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Gorey RFC's Dylan Sawyer hands-off a Kilkenny defender on his way to scoring the game's opening try

18^thNov 2017

GOREY RFC U18s CONTINUE UNBEATEN RUN

Gorey RFC’s U18s welcomed Kilkenny to Clonattin on Saturday morning, following their impressive win last week away to Athy.

Gorey welcomed back a number of their players that had been missing the previous week, and were hoping to continue their unbeaten record in the Leinster Premier/Division 1 Qualifier League.

The game’s opening phases were fairly evenly contested, with the first opportunity falling to Gorey in the 7^th minute when Henry Kennedy forced a penalty from Kilkenny for holding on. But the kick fell just wide of the posts and the sides remained deadlocked.

Gorey continued to exert pressure, but Kilkenny’s defence remained solid and it wasn’t until half way through the first half that the Kilkenny opened the scoring with a well taken penalty. (Gorey 0 Kilkenny 3)

Gorey continued to cause Kilkenny problems and Andrew Cushen made a couple of good runs up the left wing. After on long kick and chase, he forced a scramble for the loose ball but a Kilkenny defender managed to ground the ball in his own in-goal area for a 22 dropout.

The subsequent long kick-out dropped nicely into the hands of Gorey Centre, Seán Wafer who took the ball on, stepping several defenders before offloading perfectly to Henry Kennedy, who made some good ground himself before passing the ball back again to Wafer, who delivered it to Liam Molly for an exquisite last pass to Dylan Sawyer who finished strongly for the opening try of the game. (Gorey 5 Kilkenny 3)

Despite further close efforts by both sides, the score remained at 5 – 3 for the remainder of the first half.

While the first half had been a fairly even affair, Gorey started the second half with real intent and they pinned Kilkenny in their own 22 for the first quarter of an hour. For a time, it looked as if all their dominance would count for naught, as attack after attack was repelled by Kilkenny’s strong defence. However, it was only a matter of time before they were rewarded when Flynn Donnelly beat several defenders to get over for Gorey’s second try of the day. (Gorey 10 Kilkenny 3)

Kilkenny continued to fight hard and they were beginning to get the measure of Gorey’s strong scrum.

With 55 minutes on the clock, Kilkenny eventually got a reward for their hard work, when they were awarded a penalty, but unfortunately for the visitors the kick fell just short of the posts.

The game continued to ebb and flow, but Gorey’s discipline let them down, when they were penalised on their 22-metre line for being ahead of the kicker. Gorey managed to win the ensuing scrum and the ball was fed back to Seán Wafer, whose kick to clear his lines was blocked down by Kilkenny and the ball fell nicely for them to dive under the posts for their first try of the game. (Gorey 10 Kilkenny 10)

The game remained deadlocked at 10 – 10 for the next 20 minutes, despite Gorey piling on huge pressure.

As the clock ticked into the final minutes of the game, the ball was fed from the base of a ruck to Gorey’s Tadhg O’Neill who managed to evade a number of Kilkenny defenders to get over for Gorey’s third try of the day to the delight of Gorey supporters along the sidelines. (Gorey 15 Kilkenny 10)

Just minutes later the referee blew the whistle to close what was a hard fought and tremendously entertaining game.

Gorey travel to Tullow next week for a clash to two joint table-toppers.

GOREY TEAM

Jack Ryan

Cormac Walsh

Cian Sullivan

Lukas McDonagh

Tadhg O’Neill

Dylan Sawyer

Seán Dunne

Liam Molloy

Cillian Tomkins