Gorey U19's Begin South East Campaign with a Win

Gorey's Under 19s took to the field on a very sunny Saturday morning for their first game of the season in the South East League, as well as their first game under new head coach Jason Emery.

Facing them was a well-fancied Wicklow RFC side, that was somewhat depleted of numbers due to injuries.

Gorey dominated the game straight from the off and showed some great moves straight from the training sessions with the backs spreading the ball the full width of the pitch. It only took 5 minutes for Gorey to get on the scoreboard with a fine try, well worked by the pack to put Eoin Walsh over.  Gorey 5 - Wicklow 0.

Gorey continued to dominate and were camped in Wicklow's ‘22' for the first quarter for the game, but the just couldn't seemed to convert this domination into points.

Wicklow began to come back into the game through their elusive and speedy outhalf, who made several breaks into the Gorey half.

Several knock-ons by both sides led to scrums, which remained steady, and here Gorey's front row of James Mulligan, J.J. Earls and Kallum O'Donoghue really showed their superiority winning several against the head.

After 25 minutes Gorey were awarded a penalty just inside their own half, which scrum half Chris Martin cleverly chose to take a quick ‘tap and go'  before offloading to team captain Donnchadh Carroll who danced past several Wicklow defenders to put down under the posts for Gorey's second try.  Cathal O'Neill, deputising at outhalf converted to leave the score at Gorey 12 - Wicklow 0.

The remainder of the first half was fairly evenly balanced, with Wicklow narrowly missing a penalty before half time.

Half Time  :  Gorey 12  Wicklow 0

Gorey made three substitutions at half time, bringing Charlie Wildes on for Eoin Walsh, Jack Cleary for Blake Jackson and David Eikrem for Aaron O'Rourke.

Wicklow seemed to have a renewed pep in their step as they began the second half strongly, putting Gorey under pressure from the off. Only a strong tackle from newly installed winger Jack Cleary prevented an almost certain try for the visitors.

12 minutes into the second half, Captain Donnchadh Carroll ended a superb personal performance to make way for Sean Mahon.

Wicklow continued to test Gorey with some strong line-breaking runs and their sustained pressure saw the visitors get over the line, only to be ‘held-up' by Gorey's defence.

But only minutes later they were over again, following some missed tackles by Gorey to give them their first try of the day, which was converted to reduce the margin; Gorey 12 - Wicklow 7.

James Mulligan was substituted half way through this half with Adam Thompson.

Gorey had to continue to defend well as Wicklow continued to pile on the pressure. However, Wicklow had a player sin-binned on the 55 minute mark, which eased the pressure on the home team.

Gorey didn't manage to capitalise on their one-man advantage and shortly after Wicklow reverted to a full fifteen men, the pressure on Gorey's defensive line began to mount again.

It wasn't long until this paid off for Wicklow as they went over for their second try of the day, which was converted to leave the visitors in front; Gorey 12 - Wicklow 14, with only five minutes of normal time remaining on the clock.

The realisation by Gorey that they were now only minutes from losing a game that they had largely dominated seemed to spur them into action, as straight from the restart they began to show the dominance that they had displayed throughout the first half.

Gorey spread the ball across their back line, while their forwards punched holes in the Wicklow defensive line. Attack after attack finally released Jack Cleary on the wing, who still had much to do before diving over the line to the cheers of an ecstatic home crowd.

Gorey failed to convert the try but still came out victors as the referee blew it up immediately afterwards leaving the final score Gorey 17 - Wicklow 14.

Gorey will reflect on many missed chances in the first half, when they failed to convert their dominance into points on the board, but will take heart from a determined first performance and there are definitely signs of great things to come from this talented squad.

Hats off also to a very determined Wicklow team, who never gave up in very challenging conditions, with only a very limited bench to use.

Next week Gorey U19s travel to Wexford on Saturday 28^th.

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Gorey Team

1 James Mulligan

2 J.J. Earle

3 Kallum O'Donoghue

4 Conor Kinsella

5 Zach Sinnott

6 Eoin Walsh

7 Donnchadh Carroll (Captain)

8 Harry Woods

9 Chris Martin

10 Cathal O'Neill

11 Aaron O'Rourke

12 David Condren

13 Eric Lacey

14 Jack Cleary

15 David O'Neill

Substitutes

Charlie Wildes (on for Eoin Walsh at halftime)

Jack Cleary (on for Blake Jackson at halftime)

David Eikrem (on for Aaron O'Rourke at halftime)

Seán Mahon (on for Donnchadh Carroll after 50 mins)

Adam Thompson (on for James Mulligan after 55 mins)