FIRING, BUT NOT ON ALL CYLINDERS
It was to near neighbours YMCA did the Inishowen road show travel next, for the resumption of a historically, acutely contested fixture, afforded by the recent re-establishment of a second team by the Drumahoe club. Pre match disaster was narrowly avoided when club mascot Phillip McFadden was inadvertently locked in by his home help and had to be rescued from a second floor window with the help of Vice Captain Gary, a ladder and a tub of butter.
With a loss and a draw under their belt to date, Inishowen were eager to revitalise their league campaign, and were aided to a degree by the availability of a more experienced pool of players than Captain Neil Gillespie has been able to call upon lately.
Starting brightly, Inishowen showed early confidence, taking the game to their host’s with an initial well structured approach which gained the visitors very positive ball possession and territorial advantage. This, teamed with good set piece work put Inishowen in the driving seat during this period.
Mark Glasha’s influence at scrum half helped to establish a pattern onto Inishowens play, with YMCA having to defend the visitors regular forays into their half from well established phases, the Inishowen ruck providing quick and secure ball to Glasha on his return to the team.
YMCA provided characteristically stout defence during this period, but were unable to completely nullify the pressure and were regularly confined to their own 22m area within the initial 20 minutes of the game. It was during such a foray into opposition territory, that Gillespie crossed the whitewash to claim Inishowens first score of the afternoon with Glasha claiming the conversion points.
This tally was soon increased when the Inishowen pack exerted pressure on a defensive lineout, putting the YMCA scrum half under pressure to clear the ball to his outhalf who miss cued the clearance kick which was claimed by Glasha who chose a very intelligent angle to scamper past the frantic defence to claim a try of his own.
With this points cushion secured, and an illusion of adequacy forming in the minds of the Inishowen players, they undid a lot of their early positive work by reverting to a more headless style of play, failing to be quite so clinical about the ruck, and starting to throw the types of pass that would make a Harlem Globetrotter blush. This played directly into the hands of the home team, who needed no second invitation to take the good fight back up the field into Inishowens territory.
Aided by unnecessary and frankly bewildering infringements, Inishowen started to gift YMCA penalty after penalty, 6 or 7 being awarded in quick succession. The initial (over?) confidence of Inishowen started to ebb away as the roles were reversed. Frantic defence was relived on a couple of occasions by some very positive personal skills of the effervescent centre James McColgan, whose early morning Berocca was certainly put to good use as he danced his way past defenders, revealing quite hitherto unseen fleet footed abilities and clearing a kick to herald half time.
The resumption of the game saw Inishowen bolstered somewhat by the break, and attacked in their earlier manner, the backline particularly making good inroads towards the opposition try line. An infringement from YMCA awarded a penalty to Inishowen, who took a tap penalty which was recycled by the forwards before being passed out to stand off Ritchie Fearon who jinked his way under the posts to claim his first try of the season, the conversion saw Inishowen ease away from YMCA with a comfortable 19 points to 0 cushion.
It was at this point that the wheels started to wobble on the Inishowen wagon, Inishowen’s loose head prop Brian Harkin pulled a hamstring and whilst trying to continue, was left flat footed in defence leaving a hole for YMCA to exploit and touch down for a try. Harkin was forced to leave the field of play where by he was humanely dealt with. This ill fortune was compounded minutes later when the referee, tired of the amount of cynical penalties that veteran fly in the ointment Phillip McFadden was conceding decided to take action by sending off the hooker, only to get mixed up slightly and sending tight head prop John Kelly to the sin bin for his erstwhile comrade’s misdemeanours.
With scrums now being uncontested, and the line out disrupted through the enforced changes in personnel, Inishowen lost a lot of fluency of their attack and were forced to again, defend for long periods of time. Whilst this period was characterised by the amount of possession that YMCA now enjoyed, Inishowen did look comfortable enough in defence and managed to see the rest of the half out without conceding again.
In conclusion, it was a very well contested match, Inishowen were well tested at times but were worthy winners in the end. It is still early days in the season, and that was evident by the amount of tweaking Inishowen have yet to do to their performance before they can start to realise anything like their potential.
