Sat 7th Sep 2013

Arklow made the short trip down the N11 on Saturday evening for their South East fixture against Gorey in this always hotly contested local derby. From the whistle the teams got stuck in and started to introduce themselves to each other with some crunching tackles and on occasion a little more, which led the referee to blow up for penalties and give ten yards here and there until Arklow were awarded a penalty and had the first chance to open the scoring, but put it wide of the posts.  After this the game settled down and tough rugby was played.  In truth a lot of this game was played in between both teams 22 metre lines showing the intensity of the game with tough rucking leading to short breaks, but it was Arklow who were first on the score sheet when they were awarded a penalty for an infringement at the breakdown and their N10 duly obliged.

From the restart Gorey came right back at Arklow and after a ruck the ball made its way to Nevile Copeland who launched a kick and chase at the Arklow backline and   when some confusion developed between two Arklow players at their tryline, Gorey were awarded a 5 metre scrum. When the ball came back to Jordan Ahern at No.8 he picked the ball and powered over into the corner to down Gorey's first try. Stephen Dukes put over a fine conversion and Gorey were 7pts to 3pts in front and never looked back. Gorey kept this lead till the half time break and returned to the second half with their heads up to play some fine up close rugby . Their next break through came when the second half was just 6 minutes old and Gorey were piling on the pressure, a fine maul was formed metres from the line and Daragh O'Leary was driven over to score with Stephen Dukes slotting the conversion over to bring it to 14pts to 3pts.

Arklow tried to drag themselves back into the game and to be fair never gave up,  their back line made attempts to break Gorey's defence but on this occasion Stephen Dukes made a clearance kick taking the pressure off Gorey's line.

Next up to score for Gorey was Matt Bater, who from a penalty decision took a quick tap and went over to bring the scores to 19pts to 3pts. Next try was a pressure releasing kick from scrumhalf, Robert Harrington, which went forward and from the ensuring ruck the ball was carried by Matt Bater into the corner to be recycled and went through the hands across the pitch for Ben Horan to score a fine try in the opposite corner.  The conversion was taken and the scores now stood at 26pts to 3pts. The last try of the evening came from another attacking Gorey move which saw Ben Horan once again going forward only to be taken down 10 metres from the line not before he executed a super offload and the ball was swung out the backs for Andrew Walsh to score in the corner.   Stephen Duke put over a fine touch line conversion to finish the game 33pts to 3pts on what was a somewhat nippy summer's evening. This was Gorey's first win of the new season and with the building of the side still in progress this was a fine clinical performance.

Next up for Gorey will be a few friendlies against some stronger rugby teams to prepare them for the start of the Leinster League. Next Saturday is to be against Coolmine RFC, a very strong Dublin rugby side.   This fixture has to be finalised but keep a look out for times and date on the club website to come and support your local rugby team.

Final Score :  Gorey RFC 33   Arklow RFC 3