News

U20s Sundays Well 11 – 34 Corinthians

November 7, 2018

Corinthians under 20’s have moved into a play-off position in the league after a very impressive victory with a bonus point over Sundays Well in Musgrave Park last Saturday. While the 1st XV were playing in Cloonacauneen the respective u20s were also locking horns in AIL Div 1 in Cork. In order to put themselves into contention for a play-off position, Corinthians travelled south in the knowledge that a win was the minimum required from the trip. Decimated by injuries with 12 players on the treatment table, once again there was a need to bring in some u18 players for this critical encounter. Testament to the underlying strength in the Corinthians Youth System was the fact that players of the quality of Connacht Youths players Shane Conneely, Ronan Browne, Colin Raftery and Brendan Carpenter were all available and able to step up to the challenge. With a production line of quality players of this calibre it augers well for the future of the club. The match started with Corinthians establishing early dominance but once again lacking finishing composure inside the oppositions 22. However after 15 mins David Clarke scored from a penalty and 5 minutes later Johnny Kearney touched down under the posts when Sundays Well dropped the ball when put under pressure. The first half which was punctuated by errors, finished 3 – 10 when Sundays Well slotted a penalty from under the posts.

Coach Sean Duignan read the riot act at half time and Corinthians came out for the second half in a much more determined mood. They began to control the game much better and established their patterns with the result that on 47 mins Ronan Browne scored an exceptional try in the left corner, after four phases inside the oppositions 22. He followed that up with another try before being replaced by Shane Conneely, who showed his calibre both defensively and at the breakdown for the remainder of the game. He was critical together with his back row colleague Liam Carpenter, Shane Casey and the impressive Karl Egan in gaining the hard yards through effective ball carrying. The net result was 2 more tries and a bonus point for the ever improving Finn Gormley who must at this stage be catching the eye of the senior selectors.

After the game it was acknowledged by everyone that the outstanding performer on the day was loose head prop Fiachra Tierney, whose tackle count was higher than anyone else’s, he covered most ground on the day, and he had his bigger opposite number in his pocket for most of the game.