Under Thirteens finally let the Hand-brake off and find Drive
After a two games that saw the under thirteen squad start the season a little uncertainly, the boys
found their stride on Saturday morning in Carndonagh. A fine sunny morning on the peninsula, and
the first dry Saturday since the season re-started. Twenty travelled. Twenty looking for a good
game, and all twenty played well.
From the kick-off the team had a more confident feel about them than in previous weeks. A clean
catch set up a ruck with the advancing Inishowen forwards, and the support players arriving on time
signalled that lessons from the last two matches had been learnt. The ball came back cleanly to
Tadhg, who started as he intended to go on – playing out of his skin – and was recycled twice,
before the first scrum of the day went to Inishowen.
Inishowen, not having seen much of the ball in the first five minutes were impressive in the scrum.
An impressive front row gave the Letterkenny boys very little room to manoeuvre. However,
despite being driven back Letterkenny were fast off the mark and fed the ball out to Matthew, who
already accelerating, gratefully accepted the ball at speed and broke through the defence to sprint
home for the first try of the match. From the restart Inishowen forced their way deep into the
Letterkenny twenty-two, and eventually crossed the try-line. Disciplined defence from Letterkenny
however made sure that the ball was held up and there was no score. Inishowen didn’t capitalise on
the five-yard scrum and with both sides still a little unsettled, the game see-sawed back up to the
other end of the pitch. From a ruck about five metres out Tadhg, about to feed the ball out, spotted a
gap and dived over for a text-book scrum-half try. The boys in blue came back at Letterkenny more
determined, but strong tackling from the Letterkenny backs kept them at bay. Rhys, Lewi and James
Roulston proving particularly fierce in defence. Niall O’ Connor guarded his wing jealously. The
handling by the backs showed enormous improvement from previous matches, and a midfield
turnover fed uninterrupted out to the wing saw Jack McGarvey touch down in the corner for the
third try of the half. Joe Dunleavy was next with a herculean heave that brought him and what
looked like half the team over the line with him. (see pic). Ten minutes before the break, our very
welcome newcomer Noah came on as a replacement, in his first interclub match for the squad. What
pace! Three tries before the half-time whistle!
The second half was at a slightly slower pace as bodies tired on both sides with the constant and
good tackling by both teams. While Inishowen continued to get the better of the scrums, it was
Letterkenny that made more of their possession with Matthew, James Roulston and Sean
McGettigan notching up the first three scores of the half. After a number of attacks stopped just
short of the line or bundled into touch, one of the Inishowen props finally crashed over for a try
after fifteen minutes, .. something he had been threatening to do for some time. It wasn’t over yet, as
Lewi took a break from tackling to add himself to the list of try-scorers. Noah then finished his
debut with style showing fantastic speed so late in what was a very physical game, to sprint down
the touchline and score in the corner.
Inishowen RFC 5 Letterkenny RFC 60
