Monaghan Under 17’s 31 Pts Clogher Valley Nil.
The two games that monaghan under 17’s played against their visiting touring team from Mirmachie Canada over the last 2 weeks stood well to them as the resumed their competitve season in the quarter final of the Ulster Plate competition in Rafeenan but the two league games against Clogher Valley earlier in the season resulted in a nil all draw and a win for Clogher Valley, so this was a game that the home side had prepared very well for.
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The pitch and weather lent itself to an open and running game. Our u17s got through to semi final with a great 31to 0 win over clogher valley at MRFC. MN started well when CV kick off was well caught by Jamal and he drove forward to set up a ruck and from that point MN started to put pressure on cv defence .M Quigley playing at 10 controlled his backs v well and put in some good positional kicks.MN 1st try came after some good ball carrying from Pony, Gillanders an McGregor when ruck was set up capt Maguire took short pass from Duffy an he burst his way over for try. 2nd score came from a scrum on cv 10meter line Mcgergor picked fed Duffy who gave quick pass to Quigley he spun it wide to Mcphillips to Mcgovern to Sherry who popped it back to the supporting Mcphillips and he stepped 3 defenders to score under the posts Quigley covrted. Monaghan proved themselves to be quick off the mark running in these early trys to lead at half time by 12 pts to nil. The Monaghan scrum was dominent in the first half which gave their backs plenty of ball to run with. Scrum half simon duffy and outhalf mark quigly were the perfect link between backs and forwards with conor burns, ultan sherry,conon mcgovern and andrew mcphillips running some very good support lines.CV tried to runat MNfrom everywhere but some great tackling from Mckenna, Mcgregor ,Burns, Mc donald,and Mcgovern put a stop to them. .MN started 2nd half with great movement in from our backs strong running from Quigly, Mcphillips,Bramleyan Burns brought play into cv 22 and from 10metr scrum McGregor picked an burst his way over for a try in the corner. In this half clogher valley came back into the game with very good line-out work , but the monaghan forwards did great work at the breakdown to again dominate the game and run in a few more tries to qualify for a semi-final showdown At this stage MN were in total control.Fullback Burns got the next score when he caught high ball in his own half an he ran it back down the side line then he hit the turbo stepped inside and left cv players chasing shadows convt Quigly.MN last score came when Gillanders broke through a few tackles popped to McGregor who was in support and he got good leg drive an carried 2 valley boys over the line with him conv Mcphillips. Overall lineout was good with accurate throwing from McDonald an good Jumping from Mullan an Mckenna,scrums solid with Jamal an Mcguire at props goog support from 2nd rows Pony an Mullen, back row of Mckenna McGregor an Gillanders have formed a very good unit. S Duffy has been a great addition at scrum half an the reliable M Quigly had great game at 10, centers Mcphillips and MCgovern will sicken most defences as will Sherry, Bramley, Mcbloon and Burns. Hopefully E Connolly, Emiel will be back in action soon. Semi final now we need to keep up the good work an focus on next match with possibly local rivals Cavan.
Monaghan team : Conor burns, ultan sherry, tiernan bramley,enda Mcgloin,conan Mcgovern,mark quigley, andrew mcphillips,simon duffy, mark mcdonnell,stefan maguire,jamal mcelmeel,oisin craig, stephen mullan,mattie gillilan,alan mckenna, enda connolly, emil lubczynski
