Roscrea travelled to Gorey on Sunday afternoon to face Gorey in Clonnattin. The Co.Tipperary side who lay 5th in the table were gearing up to cause an upset. With a win, lose and a draw to their credit they had every intention of causing an upset to a Gorey side who lay joint top of the table with Co. Carlow.
Just as the game kicked off the heavens opened and made an open game a difficulty, in-fact throughout the game the crowd experienced all four seasons as the game was played between heavy showers and sunshine. It was Gorey who open their account first after been awarded a penalty when the game was only a couple of minutes old and Stephen Dukes slotted it over and from here on the game became a battle around the breakdown with crunching tackles, hard fought scrums and line outs been contested in driving rain. The game continued in this vein until half time and it was a half that Gorey had their chances and were on top for most of it but failed to get more points.
When the second half kicked off the sun decided to appear and it was Roscrea's turn to get on the
scoreboard. After been awarded two consecutive penalties that they missed, it was a case of third time lucky when they got 3 points of their own after an infirgment at the scrum. At this stage Roscrea were starting to get a foothold in the game and disrupted any attempt by Gorey to play rugby. Due to the conditions it was unlikely that either side were going to run in tries and it became a real dog fight. Penalty kicks were the order of the day and Gorey were next to get one after Roscrea came in at the side of a ruck, Dukes obliged and the score was 6 points to 3 points. Roscrea showed their intentions when on two occasions they attempted two drop kicks but with no reward. It was another penalty for Roscrea which brought the scores level and after this the game turned up a level with both sides going all out for the win in the last 15 minutes however, with penalties missed by both sides the final score was 6 points all.
Roscrea by far will be the happier side with the draw and Gorey will rue the chances missed and the points dropped. The J1's have a break next week before taking on Railway Union on Friday night the 1st of November in Sydney Parade .
Team: 1.Carian Smith 2.Barry O'Connor 3.Thomas Tomkins 4. Darragh O'Leary 5. Adrain Copeland 6. Micheal Woods 7. Ben Horan 8. Paul Redmond 9. Richard Jones 10. Aidan O'Brien 11. Paul Clince 12. Mat Bater 13. Wayne Peavoy 14. Sean O'Connor 15 . Stephen Dukes 16. Ed Warren 17. Jordan Ahern 18. Jason Emery 19. Darren Dunne 20. John Condern.