Clonakilty RFC News

Clonakilty RFC opened their 05/06 AIB All Ireland League campaign with a win over Dublin’s illustrious Wanderers Football Club at The Vale last Saturday.

First Hurdle Cleared

Clonakilty RFC opened their 05/06 AIB All Ireland League campaign with an excellent win over Dublin’s illustrious Wanderers Football Club at The Vale last Saturday. Clonakilty’s preparation leading up to the game had been far from perfect with the coach unable to field his strongest combination at any time prior to this game. The starting fifteen on Saturday would have been close to the optimum. With the bench the squad would have been no more than two or three short of full strength and this win over the headquarters club will give great encouragement to the West Cork side as they travel to Derry this weekend and to Belfast next weekend for challenging games with City of Derry and Queens University.

It was an excellent all-round performance with forwards and backs on top of their game. The pack was more than a match for their physically larger opponents and indeed got the better of the tight exchanges. In the backs Paul Dillon created mayhem in the centre creating a number of turns over with his crash tackling while his partner David Lombard never failed to break the gain line with his carries. Darragh Lynch made a very impressive senior debut and Noel O Sullivan added to his record try tally with a superb touch down.

It was at out half however where the difference was most prominent. Gary Cribb gave a master class in the position with a display that completely eclipsed his opposite number. His kicking out of hand in the first half was faultless and was a huge steadying influence on his team. He got the backline moving fluently and generally controlled the game with a man of the match performance and the confidence of the side grew in proportion.

Captain Derek Dillon led by example and was a constant threat joining the line at every opportunity. In the forwards as ever Eddie Knowles and Declan Coppinger got through a mountain of work and Lenny Harte, Joe Knowles and the rest of the pack were right up for this contest dominating the visiting eight in every facet.

The scoring was opened when one of Paul Dillon s specials caused Wanderers to spill the ball and Cribb scooped it off the ground to Alfie Harte who placed a beautiful grubber through the defence. Noel O Sullivan raced on to it and kicked on to win the race for the touch down and Cribb s superb touchline conversion gave Clon a 7 0 lead after 17 minutes. Wanderers narrowed the gap with a Craig Sowman penalty from outside the Clon 22 before Cribb restored the margin with another penalty on 32 minutes and increased it with another just before the break to leave the half time score 13 3.

Clon finished the half with O Sullivan denied another try as he was bundled to touch five metres from the line following great interplay between forwards and backs. Some errors started to creep into Clon s game in the early stages of the second half, which was marked by another famous clearance kick by Eoin Scannell before O Sullivan set up Clon s second try. Fielding and marking a high ball deep inside his 22 he took a quick tap and set off in attack. David Lombard who had been superb throughout was quickly in support and took it another 20 metres before O Sullivan again took it on. Eddie Knowles took the pass and gave one that any back would have been proud of to Gary Cribb who dived over the line for Clon s final score.

There were hopes that another two tries would deliver a bonus point to Clon and indeed they had the chances but a combination of resolute defence from the Dubliners and over elaboration particularly in overdoing the picking and driving phases put paid to that. Clon supporters were ecstatic with the win however and everyone would have taken a one point win before the game such was the reputation that preceded this new look Wanderers side which had only one survivor from last season, Skibbereen man David O Keeffe, as they set about charting their return to Division One.

The squad was: – Derek Dillon (Capt), Darragh Lynch, David Lombard, Paul Dillon, Noel O Sullivan, Gary Cribb, Joe Crowley, Eddie Knowles, Alfie Harte, Danny Whelton, Mike Keohane, John O Regan, Lenny Harte, Declan Coppinger, Peter Stout, Ray Coppinger, Eoin Scannell, Colin Murphy, Howard Kenny and Tadgh Wright.

The Extra-Firsts also recorded a fine win over Nenagh Ormond at The Vale on Sunday by 12 6. Howard Kenny and Joe Lee scored tries with Lee converting one. Clon were on top throughout and played some very open rugby if somewhat risky. The points were secured, however and a game Nenagh fifteen managed only two penalties as a result of some great Clon defensive work.

The Squad was: – Joe Lee, Tim Boohig, Howard Kenny, Padraig Kingston, Michael Cahill, Matt Kirby, Eoin Ryan, Michael Murphy, Eoin Murphy, Kenneth O Regan, Terry Phair, Brian Blackwell, Eoin Scannell, Cathal O Regan, Colin Barrett, Sean Beamish, John Kingston, James O Driscoll and Colm Twomey. The 14s and 16s rounded off a great weekend for the club with emphatic wins over old Christians in the league and Kanturk in a friendly respectively.

This Weekend s Fixtures: –

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