What a performance from our underage team who came runners up in the Club Ovalive underage World Cup in Mausanne Les Alpilles near Marseilles, France last weekend.

After performing outstandingly in the group stages last Friday, winning 3 out of 3 and scoring beautiful tries time and again, Saturday would be a stiffer test.

First up was the hosts, the French team Ovalive. These fabulous hosts weren’t as friendly when the semi-final tipped off, but Kinsale scored early and kept the pressure on to record an impressive 5 tries to one victory. A team effort finished by Killian Hawkins was the stand out effort.

Now to the final. Up against a very strong NZ team - with a couple of international stars in their parent group - the boys were ready for the challenge. Despite a hiccup with our national anthem!

An early try for Kinsale by Oscar Dillon set the tone. NZ scored quickly and the bounce of the ball went their way for a second - 2 tries to 1 for New Zealand at half time.

As the heat and the effort increased, the boys worked and work. A third try for NZ and then the boys scored a great effort with Liam Tracey showing a clean pair of heels to everyone. 3-2, 4 mins to.

As Kinsale piled on the pressure a couple of late and very fine tries won it for Te Awamutu, the New Zealand team.

Heartbroken but extremely proud, the Kinsale team received a haka, performed out of respect by our Kiwi friends.

What a team, what a performance. Time and again. Well done boys! You’ve done your club, town and country proud….

Well done to Te Awamutu and all the teams who took part. Thank you to Club Ovalive for running a great event.

You can read a pre-tournament RTE report with a video of the boys , as well as a post-event summary published by RTE. Great publicity for our club!

LET’S GO SHARKS