In freezing but dry conditions Corinthians had to work hard to get the upper hand over a resilient Sunday’s Well side in Corinthian Park on Saturday. The home side from their first incursion into Sunday’s Well’s 22, secured a penalty after Captain Pat Cunningham took a great ball from a tap lineout when Sunday’s Well were deemed to have gone offside allowing Tim Donnelly to kick a simple 3 pointer in front of the post. After this Corinthians seemed to get a bit over confident with too many loose passes in the back line and Sunday’s Well scrum half Karl Rothwell did a lot of spoiling which caused the home side pack to give away a penalty inside their 22. Sunday’s Well out half Chris Burnett converted same leaving the score at 3-3 after 15 minutes. Corinthians upped the pressure with good running by centres Cian Begley and Wayne Williams but had a final pass intercepted on the visitors line by winger Ian O’Regan who ran the whole length of the pitch to score a fine try in the corner leaving the score 3-8 for Sunday’s Well. Subsequently the home side gave away another sloppy penalty with the pack not staying on their feet which Chris Burnett duly converted. Corinthians again drove up the pitch and after putting Sunday’s Well under pressure centre, Cian Begley scored a fortuitous try after his opposite number knocked on. With half time approaching Corinthians prop Tom Stapleton had to be replaced by Paul McCrannor and from the ensuing scrum referee Matt Patton (UBRA) deemed that the home side had collapsed the scrum and awarded another penalty. This was again converted by Chris Burnett leaving the score at half time Corinthians 8 Sundays Well 14.
The second half was a dour affair with both sides kicking high balls but with good fielding by Corinthians full back Darren Classens. Holding firm the home sides forwards eventually gained some ground into Sunday’s Well half with back rows Rory Connellan and Sean Geraghty doing the donkey work. This allowed Corinthian scrum half Michael Roche to get a quick ball out to Tim Donnelly who scored a beauty of a drop goal and with a three point score of a difference it always looked that next to score would collect the spoils. Sunday’s Well defended well. especially No. 8 Eamon Murphy and full back Colin Corkery but with three minutes left on the clock a great rook on the half way line driven forward by substitute Barry McCann set up a quick ball out to the back line with a skip pass to winger Dave Murphy who ran in for a magnificent touch down. Tim Donnelly who featured for
Corinthians :- D. Classens, D. Murphy, W. Williams, C. Begley, R. Forbes, T. Donnelly, M. Roche, T. Stapleton (P. McCrannor), J. Merrigan, D. Small (B. McCann), P. Cunningham (Capt), S. Murphy (C. McGuckian), R. Connellan, S. Geraghty, A. Casanova.
