A team of underage rugby players from Kinsale in Co Cork, are preparing to travel to France tomorrow to represent their club and their country at a mini-world cup tournament being held in Provence.
The U-12s from Kinsale Rugby Club will have to beat teams from Italy, Switzerland and Monaco in their group games to progress to the knockout stages of the tournament..
Kinsale Rugby Club is a junior club catering for players from under six to adults and is located at spectacular grounds at Snugmore, overlooking Kinsale Harbour.
It has more than 500 members.
The club is home to Europe's biggest rugby sevens tournament, which is played there every May bank holiday weekend.
For the past year, the club's under 12 team has been training and fundraising to represent the club at the underage Rugby Tournament of the World at Ovalive in Provence.
"We are absolutely thrilled," Kinsale Rugby Club PRO Paul McSherry, one of the under 12 coaches, told RTÉ News.
"This has been all our focus for over a year. Once we told the boys, they nearly went through the roof!
"It has been hugely motivational and the boys since then have come on in leaps and bounds."
The tournament is being held to coincide with the Rugby World Cup, which begins on Friday.
A group of around 50 players, coaches and parents will fly from Dublin to Marseille tomorrow evening, before travelling to the village of Maussane les Alpilles in Provence, where the tournament will be held over five days.
Eight teams are participating in the tournament: France, England, New Zealand and Spain will make up one pool, with Ireland, Italy, Monaco and Switzerland in a second pool. London Irish Rugby Club U-12s will represent England.
The top teams in each group will play in quarter-finals and semi-finals, with the winners of these playing in the tournament final.
As France prepare to take on New Zealand in the opening Rugby World Cup game in the Stade de France on Friday night, Kinsale RFC's U-12s will take on Switzerland, Monaco and Italy in their three pool games throughout Friday.
In addition to a heavy schedule of training, the team and their parents have been fundraising for months, with everything from bingo nights to bag packing in local supermarkets.
"It's been an absolutely massive undertaking," Mr McSherry said.
"There has been a huge amount of back and forth between us and the French club, but we are almost there now and most of the hard work is done.
"They are a very lucky bunch of boys, but they are a great bunch."
