Regrettably, the General Committee of the club found it necessary, earlier this week, to concede a walkover to Kilkenny RFC in relation to our scheduled quarter-final tie in this seasons Provincial Towns’ Cup, due to be played today, Sunday March 22nd.
We’ve had a wonderful relationship with what the competition over it’s 90-year history, and the difficult decision to withdraw from the fixture was taken only after much consideration, deliberation and consultation.
However our J1 team (the team which plays in the Towns’ Cup) already had a long-term commitment to the 63rd fixture in our annual relationship with Dunbar RFC in Scotland this weekend, and we found it impossible to field a squad of sufficient strength against Kilkenny without exposing our players to undue risk of injury.
Strenuous efforts had been made over recent weeks with both Kilkenny RFC and Leinster Branch IRFU in an attempt to refix the game for an alternative mutually convenient date, regrettably to no avail.
Conceding a walkover was a major decision and one which was not taken in any way lightly – as a club, we are acutely conscious of all our responsibilities; regrettably however, no dates, other than this particular weekend, were suitable to Kilkenny RFC.