Connemara
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CONNEMARA RFC YOUTH MANAGEMENT
TESTIMONIALS
U13’s Boys
We currently have 25 players in the squad, which is
a great turnout, more lads are welcome anytime! They
have played roughly six games so far. We had a great
win against Ballinrobe, a few other games were
unlucky but our players are showing great
talent and have come on brilliantly with
their skills since the start of the year.
Our U13’s have great dedication
coming out training 1-2 times a week
in all sorts of weather. They are a
great bunch of young lads to have
as a squad and will be great players
for our senior club in years to come if
they keep it up.
They will be hard to beat now in
2020, they most definitely will be a
squad to watch out for!
Thank you to all their Parents for their
dedication bringing your lads to the training
sessions, matches and for providing food and drinks etc
on match days. It really is a pleasure for all of us
to work with the lads.
U13’s Coach, Martin Early.
U15’s Boys
At the start of the year, we had 10-
12 lads turn up for training sessions
in dribs and drabs ... once the word
got around training had started up
again, we had up to 25 sometimes 28
players turning up to our sessions. Some
lads were trying rugby for the first time; we
had a strong squad competing for 15 places.
We had a great win against Castlebar and Westport, but
came up short against some of the bigger teams.
Some of the lads have made the Connacht U15’s squad,
Malachy Gorham, Macdara Moylan, Ronan Mannion
and Finley Yule. It’s nice to see great representation from
the Connemara lads. We have a few games left in the
league, and then it’s onto the cup. Overall the lads have
the makings of a great team for the future.
U15’s Coach, Greg Yule
46 Issue 89
18.5’s Boys
The 18.5’s have made a big step up this year playing
the 18.5 Division 1 league. We are a team that has just
starting to come together as a lot of the lads have never
played together before, the lads only play three games in
the league and 1 friendly to last year’s double winning
championship Ennis who we beat in a super game of
rugby going through more than 20 phases to score
in the corner. They are playing all through
the month of January. The lads have put
in a lot of work; we are hoping to see the
results on the pitch. Support is always
welcome to cheer on the lads. Another
great team for CRFC;
U18.5’s Coach, Bartley Conroy
Girls U14’s, U16’s and U18’s
For the first year ever, we have been
able to field a Connemara girl’s team at all
youth levels, U14’s, U16’s and U18’s.
The U14’s is a non competitive competition, so
there is no league, but our girls excellently coached by
Darwyn O Halloran and Martina Keenan, have
played really well. The girls understanding
of the game and their skill level is
improving week by week. All the
teams, the U14’s played in their league
have a much larger proportion of
second year girls at that level, which
does make a difference.
The U16’s, whilst having a difficult
season in terms of league position,
have made excellent progress. As the
youth girls are structured on a 2 year
cycle, we retained only 3 players from
last year’s U16’s, and the rest moved up
from the U14’s team.
The U18’s have had an incredible start to their club
existence. It is the first year since starting two seasons
ago, that Connemara RFC has been able to field an U18’s
girls team. They are playing in Division 1 of the Connacht
League and have already reached a league semi final,
having secured at least 3rd place. This is scheduled for
11th Jan. All three teams will be playing cup rugby in the
New Year.
11 of our girls were selected for a Connacht
Development Squad. They meet regularly with other