BY SEÁN HOLLAND
ALONG with winning the Munster Girls Schools’ Senior and Junior Cup double, Sacred Heart Secondary School Clonakilty also claimed All-Ireland 7s junior honours in their dream season. It’s no surprise that the school’s awards ceremony to honour their Munster winners had to run into two days!
The All-Ireland junior 7s tournament was held in Kildare and eight schools competed. The Clonakilty school won all their group games, then overcame familiar rivals in Coláiste Pobail Bheanntraí in the all-West Cork final; these two schools also clashed in the Munster Schools Girls Junior Cup final at Virgin Media Park in March.
Sacred Heart captain Maria O’Donovan, from Barryroe, spoke of how her side had a steely determination not to let their West Cork neighbours get the best of them in their final game of the season.
‘We ended up playing Bantry again, who we had played many times, and beat them in the final. They wanted to get one up finally on us, but we just weren't going to let that happen,’ O’Donovan said.
Julie Finn, from Lisavaird, explained how the 7s game was introduced into the Clonakilty school and while it took time to get used to the new format, once they did, there was no turning back.
‘We had never played 7s before so we were all really new coming into it,’ Finn said. ‘I think everyone was a bit confused at first! The trainings were just a bit of craic at the start. We were all just trying to figure out how to even play 7s. Then I guess once we got started, it was all about trusting one another to put in the tackle or to make the right pass’.
Reflecting on their Munster Schools Girls Junior Cup success earlier in the year, O’Donovan was overjoyed to get over the line.
‘To be honest, it was unbelievable because our whole school came to the final, and lot of parents and people from Clon came to watch too. There was a great atmosphere because a lot of the Bantry school were there as well. It was fierce exciting, the crowd and the noise and the atmosphere was mad. But, you know, we just stuck to what we normally do. They put up a great battle but to win that was unbelievable,’ O’Donovan said.
Having won various titles with the club and the school, Finn admitted that winning with the school just pipped the feeling of winning with the club, though there’s little to choose between the two.
‘The fact that we won what we did with the school was a bit more special. Going up on the bus and having all the school supporters with us and we're a really close bunch, it was just really special and unique,’ Finn added.
The common theme amongst all the players, both senior and junior, was that the success this year has brought the school together more so than ever. Both O’Donovan and Finn were no different in their views.
‘It's really just friendship, especially in rugby because you have to play as a team, you have to work for each other. We're friends with people you wouldn't have been friends with before because there are so many different years playing together. It's just great for friendships and connecting with others’, O’Donovan explained.
Finn echoed the feelings of her teammate.
‘I think the big thing about it is even people that you wouldn't have hung out with before, we do now, since we were going out during breaks to train and going out after school together. I think we all became really close from that.’
