After an enforced break of a week due to weather conditions the City of Derry U19’s returned to league action at Judges Rd. With a win against Letterkenny. This was a tricky game and the Derry boys dug deep to run out easy winners in the end 46 points to 10.
The visitors kicked off on a great day for rugby and the home side immediately put themselves under pressure from wrong options and silly mistakes! After a series of penalties for going off their feet and not releasing the tackler, the Letterkenny side were awarded a penalty which they converted to take a 3 point lead on 5 mins. This seemed to wake up the home side and they responded in the best possible way, after the ball was won from the restart the forwards took charge of the football and drove hard at the heart of the visiting defence. After a series of pick and drives the ball was moved out where captain Ryan Spratt took a good line and crashed over to the right of the posts leaving the kick for outhalf Richard Keys to convert. The restart was fielded well by the Derry boys and returned hard at the visitors, after a few phases the ball was moved quickly right where big William Knox showed his speed to out strip the defence and score close to the posts, again this was converted by Keys. With 9 mins gone the home side were 14 to 3 ahead and seemed to be coasting, the forwards were making good ground but were guilty of giving up possession too easily, a trait that will need to stop if they want to close out games! In the backs scrumhalf Johnny Kennedy, playing against his old team, had a good game constantly sniping round the fringes and making some big hits in defence. The new centre partnership of David Devine and William Knox were causing problems all game and their defence was top drawer all game. The game ebbed and flowed with Letterkenny proving to be good at spoiling any quality ball that Derry got and the home side guilty of some very elementary errors. On 30 mins the forwards were again pounding on the door of the Letterkenny line and after some good support play and nice inter passing between the forwards, hooker Mark Boyd was on hand to fall over the line for a try, the conversion was missed. This closed the scoring for the half as the ref blew the whistle and leave the City side 19 points to 3 ahead at half time. At half time a few home truths were said and the home side were asked to show their true potential and up the ante to get a good handle on this game and close it out early.
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The second half started off in the same vein as the first half ended with the Derry team pressing hard and asking questions all over the field, after more good driving play the ball was popped to sub Craig Henderson who showed his class and power to step and drive over the line for a good score out to the left of the posts, the kick was missed. The Co Donegal men never gave up and were still hitting hard through their skipper and prop but the Derry men dug deep and defended well and when they got possession they counterattacked well. In the 16 min the ball was moved out after good approach work from the forwards and David Devine hit a great line to score a good try out wide, the kick again was missed. Derry were by now bossing the scrum and winning all ball out of touch through the impressive Cillian Doherty and the workman like James McIvor ably assisted by the rest of the pack.
Good ball was again secured and when it was moved wide substitute winger Niall O’Kane was on hand to take the final pass and make the last 20 metres to the line out wide on the left, the difficult conversion was missed. The backs were by now growing in confidence and were making good inroads in to the visitors midfield with David Devine very impressive with some great surging breaks. After a period of pressure the Donegal men got possession only to clear it down to halfway in field where fullback Ian Bratton fielded well and took off. A strong run with power and pace took him the whole way through some despairing tackles and he scored close to the pots for a good individual score which was made good by outhalf Keys. The Letterkenny team dug deep on their reserves and took the game at the home side again through their forwards, this proved too be fruitful as some slack defending allowed the opposition to keep the ball and drive hard at the Derry line. On the stroke of 30 mins the visitor’s captain got his hands on the ball and forced his way over for a try under the bar but the conversion was missed. The home side responded well and from the restart secured possession and drove hard at the heart of the visitors, the ball was moved between forward and backs and prop Ciaran Allen showed his pace to pop up and take the final pass after good phase play to crash over and score the final try of the game which went unconverted. The bench was emptied in the last 10 mins and sub Hayden Simpson with nearly his first touch of the ball was stopped just short of the line and the moment was lost. This was a scrappy affair with the lack of game time showing early on but the team dug deep and turned things around, in periods the side showed just how good they are but too many times they allowed themselves to be drawn in to silly mistakes. These silly mistakes will need to be eliminated if the team want to keep the good run up and better teams will take advantage of these mistakes, all is not lost however and it is a sign of a good side when they can win when not playing that well. The team performed well in a lot of aspects of play with the set pieces working well and the back play from these of the highest order, in the forwards all to a man performed well both in attack and defence. In the backs Kennedy and Keys continue to grow as a partnership and Knox and Bratton showed what they can do with a bit of space but Man of the match goes to David Devine who showed just how versatile he is playing in yet another position!
