Inishowen travelled to Belfast on Saturday 19th Feb 2011 to play in the quarter final of the Butler Shield against their old rivals Malone rfc. Inishowen and Malone have meet twice in the last three years in this competition and the men from the moss knew what a hard and physical team they were about to play especially with Malone having home advantage.
Malone received the kick off at the start of the match and tried to break out of their own half but the inish forwards were up quickly to snuff out any Malone go forward ball this would be the tale of the game as time after time the inish forwards put there body’s on the line. over the last five or six games inishowen have had a growing momentum and a belief in their game that has been paying off coming up 2 the business end of the season especially the forwards who once again have been putting in the big hits and tackles showing that all the hard work been put in by the coaches and trainers is paying off.
Throughout the first half inishowen were in total control of the game with most of the possession and were just biding there time looking for a way through testing the Malone back 3 with long high kicks and grubbers through the inish no 10 (mark mc Laughlin) and no 9 (Seamus hickey) For the inish wingers and fullback to chase down and put all the pressure on their opposite numbers
Half way through first half with aninishowen scrum on the Malone 10 meter line which was won cleanly by the pack who had been cleaning up at scrum time the hole match through stand in hooker (colm Sweeney) the inish backs called a set move for the outside centre Paul Cassidy to get the ball but the Malone defence were up quickly and closed down all his space the quick thinking centre saw the Malone fullback out of position and chipped a ball through for his winger (Gary mc eleney).the inish wing collected the ball but still had a lot to do and with a bit of power and a bit of luck touched down in the corner. Missed conversion (5 to 0) for inishowen
The first half finished with inishowen on the attack but the Malone side did well to keep them out and with only 5 points in it was all to play for in the second half.
Malone came in to the game more in the second half and were camped down in the inishowen 22 for a good 15 minutes but the inish men kept clearing there lines and kicking the ball as far down the Malone side of the pitch as possible letting the Malone team do all the running .with 20 minutes left in the match and Malone on the attack inside the inish 22 a speculative pass by the Malone number 10 to his centre was read by the the inish 13 (Paul cassidy) who intercepted the pass and sprinted the full length of the pitch to score under the posts with conversion leaving it (12 to 0) for inishowen.
Inishowen now had a commanding lead and it was up the jumper time and for the forwards to keep the ball tight with rumble after rumble as smartly inishowen strangled the life out of the rest of the game .inishowen ran out winners (12 to 0) with some smart play and a lot of hart roll on the semi final on the 12 of march.
