UCC and Buccaneers are leading from the front in Division 1B after four rounds of super competitive action. Johne Murphy’s Naas also opened their winning account beating Malone over the weekend.
Continue reading “AIL Roundup: Division 1B Week 4”AIL Preview: Division 1B Week 4
1B is arguably the most competitive and exciting of the five divisions and it certainly has lived up to that reputation so far this season. Can anybody stop UCC?
Continue reading “AIL Preview: Division 1B Week 4”AIL Roundup: Division 1B Week 3
UCC are the only unbeaten team left in 1B, Buccaneers pulled off another big win beating Highfield in Cork and Old Belvedere and Naas played out a cracker in Ollie Campbell Park.
Continue reading “AIL Roundup: Division 1B Week 3”AIL Preview: Division 1B Week 3
Unpredictable is the word that springs to mind when thinking of AIL 1B and it’s certainly proving true already after just a couple of rounds. The big question on everyone’s lips this week is, will we see former Irish International Sean O’Brien make his Naas debut in Ollie Campbell Park this weekend.
Continue reading “AIL Preview: Division 1B Week 3”AIL Roundup: Division 1B Week 2
It was another exciting and unpredictable weekend in 1B with four out of the five fixtures being decided by seven points or less. Buccaneers provided the shock of the round against Old Wesley to register their first win of the league campaign.
Continue reading “AIL Roundup: Division 1B Week 2”AIL Preview: Division 1B Week 2
Division 1B of the Energia All-Ireland League proved to be as competitive as billed on the opening weekend, the second weekend will certainly be the same.
Continue reading “AIL Preview: Division 1B Week 2”AIL Roundup: Division 1B Week 1
Division 1B proved to be another tightly contested affair, with plenty of games having just a couple of points separating them in the end, while UCC and Old Wesley were big winners.
Continue reading “AIL Roundup: Division 1B Week 1”AIL Preview: Division 1B
Out of all the 5 divisions across the AIL, 1B is arguably the hardest to call and very unpredictable on a weekly basis. Buccaneers will hope to survive having made the step up this year.
Old Wesley V Naas, Saturday October 1st, Energia Park, 2:30pm.
Old Wesley’s last league game was in the semi-final against an inspired Naas who pulled off a major upset to beat them 37-36 in a game that went right down to the wire.
Johnne Murphy will be hoping for a similar result on Saturday. The former Leicester Tigers and Munster player has built a squad full of belief, with a perfect blend of youth and experience. They’ll be a tough challenge for anyone this season.
Old Wesley was the dominant force in the competition last season, rarely putting a foot wrong, however, things didn’t work out as planned. They’ve had a few departures in the summer including scrum half Ben Murphy and second row JJ O’Dea who won the player of the year award last season.
This will be a close contest and both these teams will be aiming to finish at the top end of the table.
Old Belvedere V St Mary’s, Saturday October 1st, Ollie Campbell Park, 2:30pm
This is always an intriguing fixture. There’s never much to separate the sides and we shouldn’t expect anything different this weekend.
St Mary’s narrowly missed out on the playoffs last season, finishing 5th. Former Leinster player and Irish International Sean Cronin is their new Head Coach and he’ll be hoping he can make the difference for them this season.
Old Belvedere would have probably been disappointed by only finishing 7th, but at times they played a brilliant brand of rugby. Their u20’s team has had great success in recent years and they’ll be hoping they can do better this season. They definitely have a capable squad.
Home advantage tends to play a role in this fixture, with the last away win coming back in 2014.
City of Armagh V Buccaneers, Saturday October 1st, Palace Grounds, 2:30pm.
City of Armagh could be potential dark horses in 1B this season. They’ve been improving every season and they could produce some big performances.
Former Irish Head Coach, Eddie O’Sullivan is the new man at the helm for newly promoted Buccaneers. They just edged Queens in an extremely tight 2A final back at the end of April. They’ll be relishing the challenge of being back in 1B this season.
Highfield V Banbridge, Saturday October 1st, Woodleigh Park, 2:30pm.
Highfield welcome Banbridge to Woodleigh Park on Saturday.
Highfield like Old Wesley have been a standout team in 1B for quite some time and they would’ve been disappointed not to secure promotion last season. But you can be sure that they will be there or thereabouts again this season.
For Banbridge, they avoided relegation thanks to beating Navan in the relegation playoff. They won’t want to be in that position again.
Malone V University College Cork, Saturday October 1st, Gibson Park, 2:30pm.
UCC are coming down from 1A. They have strong intentions of heading straight back up. Their first challenge against Malone.
Malone will be looking for more consistency this season and a win on Saturday would give them a massive boost for the other fixtures.
Roundup: AIL – Men’s Division 1B
Round 18 of the Energia All-Ireland Division 1B brought a lot of crucial fixtures, as playoff seeding was at stake in the final round.
Continue reading “Roundup: AIL – Men’s Division 1B”Preview: AIL – Men’s Division 1B
Round 18 of the Energia All-Ireland Division 1B gets underway on Saturday afternoon, as Shannon host Old Wesley in a do or die fixture at Thomond Park.
Continue reading “Preview: AIL – Men’s Division 1B”