Last Tuesday afternoon the U14 boys rugby team made the trip over the mountain to play Rathfriland High School.
The first half, both teams started off strong with some excellent link up play but it was a young Rathfriland player who spotted the gap in the Kilkeel defence and found his team mate, with a lovely offload, to take the first points of the game. It wasn’t long until Kilkeel returned the points with an excellent run from Harry C on the wing to pass onto the forwards who won a penalty in the 22. Harry R’s quick thinking meant a tap penalty resulted in him running over the line to score Kilkeel’s first try of the game. A conversion from Harry S brought the score to 7-7.
It was Rathfriland through the experience of the players carried strong into the blue wall of Kilkeel defensive line to take the next points on the board bringing the score line to 12-7. Despite a lot of pressure from the opposition the Kilkeel boys continued to pile on the pressure playing the ball to the edge and making good use of the space.  Lovely attack from the forwards drew in the Rathfriland defence and Harry S’s quick hands to Harry J, out into space, saw him score the second try for Kilkeel, Harry S just missing the conversion.
In the second half Rathfriland scored 3 more tries and this would have been more if it wasn’t for Brandon’s outstanding defensive effort with numerous tackles in a row; Matthew, Harry N, James and Todd were equally focused linking up to make several double tackles, stopping the Rathfriland attack in their tracks time and time again. The game finished up at the final whistle, 29-12 to Rathfriland.
Congratulations must go to the boys from both teams who competed in their first ever rugby game. Well played all!
