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All Ireland League Division 2A
Saturday 23rd November 2013
Kick-Off: 2.30pm
City of Derry Rugby Club V Old Crescent
Judges Road, Derry
City of Derry Rugby Club V Old Crescent
Judges Road, Derry
William McCleery Full-back 15 Full-back Kevin Meade
Jack Caithness Right wing 14 Right wing Sean Cunningham
Simon Logue Centre 13 Centre Shane Mullally
Adam Bratton Centre 12 Centre Larry Hanly
Ryan Campbell Left wing 11 Left wing Paul Curtis
Neil Burns Stand-off 10 Stand-off Gareth Quinn McDonagh
Andrew Semple Scrum-half 9 Scrum-half Alan Bennie
Stephen Jefferson Prop 1 Prop Ben Rowley
David Ferguson Hooker 2 Hooker Ciaran Murphy
Sam Duffy Prop 3 Prop Donal Murphy (Captain)
(Captain) Chris Cooper 2nd Row 4 2nd Row Padraig Monaghan
Paul McFeely 2nd Row 5 2nd Row AN Other
Stephen Corr Flanker 6 Flanker Sean Monaghan
Stephen Ferguson No 8 8 No 8 John O’Dwyer
Stephen Dickey Flanker 7 Flanker James Nolan
Replacements Replacements
Sam McAuley 16 Shane Murphy
Gareth Beatty 17 AN Other
AN Other 18 Conor McNamara
Adam Parke 19 Conor O’Driscoll
Jack Hargan 20 Will Hanly
Preview
All Ireland League Division 2A
City of Derry RFC V Old Crescent (Limerick)
Saturday 23rd November 2013 @ Judges Road. Kick-off; 2.30pm
By; Moss Dineen
City of Derry Rugby Club welcomes Old Crescent from Limerick to Judges Road this Saturday for their fifth All Ireland League Division 2A Fixture of the season with a 2.30pm Kick-off. The North West men are still unbeaten in the AIL having won three of their fixtures and drawn one and they have collected three bonus point along the way for scoring four try’s in those games. Derry are in second place in the league just one point behind leaders Ballymena.
Old Crescent and City of Derry have played one another five times over the years always in AIL Division 2 and this will be the Limerick men’s fourth visit to the Maiden City. The first fixture between the teams was in season 1998-1999 when Derry lost by 34pts to 20pts in Limerick. Derry have only won once against Old Crescent and that was down in Limerick last year in the final game of the season. The result was 46pts to 33pts with the Derry men coming out on top in a memorable game in which Simon Logue produce a Man of the Match performance as his team just held the advantage by scoring seven try’s to five.
Old Crescent have not had the best of starts to their league campaign this season having been beaten three times by Old Wesley, Rainey and Barnhall. They went down heavily away to Wesley by 54pts to 15pts and at home to Rainey by 38prs to 20pts, their only victory was at home to Bruff by 17pts to 9pts in the second game of the season. Old Crescent have just accumulated four points and are fourth from the bottom of AIL 2A at this early stage of the season.
Derry’s AIL campaign suffered a slight setback three weeks ago away to Bective Rangers at Donnybrook when they had to score three unconverted try’s in the second half to come from 28pts to 13pts down to secure a draw as they owned the last 30 minutes of the game. The next three weeks will be crucial to Mark Nicholl’s men and their ambition to get promotion for the first time to AIL Division 1B. Following this weeks home fixture against Old Crescent they are away to Bruff in Limerick and then away again to Queens in Belfast in successive weeks and victory this weekend would be the perfect start to this phase of the campaign.
City of Derry’s record overall is not great through the years against Old Crescent but it would be a big upset if in their current form the Limerick men were to derail Derry’s ambitions. The Judges Road men put in a great performance last weekend in the Senior Cup S/Final against Ballynahinch from AIL Division 1A going down narrowly. Derry were missing their Captain David Funston and out half Richard McCarter last Saturday but without those two players again this weekend the home supporters will be expecting a victory.
City of Derry RFC Team V Old Crescent: Stephen Jefferson, David Ferguson, Sam Duffy, Chris Cooper, Paul McFeely, Stephen Corr, Stephen Dickey. Stephen Ferguson, Andrew Semple, Neil Burns, Ryan Campbell, Adam Bratton, Simon Logue, Jack Caithness, William McCleery. Replacements: Sam McAuley, Gareth Beatty, AN Other, Adam Parke, Jack Hargan.
