Big Day for EIRA on Tour in Ireland
Big Day for EIRA on Tour in Ireland
Eagle Impact Rugby Academy logged a busy and fruitful day in games against three Irish provinces Saturday on their multi-team tour.
The girls U18s and U16s went 1-1 vs Leinster, with a 60-meter breakaway try by Annie Henrich the highlight. That try, scored at the end of the game, secured a dramatic 15-14 win for the U18s.
The U16s lost 18-14.
The boys U16s notched a 15-12 victory over Munster. More on that game in another article.
And our feature here is a 24-10 loss for the boys U18s vs Ulster. This game was much closer than the score indicates.
"They had a maul that was really good," said No. 8 Wes Stone succinctly. "There was one that really made a difference where we thought we had it contained but we didn't fold around to the back quickly enough and they scored. That was big."
Field position was a huge factor in the match. Irish kicking skills are good everywhere and certainly the Ulster side did well to try to play their rugby in the EIRA half.
"When we played out rugby in the right areas of the field we were good together and we played with intent," added flyhalf Declan Cadden.
"They would poke at us with the chip kicks and they got us into some kick tennis situations which really we haven't seen much before," added fullback Marco Lapierre.
Ulster opened the scoring in the third minute with a penalty goal which Cadden answered a minute later. Trying to play out of their own end hurt EIRA and Ulster punished them for it, charging down a box kick and scoring soon thereafter.
That made it 10-3 but the Americans respond at 30 minutes. Running a penalty play to go over and tie the game 10-10.
Then came that mail where once again EIRA probably needed to just secure ball and kick it dead to go into halftime, but instead conceded a penalty that led to a lineout, maul, and try. That made it 17-10.
EIRA's defense was very strong in the second half and they battled hard but we're unable to break through
Ulster's forwards ran a series of pick-and-goes to score their third try to seal it.
So some lessons for the U18s in being conservative at the right moments, but also one in taking chances.
"To compete the way we did after two days of training and with a team of players from 17 different states, actually was pretty good," said Lapierre. "We've got a pretty great setup."
