Not as busy last weekend as we will be this weekend.
The weekend did not turn out as busy as we first thought because the Provincial Towns Plate match with Skerries originally fixed for Easter Sunday had been put back to next Friday evening at 7.30 in Holmpatrick beginning one our busiest weekends for some time.Over next weekend we field in three adult competitions,
1st XV in the Provincial Towns Plate v Skerries on Friday evening,
3rd XV in the Anderson Cup v Boyne in Mill Road on Friday night at 8.00 and finally the
2nd XV in the Provincial Towns Seconds Cup v Co Carlow in Mill Road on Sunday next at 3 o’clock.
There will be ample opportunity for all supporters to take in a game or two over the coming weekend and as usual all support is most welcome so see you there or there over the weekend.
All hands on deck for training this week
Anderson Cup narrow victory.
Our 3rd XV made the short journey to Townspark on Friday night to tackle our near neighbours, Ardee, in the Anderson Cup.
The sides had met on a number of occasions during the season and a close encounter was anticipated.
Aidan Reilly had an excellent first half and gave a wonderful display of kicking. Early in the first half he kicked a ball dead behind the Ardee line thus making Ardee kick off to us.Will Matthews was unable to take the restart ball and knocked on.
Later, an Ardee scrum on the halfway line saw them kick deep into Dundalk territory. Eamonn Roe took the ball but his clearance just made touch outside his own twenty two. Ardee were awarded a free for an early lift. They tapped and went quickly and put the ball through several phases before Dundalk were awarded a penalty for Ardee not rolling away. Chopper , at his best, put Dundalk well into the Ardee half. Dundalk exerted great pressure and were duly awarded a penalty which Chopper successfully converted to give the Dundalk lads a 3-0 lead.
Dundalk later added to this tally when after several good phases of play, scorer in chief, Chopper, crossed the Ardee line to touch down. He converted his own try leaving the score at 10 – 0.
Dundalk looked to be finishing the half with a good lead when a late attack by Ardee saw them spread the ball wide and after a number of phases their winger went over in the corner to close the gap. They converted their try leaving the half time score at 10 – 7
The second half saw Dundalk playing against the wind and this affected their effective style of play of the first half. Ardee attacked with a renewed spirit and only a good scrum and some great ball carrying by Bryan Crosbie saw Dundalk hold their line. Tackling by Rory Mc Ardle, Simon Byrne, Darren Guest and Pierce Campbell kept Dundalk in the game and the tackle count at full time must have been enormous. Ardee had a let off mid way through the half when an Eamonn Roe penalty hit the upright and the ball bounced in Ardee’s favour. Ardee also had two players sin binned in the first half but they continued to give away penalties at the breakdowns thus sailing close to the wind with the official.
Chopper punished one of these misdemeanours by kicking a good penalty leaving Dundalk with a 13 – 7 lead. Dundalk took the kick off only to have possession stolen from them by Ardee. The home team broke up the middle of the field where there was no evident Dundalk cover only to be stopped by a try saving tackle by Darren Guest who was covering back at a rate of knots.
Minutes later the Ardee pressure paid off when they crossed the Dundalk line for a try which they were unable to convert.
This left Dundalk in the lead by the narrowest possible margin 13 -12. Encouraged, Ardee piled on the pressure for the remainder of the game. Twice they missed kickable penalties to win the game but lucky for us this was not to be and Dundalk held out to progress to the next round.
Dundalk know that this was a lucky escape and they will have to up their game for the next round on next Friday against Boyne at Mill Road. The Rugby Gods may not always smile on us but we hope they will. Training continues on Tues night so see you all there.
Dundalk:
J.White, B.Igoe, D.Laide, C.Kane, B.Crosbie, A.Byrne, N.Kerley, K.Fearon, S.Byrne, A.Reilly, P.Campbell, R.Mc Ardle, D.Guest, W.Matthews, E.Roe, A.Holmes, E.Whelan, C.McGee, C.Myles, W.Luaki
