After a quiet night in the hotel in Limerick, we awoke to the truly torrential rain greeting us. In a taxi convoy to Limerick college, we all knew this would be a game with short passes and good hands needed.

Castletroy's ground was impressive and with our ref's instructions completed we started.

By now there were puddles of water everywhere but this didn't affect the play by both teams. Castletroy were a well drilled school side and showed great skill with their hands across the backs moving around the pitch. OGs tackled intensely giving nothing away.

Our 2nd rower Louie was making powerful runs through their middle and drawing in 2 or 3 players each time from Castletroy.

With the wind picking up, Castletory put boot to ball and Will in his first ever go at fullback was simply amazing. Calm under constant kicks, scooping them up and gaining meters on every run. Our newcomer this year Shola also stepped up helping out from the wing with his defensive play and impressive strength in contact.

Our forwards were a constant menance to Castletroy, with powerful runs through their middle, Dan in our front row again making great gains for us. Some important tackles by Harry and Ethan at 6 and 7 kept Castletroy on the back foot.

OGs opened the scoring with a nicely work maul up the middle just past their 22, dragging in their players and our guest no.8 Charlie stealthily moving to the wing to take a nice pass to crash over in the corner. Great work by the whole team on this score.

Castletroy finally got some deservered reward with a try via their backs to end the first half 10 all.

Second half saw the weather unbelievably get worse but the boys on both sides played their hearts out.

A deciding try from Castetroy won the game but OGs put up an excellent display garnishing praise from the Castletroy coaches who were surprised we were a club side.

It must be noted how wonderful and encouraging the Castletroy parents were throughout our time there, cheering on both sets of boys and being extremely welcoming. The referee too was excellent, firm, fair and kep the game flowing.

We may have lost but the quality of rugby, against an excellent school side made for a positive end to the game.

Note also, post match all the boys (from both teams) chose to celebrate with belly flops into the pools of water on the pitch, phtot attached!

Thank you to everyone at Castletroy.