Carlow Rugby Club welcome Portarlington back to Oak Park, Carlow, this Sunday in the second round of games for the Leinster League Division 2A. The sides traded wins last season but when I caught them in action at Oak Park last December, it was Carlow who were the clearly dominant side.
Ahead of the fixture this weekend, Michael O’Leary has been chatting to club president Justin Hannon who began by reflecting on the season so far which, factoring in the South East League, is a little fifty-fifty for the club.
“We’re very happy with the quality of rugby that we’re starting to play. We have a very, very young back line that plays really exciting rugby. They’re all quite familiar with each other having played together on the U18.5’s over the years and there’s a good number of those represented in the back line.”
When asked about promotion ambitions, Justin offered
“Obviously the club is always based on the division it plays at but I think it’s very important too that we create the environment to try and have a facility for these players to play. So, with all the success we’re having at underage level we have to be able to nurture those players and keep them playing within Carlow Rugby and we will eventually achieve success, there’s no doubt about that with the quality of players that are coming through.
We would like to achieve success this year and gain promotion but we’ll take it one step at a time and this Sunday is the next step in that programme.”
It’s a 3pm kick off for Carlow for their first league home game of the season. At the same time, Tullow are away to Portlaoise in Division 1B while Kilkenny entertain Enniscorthy in Foulkstown at 3pm on Saturday. We’ll have full match previews on the Fanzone on Friday.
https://soundcloud.com/kclr96fm/rugby-preview-carlow-v-portarlington-with-carlows-justin-hannon/
