Some folks thought the big battle on St Stephens day 2022 was taking place in Thomond Park at 7:35pm, well they were very much mistaken.

It had occurred earlier in the day on the Astro pitch in Rathcooney.

It was very clear from the outset that the main item on both Minis and Youth coaches Santa lists were capes, as there was no shortage of superheroes (leave them dream) on the pitch.

The reffing of the game was initially taken on by DOC, who cleverly 'forgot' his whistle and couldn't draw on the instinctive Norrie skill of finger whistling, so decided to head to the car (which he must have parked by the graveyard seeing as he was gone for ages), leaving it to Twigsy to attempt to wrestle control of the game, using what must be a new World Rugby directive of refereeing from the sidelines in jeans and boots more catered to a relaxing evening in the Barn Restaurant.

The amount of dissent shown to Twigsy by some of the superheroes nearly led the secretary of the club to print out Spirit of Rugby notices, until he was informed that Twigsy had drawn it all on himself over the years.

Speaking with rugby coordinators in the club, it turns out that footage from the game will be used as coaching cues by the club going forward, especially on the area of offsides.

Towards the end of the match, even DOC made a reappearance, this time on the pitch. Well he had to give the Daz runners a flash.

As the game was played on the Astro where the U6's and U7's play week in, week out, it was decided Minis rules applied, so the game finished in a draw.

All the players retired to the clubhouse (big thanks to clubhouse committee) for a cuppa, some tea cakes and tales from yesteryear on how unreal they were in the day!

There were some capes left behind on the day. They can be collected from the cafe in January.

Happy Christmas folks.. See you in the new year.