Irish Blog — Munster U21 coach puts Bombers through paces
By The Nelson Daily Sports
The L.V. Rogers Bombers are getting close to returning to Canada following a long rugby tour of Ireland.
The LVR team departed from Nelson almost two weeks ago. The Mighty Bombers opened the tour with a 27-5 win over the Balgriggan Rugby Club before being brought back down to earth with a 36-12 setback at the hands of Montevia — a team sprinkled with high-level players.
LVR Vice Principal Frank Marisco has made the trip with coach Michael Joyce. He has graciously accepted the challenge of blogging the tour for The Nelson Daily.
Here’s Frank’s latest entry.
Monday, March 21
Breakfast at the Clarion Hotel and the kids are happy – an “all you can eat” buffet with the usual stuff (bacon, sausage, eggs, beans) and some healthy bits as well (yogurt, berries, wheatabix).
Driver Michael arrives with the bus and we head out to Bunratty Castle. The castle was built in 1425 and restored in the 60s and 70s by a wealthy Viscount.
He donated it to the state several years ago and it is now billed as “Ireland’s premier visitor attraction.”
We spend about 90 minutes walking around the castle and then head back to Limerick. The boys have really embraced rugby and take one or two balls with them wherever they go.
Whenever there is a spare minute or two, a group will be together passing or kicking a ball around. And it was no different this morning at the castle.
We get soup and sandwiches at the hotel for lunch, which get demolished in no time. The staff here are great and when they see we’ve cleaned off the platters and emptied the soup cauldron, they quickly whip us up a second helping.
After lunch we head out to Shannon Rugby Football Club – about 15 minutes from our hotel. They have four beautiful rugby fields here and a field house with five changing rooms.
Aside from all of their male players, Shannon RFC fields girls teams in five different age divisions. They beat an American team from Boston last night by the score of 107-0.
We meet James Hickey who is the Munster U21 coach and he puts the boys through their paces for about 90 minutes. There’s lots of skill building support drills.
The “plague” has hit us hard and over half the team has the sniffles or a bad cough. Jake L and Jesse Y stay on the sidelines for the practice, as does Baily who still can’t run because of his sprained ankle.
Back to the Clarion for a shower then we walk downtown for dinner at the Texas Steakout restaurant — quite a classy joint. We are given a special menu with several entrees to choose from . . . I think I got the winner, half a roast chicken with stuffing, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, three scoops of mash and gravy.
The hotel manager is keeping the pool and hot tub open a couple of hours later than usual for the team so we head back to the hotel for a swim before bed.
Because of the amount of sickness, we’ve cancelled tomorrow’s practice and they get the day off the explore Limerick.
The forecast is for sunshine and springtime temperatures.
This is truly “rugby country.”
