That Longford reached a Leinster League Under-17 final last week is a noteworthy achievement in itself; however, there was another interesting facet to last Thursday’s final which they lost 15-8 to Wexford…
The team featured triplets: Finnbarr (centre), Joseph (out-half) and Owen McGowan (scrum-half)!
Now living in Clonbalt Woods, Longford, they played with De La Salle, Palmerston in Dublin for a year; when the lads started with Longford at 14. Terry McCormack, Paul Trueick and Stephen Coy Jnr were their coaches that season and immediately they got to the brink of success.
“That year we got to the cup final against Mullingar. We lost that one,” recalls Finnbarr.
Two years on, they’re back in a final, against Wexford, and under the guidance of the current set of coaches – George McDermott, Dave Lulham and Ger Murray – they’re on the verge of success once more.
“They’re good coaches,” says Joseph. “They’ve really brought the team on since the start of the season.”
Recent success with the Midlands team led to trials at Leinster level and may yet yield provincial call-ups for the triplets.
As for their future in rugby, Joseph says, “I’d like to go as far as I can, and then see what happens.”
