Strabane were narrowly beaten by letterkenny 6-10 in the Gordon west cup on Saturday.
A great crowd of over 100 turned out to see a very tight game that would give a measure of how Strabane were coming on. The answer later.
Strabane kicked off, and letterkenny immediately tried to show who was top dog. They attacked relentlessly, and were offloading and recycling like a side that had played in QF…
2 last season. Strabane cleared their lines well enough, but kenny were always getting closer. Aaron cummings had to make a last ditch tackle to stem the tide, but with their lineout looking good, the visitors continued to pressurise. This eventually paid off when after 4 excellent offloads that any team would have been pleased with, their no. 7 went in under the posts to give them a deserved 0-7 lead.
At this stage, you could see how letterkenny had put 50 points on the police last week, and it all looked rather ominous, but this Strabane team is made of sterner stuff. From the restart, the home team decided they could give as good as they got, and stood toe to toe with the more experienced outfit. A compelling battle ensued up front,with Strabane gaining a distinct advantage in the scrums and parity in the lineout. In the backs, the defensive line speed was upped, and John Mitchell was unlucky to be judged offside after a great hit in midfield – justice served when the penalty was missed.
Strabane then put together a period of pressure of their own and advanced into the 22 after good work from Timmy cummings and Norman Lindsay. The pack began to produce turnovers, with a few good choke tackles and on the stoke of half time, centre Geoff Mealiff struck a good penalty from the 10m line to leave the score at the interval nicely poised at 3-7.
The visitors were first on the attack in the second half and forced a penalty for not rolling away, but this was again missed, and this lifted Strabane again. They advanced into the kenny half with a good touch from a penalty, and after some excellent phases were awarded another penalty opportunity, which Mealiff great fully accepted ; 6-7 game on. The crowd were getting very excited, and there were nearly apoplectic when a great kick downfield from out half Brian Allen was judged to have crossed the dead ball line, a tough call from 70 metres away. From the resultant scrum, kenny got a kickable penalty, but with their kicker out of sorts they elected to go for the corner. The crowd were not best pleased, but the lineout wasn’t straight and the danger was averted.
Letterkenny came again, but skipper adam Cummings led his troops from the front and popped up everywhere to hack through and later intercept a dangerous break. Dean McCarter made some scintillating breaks from fullback, ably supported by Stuart Hamilton, but Strabane were unable to break the visitors defence. From the next kenny attack, Strabane gave away what was to be the decisive penalty, and their kicker made no mistake from in front of the posts. Strabane had a final penalty kick, but the long range attempt went a foot below the bar. The game took a sad turn when the visitors scrum half, Damien Williamson, broke his ankle at the bottom of a ruck. The ambulance arrived within a few minutes and he was sportingly applauded for his good play during the game and the manner in which he bore his injury. From the restart, letterkenny showed their experience and simply stuffed it up the jumper for the last few minutes to hold on for the win.
Strabane were of course disappointed with the loss, but the manner in which they stood up was admired by everyone and they earned the respect of the visitors. Adam Cummings won the “Cilento Man Of The Match” award
We now have a more difficult route back to ravenhill, but after that display, their is no doubt that we have the quality to do so, and to prosper in the league. Believe.
