Our seconds faced Midleton in our second league game but it wasn’t to be our day with the hosts taking the spoils. We were caught cold with three minutes on the clock when Midleton’s centre broke through our line, and offloaded for a score out wide.
From the restart we started to apply the pressure with big carry’s from Jacks Burke and Mark Deane in particular, the hosts defending every attack well. Any exit kicks were hoovered up by Carty at full back and setting up on the attack again, it took us until the 20 minute to level the score. A super penalty kick to touch from Harry set us up in the five for a maul drive with Duckser inches from the line, Harry picking and finishing it off. Tails were up now and we pushed on from the restart, Midleton struggled to exit now, Deano winnng turnovers, big hit’s from Shay and Sean, the two Conor’s combining for a double hit on the edge, it was all there. Our second try mirrored the first, the pack mauling the opposition over for Deano to crash over. A third followed soon after, again the boys working through the phases , followed by some excellent hands out wide for Oisin to get his third try in two games, Harry converting. Midleton pulled one back with a slick back move that opened up our defence. We replied immediately, with Carty going over in the corner to make it 10-22 at half time.
A dream start to the second half saw Carty get his brace with a touch down in the corner after some great work with big carry’s moving us up the pitch. One would be forgiven for thinking we had the game in the bag, but the hosts were not yet done, 3 unanswered try’s , two of which were converted sealed the result. We squandered a few opportunities to claim the win at the end with the ball being held up on the line and a chip and chase Hail Mary.
To the neutral, a great game to watch, plenty of physicality and a high standard of rugby for this level, credit also to the ref doing a great job in the middle of the pitch.
Lastly Man of the match award goes to Darragh Cole, an outstanding game, huge hits, carry’s and turnovers
