Last week saw a historic moment for rugby league in Ireland as the first ever college's game took place in Limerick.
Limerick IT hosted Tralee IT in a high quality game which led to the men from the Treaty City Titans running out 54-14 victors.
The Limerick team which was coached by Treaty City Titans veteran Brian Farrell used the experience to get off to a good start.
This coupled with Irish Student representative Evan Culhane putting in a strong performance for the hosts gave them an added advantage over Tralee who were led by Cathal O'Reilly.
Standout performances came from Ciaran O'Coileain, who bagged five tries and 3 conversions during the game and pulled the strings for LIT, and Hooker Martin Casey who touchdown three times himself gave the home side a strong lead.
However, Tralee never gave up the fight and big hits from Cathal O'Reilly as well as good attacking play from their backline brought them back into the tie.
Tries from O'Reilly, Hugh Moran and Rob Drumm gave hope to the visiting team but four more tries from Limerick finished an enthralling match off.
Both teams battled it out until referee David Lavery blew the final whistle to bring the game to a close in an encouraging start to college rugby league in Ireland.
Speaking after the game losing coach Cathal O'Reilly hailed the success of the fixture "It's great for the development of the game as I'd say only 3 or 4 of the players on Tuesday had ever played before, the rest were all new to the game.
Hopefully a few of these players when they return home from the summer will be interested enough to join their local club and see can they better themselves. I'd love to see rugby league continue in IT Tralee and I would love to see some of the players try out for the student's squad. All in all it was great to see the two teams enjoy themselves on the day and I hope it just keeps going."
Tralee player Eoghan Anderson also expressed how impressed he was with the tie "I would love to play that again. It's so different to union, the hits are much bigger, and the game really suited me.
I've already started looking into finding out the closest club to me at home because I would really like to play it again! I definitely think they game should be highlighted a lot more, I don't think people realise how good it is until they play it!
It was such a good experience, the result didn't go our way, but if we had a bit more training and guys knew the rules a bit better, were all still learning, we could turn it around in a return fixture! I'm really glad I took part!"
It was not only the Tralee players who savoured the opportunity as Limerick prop Stephen O'Shea explained "I really enjoyed my first game of rugby league. The fast pace and opportunities to carry ball really appealed to me. I'll definitely be looking to play again with the college or with a club during the summer."
Ireland Student player Evan Culhane spoke of how impressed he was with the players on show "The skill level was very high which will massively benefit the Student squad for the upcoming championships"
Limerick Institute of Technology: 1. Niall O'Flatharta, 2. Tom White, 3. Darren Gibson, 4. Kevin Hodnett, 5. Evan Culhane, 6 Dee Waters, 7 Ciaran O'Coileain, 8. Greg O'Donnell, 9. Martin Casey, 10. Stephen O'Shea, 11. Stephen Melbourne, 12. Niall Gorry, 13. Will O'Connor Interchange: 14. Anthony Grey, 15. Eoin Brown, 16.Enda Ryan, 17. Brendan Farrelly
Tries: Ciaran O'Coilean 5, Will O'Connor, Martin Casey 3, Kevin Hodnett 2, Evan Culhane
Goals: Ciaran O'Coilean 3, Will O'Connor, Dee Waters 3
Tralee Institute of Technology:
1.Cathal O'Reilly, 2.Eoghan Anderson, 3.Pat Kelly, 4. Joe Walsh, 5. Rob Drumm, 6. Mike Murphy, 7. John O'Connell, 8. Hugh Moran, 9. Brian O'Conner, 10. Ger McNamara, 11. Edward Tubridy, 12. Brian Collins, 13. Kevin Lane Interchange: 14. Remi, 15. Mike Brassil, 16. Connor Noone, 17. Kieron Bolt, 18. Pat Lynch
Tries: Rob Drumm, Hugh Moran, Cathal O'Reilly
Goals: John O'Connell
Referee: David Lavery
Touch Judges: Brendan Guilfoyle, Alan McNamara