7s training begins in MDI

Big thanks to Bernard Jackman and Caleb Morrisson for agreeing to take the lads through their paces in time for the 7s competitons next year. Really enjoyable sessions and already got a few good tips.

Touch / Tag practice match every Monday at 12.30pm

7s Training every Wednesday at 1.00pm

Enjoy it and all welcome.

Team V The Creeps

Monday 4th July
8pm Kick Off

Left wing - Timcutt, Westy, Noel, Hinds, SO'Brien*,Timotei, Deering
Subs - TBA

* Stuart is an x student from MDI who has a bit of gas and has played a lot before..big welcome to him!

V Old Farts

Our first win and it was tough going. OF put 10 tries on us and I think they were harshly dealt with by the ref on occassion! Not to worry though, we'll take everything we can at this stage of the season. Great restarts from OF they went through a period in the second half where they nearly reclaimed every single one. Used the switch very well when attacking.. lots of things other teams do very naturally we are struggling to do. Sure we'll work hard and there is always next year! Well done lads on your first win :-)

V Elephants

Good first half terrible second half..in fairness the elephants were very very good in 2nd half. They played some really good rugby..best try of the night a little kick ahead and good finish. The left a few behind them aswell so all in all we deserved what we got. First half fine, second half ball hoggery galore. Pass the God damn ball and do the simple things. If you havent beaten their entire defense from a pass from the ruck the first 13 times its not going to work the 14th and the 15th time!! Come on lads, heads up.

Team for first match of Double Header v Elephants

Lads, double header on Monday..are they trying to kill us? We can hardly last one match let alone two..sure we'll give it our best!

Left - Rob Harvey, Westy, Hinds, Timotei, O'Hara, Tommy, Barrie

Subs - Me, Will Murph, Colin, The Roadster

Enjoy it and come off when you're tired..there are 2 games..no point being crocked for the second one

Enjoy

Saints 8 - Syntax Errors 9

Last touch of the ball and we lost..Not to worry was an enjoyable game, their lads scored some good tries. Our old codgers got knackered in the second half and it all started to go slightly wrong for us. Very enjoyable though even if it was played in the pouring rain. Congrates to the Syntax Errors lads, they are on a good run in the league now. Good luck to them :-)

Result - Lack of Courage 16 MDI Saints 6

Well done L.O.C..this is becoming a common theme every week. They played very well, some great tagging.

First staff try from yours truly! That'll show the students!

Anyway, next up are the Syntax Errors at 7.15 on 20th June. We'll do our best

Vs Lack of Courage

Team Vs Lack of Courage - Monday 13th June 2011 - KO 19.15
Location - St. Marys RFC

Left Wing - Michael West
Timothy Allcutt
Stephen O'Hara
Noel Jackson
Kevin Timothy
Barry Deering
Will Murphy

Bench - Kev, Chris, Hinds

Beware 14 Saints 10

Well done to Beware who beat us by 14-10 last night in St. Mary's. However, there was much to be pleased about from our lads last night. Basics were good, very few knock ons and some great finishing from the lads on the wing.

If only we could defend!. As usual we couldnt get the 6 tags and a turnover. We have 2 weeks to work on this and improve. Next up is Lack of Courage on 13th June. They currently top the table so we really need our first choice lads to be available for this.

Team Vs Beware 23rd May 8.00pm

Starters
Stephen O'Hara
Timothy Allcutt
Noel Jackson
Alan Crean
Barry Deering
Oliver Fox
Kevin Timothy

Subs
Hinds
Robert Harvey
Kevin Foran

Saints 9 Mavericks 18

Second game of the season..its fair to say we are finding it pretty tough but at least we played an awful lot better this week. Scoring 9 tries was a decent effort, going to really try and improve defensively next Monday. Basics again letting us down but we are still all enjoying it and its great to play against such good teams. Congratulations to the Mavericks who really gave us a lesson in support play.

Anyway, back to the drawing board and we'll get ready for Monday 23rd Vs Beware who look like another very good team.

Match Day 2 - Mater Dei Saints V The Mavericks

Match Day # 2

Mater Dei Saints Vs The Mavericks

19.15 - St Marys RFC

Team and Subs as follows

Starters
Stephen O'Hara
Timothy Allcutt
Noel Jackson
Michael Hinds
Barry Deering
Kevin Timothy
Gearoid O'Flaherty

Substitutes
Kevin Foran
Robert Harvey
** Oliver Fox

Lansdowne give us a 19-3 thrashing!

Well..we were well beaten in our first game of the season. Lansdowne were brilliant but then again you'd expect any team with X Internationals to beat a bunch of over the hill college lecturers, plucky students and ne'er do wells.

The IRFU have decided to null and void all first round games from last week as a lot of other teams got a beating of a lifetime.

While Landsdowne were top class we did really well to score 3 tries - Rob Harvey, Tim Allcutt and Kevin Jinking Jenkins Timothy all crossed the (invisible) whitewash.

Enjoyable but I'd hope we can be relatively competitive in our next outing.

IRFU Mens Tag Rugby League - Group 2 Fixtures

09/05/2011 19:15 Lansdowne Lon.  v   Mater Dei Saints
16/05/2011 19:15 Moorsey's Army  v   Mater Dei Saints
23/05/2011 20:00 Old Farts V Mater Dei Saints
30/05/2011 20:00 Syntax Errors   v   Mater Dei Saints
06/06/2011 20:00 Unlikely Lads   v   Mater Dei Saints
13/06/2011 19:15 Old Boys RFC   v   Mater Dei Saints
20/06/2011 19:15 DSLE   v   Mater Dei Saints

TBA TBA Semi Final
TBA TBA Final

Starting Team for Monday 9th May - 19:15 KO

Vs Lansdowne Longhorns

Stephen O'Hara
Timoth Allcutt
Robert Harvey
Kevin Timothy
Barry Deering
Michael Hinds
Noel Jackson

Replacements: Chris, Enda, Kevin Foran, Barrie Mc, Gearoid

Injury updates

Barrie still out with a sore hamstring. Colin still out with damaged ankle ligs. Everyone else seems to be ok.

1 Week to go!... Training plans

Only 1 week to go before start of the league in St. Mary RFC Templeogue. As per usual we'll run a few drills on Tuesday (12.40pm - Usual place) and on Thursday we will give everyone a chance to run around with the first team squad.

If you are not named to start do not despair..Every single player who is named in the travelling match day squad for Monday 9th May will play at least 50% of the game. The lads who start are by no means the first choice, its just that they have played together before and will hopefully not do anything too daft in the opening 10 minutes. As per usual Gearoid and myself will run the subs during the game.

We've worked hard, put in the hours practicing. Firstly enjoy the games dont stress about anything, enjoy it and remember to keep your discipline. No gobbing off at the refs and each other..We always play a hell of a lot better when there are less vocals. Play to your strengths, if you are not a good passer dont hit 15 metre passes off your left while running. If you are not a quick, do not look to beat the man all the time - Fix and pass just like we do in training!

Enjoy!

Honours even!

The first informal match of the season took place last Thursday - Over 35s took on those with yoof on their side. Good game, ended 10-10 or 12-12 depending on who you believe. Same again next Thursday, lets keep the momentum up, only 3 weeks to go until the St. Marys league kicks off

Tag Thursday - 14 players signed up.. 5.30 kick off

ALL,

Practice match to definitely go ahead on Thursday 14th April. Plenty of volunteers, should be good. All players bring your tag shorts if you have them!!

Tag Thursdays! - April 7th 5.30pm ALL WELCOME

The Mater Dei Saints RFC are pleased to announce the launch of "Tag Thursdays". If you fancy taking part in an informal practice match please come and join us at 5.30pm on Thursday on Clonliffe Pitch. 20ish minutes per half. No training drills.
Yours etc
Coach Jackson

Clonliffe Cup Winners 2011

Thanks to the CIE Lions, Crusaders and Carlingford Knights for turning out today. It was a tough but very enjoyable day, nice to play in the sunshine for a change!
In the opening game of the Tournament CIE Lions defeated the Crusaders. Next up were the Carlingford Knights V Mater Dei Saints, Carlingford edging the Saints 4:3 in a very close game. The Saints rallied strongly in the next couple of games beating the Crusaders and Lions and earning a place in the final against the Knights.

Some absolutely fantastic defense ensured we brought the Clonliffe Cup back to MDI. Final score - Mater Dei Saints 6 : Carlingford Knights 0 .

Last Reminder - 11.30am Tomorrow morning

Last reminder to arrive at the changing rooms no later then 11.30am tomorrow morning. There are a few jobs to do and it'll take time to organise the Crusaders team who need to be kitted out. Crusaders up first against the CIE Lions..should be a good one. Good luck to all the teams and I hope you enjoy the day.

Referee found - All good to go!

Fair play to our referee who volunteered last night. He has said he'll be able to referee everything on the day. A tough job indeed so lets try and make it easy for him. Thanks lads.

Team to Start in Clonliffe Cup - Sunday 27th March

Team to start Vs Carlingford Knights on Sunday

Tim Allcutt
Colin O'Leary
Michael Hinds
Noel Jackson
Stephen O'Hara
Oliver Fox
Barrie McEntee

Bench: Westy, Kev, The Roadster

Clonliffe Cup 2011 - Schedule Finalised

http://tinyurl.com/4exw3ym

Crusaders team confirmed

Some very good news.. The Crusaders team for the Clonliffe Cup has been officially confirmed and 10 lads have been selected to play. Its a combination of Staff, Students and friends of lads here in the Mater Dei Institute. There is a good bit of pace and rugby experience about the team and I'm really looking forward to seeing them in action. The lads on the Saints team are giving me a bit of stick for asking a few of the very good players to turn out. Good luck to them all and I'm sure they'll have a very enjoyable day.

Saints 13 - CIE Lions 13

Thanks again to the Lions who turned out this morning, there can be absolutely no doubt that they were by far the better team on the day. Only generous time keeping from the referee allowing us back into the game. The Saints fell apart in the second half and conceded a succession of tries almost directly from each restart. Anyway, it was good preparation for the Clonliffe Cup and we know exactly where we have to improve over the next week and a half.

Team for Sunday - 13th March Vs CIE Lions

Team announced. Stephen O'Hara to debut. Barrie Mcentee (Player of the Year - 2010) finds himself on the bench for disciplinary reasons. That'll learn him.

Mater Dei Saints vs CIE Lions :

S O'Hara (RW)
M West
M Hinds
N Jackson
G O'Flaherty
K Foran
T Allcutt (LW)

Bench: Colin, Chris, Barrie

Proposed Mini Blitz

All looking good for the mini-blitz on Sunday 27th March. CIE have of course said they are available, we have a provisional yes from another team and our 'Guest' team, the Crusaders looks to be taking shape. So much so its actually quite a good team with a bit of pace! Am hoping to confirm availability of everyone by 16th of March.

Line up for the 'Clonliffe Cup'

Kick off 11.00
CIE Lions V Crusaders
Kick off 11.35
MDI Saints V Carlingford Knights

Loser V Loser
Winner V Winner

Match - 13th March 11.00am K.O

Our preparation for the new season continues and yet again we are going to play the CIE Lions as part of our warm up. Looking forward to seeing a few new faces in our starting line up. Will Barrie McEntee be able to last the game without having a strop? Stay tuned to materdeisaints.blogspot.com to find out!

Saints Vs CIE Lions - 6th February 2011

This morning (6th February 2011) we played the CIE Lions on the back pitch here in Clonliffe. Despite some terrible weather conditions and a very slippery pitch we managed to defeat the Lions 10-5.

It was the first time that some of our students played and both Tim and Kevin played extremely well and slotted into the team brilliantly. Big thanks to the CIE Lions who brought out a lot of players and contributed to a great game. As usual we played well in the first half, we defended really well and ran up a 3-0 lead by half time. Second half saw us tire a good deal and the game really opened up, some terrible defending led to a final score of 10-5. However, it was our first game back and with only 2 training sessions this year we did a lot of things very well. All in all plenty to be pleased about and plenty to try and improve on. Thanks again to everyone who showed up. Cheered us all up after suffering the Italy V Ireland garbage yesterday.