Our Desmond College U14 team acquitted themselves well this year in the County Limerick Rugby Blitz at Coonagh on February 2nd, 2011.
We shaped up very well in our first outing against Askeaton with a comfortable 15-0 win and despite being beaten by Crescent Comp and St. Clements, our young players showed great enthusiasm and have high hopes for future success at Junior Level.
Please contact our coach, Mr. Colum Lowe or Mr. Sean Shiels if any student is interested in playing.
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“Slumming it with the Munster Rugby Team”
My name is Michael Costelloe. Killeline Leisure Centre was the location of my first week of Transition Year work experience. I was the only boy in an aqua-aerobics class with twenty mature ladies. This was quite a daunting experience. I can tell you that old ladies are a lot fitter than people think. On this work experience, I learned how to clean. I never cleaned so many windows in my life. I am now the master of window cleaning which is good for my mother, not so good for me. Of course, I wasn’t as good as the professional window cleaner Pa Quilligan because he got paid. Nice one Pa!!
For my second set of work experience I worked and trained with the Munster Rugby team. It was a tough week. I helped out with setting up grids for the training, carrying out bottles of water to the players at the senior sessions. I also went to C.I.T in Cork to watch the Munster Senior team on their second last training before they departed for their big game in France. I spent my mornings in the gym for an hour and a half lifting weights until I couldn’t lift a bottle of water to have a drink.
Then there was lunch. Lunch was where all the pranks took place. People’s boots would go missing or one boot and one sock was taken. The best prank of all was played on Ian Dowling. Ian Dowling loves his coffee. He ordered this top class coffee to be dropped to the Munster office. Paul O’ Connell, the master of prank playing, opened the box and replaced the coffee with bean bags and left Dowling off to Kilkenny with his bean bags.
For my third and final work experience, I checked nets in the rivers for poaching. This was by far the most dangerous week of my life. I found myself out in the middle of nowhere in the pitch dark. If it wasn’t falling over fences it was nearly getting shot. As we walked down the river there was a light in the distance Bang, bang quick run!!!
Transition Year Work Experience proved to be a very steep learning curve. Three things I learned from my work experiences:
- Avoid people with guns.
- Get out of the way when there are huge men running at you.
- Window cleaning is a must have life skill.
Michael Costelloe on Transition Year Work Experience