Dundalk U13’s hosted Ratoath in what was a very entertaining match with end to end play in the first half. Dundalk won the ball on  their own kick off and applied pressure through multiple phases and prop Dean O’Connor made a surging run and off loaded to second row, Callum Murray who went over in the right corner on 5 minutes. Ratoath regrouped, forced their way up field and found a gap in the Dundalk defence resulting in a try on 12 minutes which was converted. From the restart, Dundalk held on to the ball, and 4 minutes later, scrum half Cian McGuinness popped a pass for no13, Patrick Bermingham to run on to and he scorced up the right touchline evading 3 defenders and cutting in to score under the posts. Outhalf, Michael McDonald added the conversion. Ratoath responded with a try 3 minutes later and the score remained 12 -12 up to half time.

From the start of the second half, Dundalk went into overdrive and blitzed their opponents with the forwards dominating the breakdown and getting quick ball to the fast hands of the backline. On 4 minutes, Aaron Duffy had a 5m pick and drive to get over the line with McDonald converting. Two minutes later, sustained pressure sucked in the Ratoath defence and no 8, Andrew McDonald from 18m  galloped through a gap and grounded  to the right of the posts and his brother at outhalf converted.  Score 26-12. Three minutes later Aaron Duffy picked up a loose ball on the 10m line and in his trademark move, sprinted down the left touchline, brushing off three tackles and eventually grounding under the posts for his second try with McDonald converting. Score 33-12. Ratoath eventually got their hands on the ball and made it pay with a converted try five minutes later. With 5 minutes remaining, outhalf McDonald sold a dummy to the Ratoath defence on their 22m line and breezed through the gap and dived over the line avoiding the cover tackle from the full back. McDonald converted his own try rounding off a comfortable win. Dean O’Connor was voted man of the match for his ball carries and work rate at the breakdown. Final score Dundalk 40 – Ratoath 19.

Fergal Malone, Tadgh Leahy, Patrick Bermingham, Conor McKeown, Gene Murtagh, Michael McDonald, Cian McGuinness, Andrew McDonald, Eamonn Kirk, Jamie O’Hagan, Eoin McMahon, Callum Murray, Aaron Rehill, Sam McSherry, Dean O’Connor, Charlie Donnelly, Ben Verling, Jamie Chong, Aaron Dufffy, Tiernan Duffy, Connor McGarrity, Jack McGee.