Monaghan’s 1st XV travelled to Virginia last weekend in their final group match of the Gordon West Cup. A win would secure a home quarter final on March.
Conditions were pretty good in the Cavan cup and Monaghan were feeling sharp after a good weeks training.
Monaghan set about getting stuck into Virginia and got off to a dream start when Ashley Berry broke through Midfield from nearly the first play and fixed the fullback and a passed to Marcus Totten for the the first try of the day. The second came almost straight after the restart when Monaghan’s pack ,mading 10 yards with every carry, found Ross McEnerney pick from the base of the ruck and power over just to the right of the posts.14-0 up after about 7 mins was ideal. Monaghan then had the only lapse in concentration they suffered all afternoon by letting Virginia collect their own restart and soft tackling let them in on the far left side. From there Monaghan just blew the Cavan men away collecting seven trys in total in the first half. Two from David Berry, one from Dylan Carleton, one from Ashley Berry and one from James Allister. Monaghan were completely dominating in every part of the field. The scrum was as magnificent, stealing almost every scrum against the head and providing a perfect platform for Monaghan’s number 8 to tear a track to the try line. Monaghans lineout too was excellent giving the backs the kind of ball that would destroy any team in this league. Monaghan kept the foot down all afternoon and registered three more tyrs in the second period, one more from Dylan Carleton and two from Stevie Niblock. 60-5 at the whistle.
Team: 1 Bernard O’Reilly, 2 Stephen Graham, 3 Richard Carleton, 4 Paul Kelly, 5 Ross McEnerney, 6 Wesley Moffett, 7 Graham Carleton, 8 Stephen Niblock, 9 David Berry ©, 10 David Savage, 11 Marcus Totten, 12 Dylan Carleton, 13 Ashley Berry, 14 James Allister, 15 Dean McDermott.
This was a fine result against a young Virginia team in transition which guarantees Monaghan a home advantage against either Donegal Town or Strabane in the cup in March.
Monaghan field two teams this weekend. The 1st XV face Strabane in the league at home in a repeat of the cup final last season. Strabane will be sore after that defeat and Monaghan will need to be on all cylinder to stop the Strabane lads from continuing their current league form which has been very positive.
the 2nd XV are away to UUC 2’s.
