St Mary's College RFC Yearbook 2020-21

J2’S REVIEW – SEASON 2019-2020
The 2019-2020 season for our J2s was a
difficult pill to swallow in some ways, and in
other ways a tremendous example of the
calibre of players and coaching we had. We
had two tremendous coaches in Gavin
Thornberry and Ronan ‘Ronda’ O’Doherty,
with some phenomenal help coming in from
the injured Ciaran ‘Lenzo’ Lennon. Lenzo,
who suffered a bad injury early in the season,
joined in with management to stay involved
in the team (thankfully he did). Lenzo lent a
strong and guiding hand to our lads, while
often barely even able to walk on the
sideline. Gav who may be the most organised
and prepared man in the world, Ronda who
is undoubtedly one of, if not the fastest
“retired” players in the club, and Lenzo who
still has lots to offer on the pitch once he’s
back playing - three lads who were the
foundation on which the season was built.
I was fortunate enough to link in as manager
after what I think was my 3rd retirement
from rugby following another knee injury,
and I was perfectly happy in my role which
involved making sure the jerseys, balls,
cones, bottles and anything else we needed
were all where they were supposed to be,
and that the three lads had what they
needed for the match and training. On
matchdays, all valuables had to be guarded,
contact lenses protected and referees
charmed – I was very successful in two of
these objectives. Since I had accepted that
Joe Schmidt had either lost my number or
decided that Jordan Larmour was a better
fit for his squad, I called it a day on my
relatively short career and decided to stay
involved with the club. Gav, Ronda, Lenzo
and the lads all warmly welcomed me into
the fold and I’m immensely grateful for that.
Without singling any player out, it’s safe to
say that every player on our team, who’s age
range was, on any given day, 19-40, gave it
their all in every match. Our forwards went
unmatched in scrums, mauls and rucks - a
wall of immovable and unbreakable blue and
white steel. Lineouts were successful more
often than not and just to show how
impressive our big men were; when playing
against J1 and J2 sides, whenever a scrum
was awarded, be it to us or our opponents,
an audible groan was let out by our foes –
they knew they were coming up against a
team that could not and would not be
stopped – one of our scrums marched our
opponents half the length of the pitch in one
match. Despite being the nicest lads you
could meet off the pitch, our forwards were
a force to be reckoned with on it – and every
team in the league knew it.
St. Mary's College RFC J2s - a great bunch of lads.
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