Cooke fail to impede league leaders
Well drilled Portadown pack make life difficult
Cooke could do little to impede the progress of league leaders Portadown as the Co Armagh side’s forwards dominated affairs at Shaw’s Bridge. Portadown registered the first points of the game within five minutes. A penalty against Cooke was kicked to the corner allowing the visitors to catch and drive over from the line-out where veteran prop Neilly was credited with the touch down. Cousens added the conversion.
Cooke responded immediately and when Portadown were penalised for diving into a ruck Elliott’s penalty from the 10 metre line fell short. Portadown out-half Cousens had another penalty attempt on 11 minutes when Cooke failed to release in a tackle but watched his kick drift wide. Portadown’s second try came against the run of play. As Cooke had committed all its backs in an attacking move Portadown turned possession and kicked deep into Cooke territory. The Portadown pack were quickly on hand and in an identical rolling maul forced play over the Cooke line to score in the corner. Cousens difficult conversion rebounded off the upright.
Undeterred, Cooke counter attacked aggressively where Portadown captain, Lambe, obstructed play and received a well-deserved yellow card. Cooke took full advantage and with the Portadown scrum retreating the ball was whipped out to out-half Finlay who wrong footed the defence and crossed the line for a try which he converted.
Try number three for Portadown was a carbon copy of their first. When Cooke were penalised for pulling down a maul, Cousens kicked to the corner where his pack took the line out and rumbled over for another unconverted try. Finlay had an opportunity to reduce arrears for Cooke with a close range penalty after half an hour but miscued and saw his kick rebound off the crossbar. With tempers beginning to flare referee Patrick Rea maintained control of matters sending Cooke prop Seawright to the side-line for ten minutes who was followed to the ‘sin bin’ shortly afterwards by Portadown lock Bicker.
Three minutes into injury time, Portadown claimed try four. An innocuous kick ahead by Cooke was collected on the half way line by Portadown scrum half Whitten who spread the ball across his backs to captain Lambe who had added the extra man on the wing and ran around the Cooke defence. Cousens conversion gave the visitors a comfortable half time lead Cooke 7 : Portadown 24
The second half saw a much improved performance from Cooke who took play to their heavier counterparts. However Portadown struck again 25 minutes into the second half. A solid scrum in the middle of the Cooke 22 saw the ball passed quickly along the Portadown backs to winger Halliday who raced over in the corner. Cousens conversion was again denied by the post.
With ten minutes remaining Cooke endeavours finally paid off. Finlay found a gap in the Portadown defence, linking up with fullback Cartmill and then taking the return pass before spreading the ball between several Cooke hands to flanker Mooney to finish with an unconverted try. While Portadown turned on the pressure in the final ten minutes the Cooke defence remained resolute leaving the final score Cooke 12 : Portadown 29
