 10th minute. This seemed to spur Birr into more momentum and in the 22nd minute they got over for a converted try.
Almost immediately Carlow replied with a try of their own. From the half way the ball was swung across the backline with good offloads keeping it alive till it reached winger Adam Dowling who ran into the corner for the touchdown. Kretschmer almost nailed the conversion from the touchline but Carlow were now in the lead by a single point at 8 – 7. Manning and Furey were doing well in the lineouts and young half backs Smyth and Atkinson were showing the same cohesion they had brought from playing together in Kilkenny College. Kretschmer added another penalty at the half hour mark to put Carlow up by four points by 11 – 7 at the break.
Five minutes into the second half Birr missed a kickable penalty. Twelve minutes in Carlow were also wide with a 40 metre penalty. Carlow lost players such as Evan Gordon, Christoff Challe and Timmy O Donoghue through injury. The momentum seemed to swing to the home side but some superb tackling by Furey, Atkinson, Smyth, Lyons and sub Thibaut Colboc kept Birr out till five minutes from time.
Carlow came back to attack the Birr line for the last five minutes but two penalty attempts were missed and the Offaly side scraped into the next round by that single point. While the Carlow lads gave a good account of themselves, ultimately they failed to grind out a win.
Carlow J2 team and subs
Nico Kretchmer, Adam Dowling, Clement Mauroy, Tom Bolger (capt) Conor Fennell, Ian Atkinson, Nigel Smyth, Timmy O Donoghue, Evan Gordon, Neil Slater, Anthony Mannioin, John Lyons, Mark Furey, Christoff Challe, Conal Slater.
Subs. Zac Fitzhenry, Dylan Keogh, Colm Harpur, Brad Cruickshank, Kevin Hanley,
Thibaut Colboc, Gavin Whitney.