16.04.2011 J4 XV v Coolmine (A)
| 16/04/2011 | 3:00pm | Winter’s Cup | Coolmine | 7 – 28 | St. Marys J4 XV | Away |
The J4’s took on Coolmine in Ashbrook on Saturday afternoon in the quarter final of the Winters Cup. The weather was perfect for rugby and Mary’s were looking forward to finally taking on Coolmine after they had to pull out of the J4 League.
The first 15 minutes were fairly even with Coolmine taking Mary’s on up front and their 10 using his big boot to test the Mary’s back 3. Mary’s were dealing well with the pressure, with the back row making turnovers and the back 3 looking to run possession back at Coolmine. It was from one of these counter attacks by wing Nick Cunningham that Mary’s scored after 20 minutes. Nick ran the ball back deep into the Coolmine half, Mary’s recycled quickly and spread the ball wide. Coolmine were very short of numbers and one of their backs running back from an offside position stood in the Mary’s backline trying to prevent the pass but despite getting a touch, captain Phil Conway’s pass made it over his head and into the hands of flanker Rory O’Neill to score the try. Ted added the simple conversion for a 7-0 lead.
Coolmine came right back into the game and when one of their forwards ran a hard line off a ruck, a missed tackle from Mary’s allowed him to break into our 22 and then offload to his supporting runner for the try. They added the conversion to make it 7-7.
Mary’s regained the lead after 34 minutes when Rory showed good pace to outflank the Coolmine cover in their 22 and score his second try. Teddy slotted the difficult touchline conversion to make it 14-7.
Coolmine were wide with a drop goal attempt before half time so Mary’s took their 7 point lead into the break.
In the second half Coolmine struggled to stay on the right side of the ref in the second half and Mary’s took advantage. 16 minutes in, Ted made a small break and freed his hands to offload to elder brother Wally, who took play well into Coolmine territory. From the recycle, scrum half Ross Wynne made a break and managed to stretch to the line to score. Ted added the extras to make it 21-7.
Mary’s had 3 shots on goal in the second half, from Coolmine conceding penalties but couldn’t extend their lead to reflect the second half dominance.
As the game slipped away from Coolmine, they began running from deep and taking more chances. With the last play of the game, their 10 tried a little chip but only managed to put it straight into Teddy’s hands and he had a clear run to the posts to make the final score 28-7.
15. Paul Whyte 14. Nick Cunningham 13. Darragh O’Neill 12. David Carpenter 11. Richie Pyne 10. Brian Moran 9. Ross Wynne 8. Padraig Nestor 7. Phil Conway 6. Rory O’Neill 5. John Twomey 4. Andy McCarthy 3. Alan Godfrey 2. Eamon Moran 1. Ross Kelly
Gavin Rafferty