Under 13’s
After weeks of cancelled fixtures, no-one minded the rain on Saturday morning too much.
Any fears that Letterkenny’s U13s might be a bit rusty after the enforced break were quickly swept aside as a well worked move by Dan Little and Peter Scott saw Peter cross the line for the first try of the match after just two minutes. Donegal Town came back fiercely, but a middle of the field charge was halted short of the line by a tremendous tackle by James Roulston. The first scrum of the game was to Donegal Town, which was well organised and gave clean possession. The feed out to the winger however was stopped by some very determined tackling from Joe Dunleavy. Joe stayed in the thick of it, and minutes later with Daniel Faulkner displayed some of the best rugby we’ve seen this year. Two perfectly timed off-loads from the boys put Peter Scott in space, and over the line for his second try.
With confidence growing, Letterkenny were back on the Donegal Town line again five minutes later, this time it was Oisín O’Boyle burrowing through a mass of forwards to touch down.
Again Donegal Town fought back, but again James, Joe and Sean McGettigan were not letting the attackers through. Five minutes from the break, and the wet conditions really started to turn it into a forward’s day. With a slippery ball and cold fingers in the backs, the pack kept it tight and first Stephen Gibson charged over for a try, followed just on the break by Ryan Davis.
The second half introduced all the remaining players, and it took the team a while to settle down. Donegal Town were by no means out of the game, and capitalised on Letterkenny’s brief period of disorganisation. Two tries in quick succession came from their number 12, who was having an outstanding game. Letterkenny had to learn quickly that kicking away possession was costing them, as the Donegal Town boys ran in a third try in ten minutes. Mid-way thorough the half Letterkenny regained their composure however, and Stephen Gibson steadied nerves by going over for his second try. The rain continued throughout, and Dan Little at the bottom of a ruck at one point appeared more in danger of drowning than being stood on! Two minutes from the final whistle, Lewi Carson brought the Letterkenny score to 35 with a trademark charge up the centre of the field. From the restart, Letterkenny held onto possession, with Diarmuid Gallagher leading a charge that set up a ruck that sent Daniel Faulkner over for a final try to finish the game.
As ever, not enough space to mention everyone, but well played all – Letterkenny and Donegal Town – it’s good to be back!
Letterkenny 40: Donegal Town 35
Under 15’s
Donegal Town had ended up victors in their previous league encounter with Letterkenny and the home team were keen to make amends for their previous below par performance.
In pretty miserable conditions due to heavy rain Letterkenny started strongly and their pack gained the upper hand in all departments. Donnachdha MacNaillais scored two tries before the break, one converted by Tiarnan O’Dea, to leave the halftime score at 12 points to nil. There had been some excellent forward work, particularly from Olan Noonan, Karl Wilson and MacNaillais which had given the platform for the centre pairing of Mel Harkin and O’Dea to cause havoc.
The second half continued in the same fashion with strong Letterkenny defence nullifying anything the visitors could throw at them. Olan Noonan rounded off a fine game with two tries and Eoin Ferry added to the forward department tally of tries.
The try of the day was scored by Letterkenny second row David McLean, handing off would be defenders at will as he ran in from the 10m line to score.
Whilst all six tries came from the forwards, the backline created the space and provided the defence to allow the forwards to flourish, on a drier day the tables may have been turned.
Letterkenny’s best performance of the season and will bode well with the cup league commencing on Saturday with a home game against Ballymoney from County Antrim.
Letterkenny Team; J.Chambers, S.O’Brien, A.West, E.Ferry, B.Russell, D.MacNaillais, D.McLean, C.O’Neill, D.Dunleavy, O.Noonan, B.Khavia, R.Mortimer, M.Harkin (Cpt), T.O’Dea, P.J.McBride, S.MacGinty, C.Handy, O.Rafferty, M.Molloy
Under 17’s
Wet and horrible, and not only the players, summed up the day.
Letterkenny had amassed over 70 points against Donegal Town in their previous encounter, in similar conditions earlier in the season, and this was possibly what prevented them doing the same again, there was a high level of desire but a low level of teamwork as the home players seemed to think they could score individually at will.
Dogged defence by the visitors kept Letterkenny at bay for long periods of the first half but Ben Mortimer opened the scoring when picking up from the back of a ruck and crashing over from 5m out.
The quick and skilful Joe Gallagher increased his scoring tally for the season by adding a further two tries and more could have come the Letterkenny team’s way had they worked the ball wider on numerous occasions.
Donegal had their moments and the powerful number 8 made several bullocking runs only to be denied by some strong tackling.
Letterkenny’s line out was a key feature in their success and creating a good platform for the backs to work from. Hooker Shane Gibson had an impressive and unselfish performance, doing all the basics right providing quality ball in both the line out and scrum.
Winger Casimir Abakanyarko also put in a good display and got behind his defence to set up good field positions and bring the forwards into the game.
Justin Allen worked well in the line out and finished off a good morning with two tries, one of which was converted by Niall Curran to leave the final score-line at 27 points to nil.
Letterkenny’s next game is a cup league encounter at home to Ballymoney on Saturday.
