Athy RFC U15's claim Premier League title

Athy RFC’s U15 side have had a season to remember, following their U15 Leinster Premier League Final win over Wicklow RFC last weekend, which finished 46-15. This was the side's third Leinster Premier League title in a row.

As well as winning the U15 Premier League, the side also won the Area league. According to team head-coach Steve Mulqueen, the side have been top class all season.

“We’ve had a great season obviously winning the Premier league and the area league.” 

Mulqueen stated the the squad showed incredible commitment all season, with over 10 members of squad pulling out of a school trip to play the league final last weekend.

“11 members of our squad pulled out of a school trip to Amsterdam. All involved lost a lot of money as a result, but that’s the commitment the lads have to the team. When all the people involved pulled out, there was no guarantee we would get to the final, but thankfully we got there. We have a squad of 28 players and thankfully we have lost very few over the last few years. It’s important to have a big squad because of injuries and that. We trained at minimum twice a week and some weeks we trained three times a week.” 

The coach said that one reason behind their success was the flexibility the management has allowing players play other sports, and not stopping any player playing other sports.

“ A lot of our lads play GAA. We sometimes change our training evenings to allow lads play GAA. At the end of the day they’re young lads. There’s no doubt the lads that play GAA help our team, because of the cross over in skills between both sports”.

He went onto say that the side will look to carry on their good form heading into next season at U16 level and hopes many of the players will go onto play adult rugby with Athy.

“Ya heading into U16 now next year, we’ll be looking to hang onto all the lads. They’re all really good friends. They come from three different schools, 20 of them are from around Athy and the rest are from just over the border in Laois. It’s a great community thing, it brings the parents together as well. We’ve had 2 members from the adult section involved in coaching with us this year. The captain of our J1 team in the club got involved with the side and has been a great help to us.”