St. Raphael’s senior Rugby team had fantastic success this year.
They began their campaign in the senior emerging development league in mid-September against Roscommon Community school with home advantage. It was a blustery day with the wind making it a difficult kicking game. Despite this St. Raphael’s overcame elements and saw out the opposition winning their first match. St. Raphael’s set the mark from here on as they continued their winning streak throughout the remainder of the league with victories over Athlone Community college, Clarin College and St. josephs Foxford. They faced a strong St. Pauls Oughterard in the league final in Ballyhaunis with both teams having a 100% success rate thus far. This ended up being a very tough and hard-fought game but as expected St. Raphael’s came out on top on a score line of 15–8.
With the team spirit and motivation running high it set St. Raphael’s up nicely heading into the senior Emerging cup with the final being held in Connacht sports grounds. The boys continued in style seeing off familiar teams like St. josephs Foxford, Colaiste Baile Chlair and Roscommon Community College to continue their unbeaten record.
On March 27th they met St. Jarleth’s in the final in the sports grounds. The atmosphere was fantastic with many students coming to support our boys in red and white. We dominated the game from the beginning and found ourselves 5-0 up 15 minutes into the first half. We continued to dominate until the end but credit to the St. Jarleth’s defence they weathered the St. Raphael’s storm and for the first time in what was a long season our winning streak was broken on a final score of 10-5 in favour of St. Jarleth’s.
Despite this one loss, it was truly a remarkable and fulfilling year of rugby in St. Raphael’s college and all the players deserve a great credit for their efforts and success all year. A special thanks to Mr. David Burns (coach) and Frank Fahy (assistant Coach) for their time and expertise all year.