GOREY VICTORS IN EVENTFUL FIXTURE
16/12/2013
Mullingar 13 v Gorey 14
Gorey travelled to Mullingar on Sunday last seven points clear of the chasing pack and knowing that if they could come away from the West Meath club with a win,they would be going into the Christmas break with one hand on the Division 2a title. These two clubs have a bit of history of results between them with neither club giving any ground and even though Mullingar were not getting the results they wanted in the league they certainly were not going let Gorey come to their ground without a stern test. There was also the added spice that the previous day Gorey had drawen Mullingar at home in the opening round of the Provincial Towns Cup at home
Condition for this game were difficult enough with plenty of over night rain,only to be added too by a heavy down pour just before kick off making for heavy going.
The game kicked off and Gorey went straight on the attack and showed their intentions. Some lovely back play saw Gorey coming close to scoring on two occasions only for Mullingarâs strong defence. However Goreyâs period of pressure was rewarded with a penalty which James Nolan put over to lead by 3 pts.
It was at this stage in the game that things took a turn for the worst. Gorey were on the attack once more and were in Mullingarâs 22 when all hell broke loose. An incident in a ruck led to a mass brawl by all the forwards,when things calmed down the referee produced a red card for one of the Mullingar players.Their are mixed reports about what happened but it must have been serious for the Gorey forwards to react the way they did. When play eventually resumed Mullingar seemed to be geeded up by events and were playing like they had 16 men on the field. They soon got 3pts of their own before more contraversy erupted over a referee's decision which led to one of the Mullingar management also getting a red card.
Things took another turn when after some break down in play a Mullingar player got a suspected neck injury and play had to be stopped while an ambulance was called. With fading light it was agreed to move the match to another pitch and continue play. Play restarted on the next pitch and it was Mullingar who were appling pressure and were rewarded with a try and conversion and the only response from Gorey was a penalty from James Nolan which brought the shorten first half (because of fading light) to a finish with the score,10pts to 6 pts for Mullingar.
The second half resumed and it soon became a real battle of the forwards. There was not another score till the last quarter of the game when it became a real nail biter. Gorey powered over for a try by Ciarin Allen and with a missed conversion this brought the scores to 10pts to 11pts for Gorey. In Mullingar's favour they never gave up and with five minutes to go got a penalty for in at the side and bought the scores to 13pts to 11pts. Gorey dug deep and with two minutes on the clock carved out a penalty for off side which was put over by Nolan much to the relief of the travelling Gorey crowd bringing the final score to Gorey14pts Mullingar 13pts . This bought to an end a very eventful game of rugby and will certainly add an extra dimension to the Towns Cup fixture. However as it stand Gorey head into the Christmas break top of the league and still unbeaten.
Team: 1 Ciarin Allen 2 Barry O'Connor 3 Will Kearney 4 J.P.Redmond 5 Adrain Copeland 6 Micheal Woods 7 Ben Horan 8 Jason Emery 9 Matt Bater 10 Adain O' Brien 11 John Condern 12 James Nolan 13 Sean Byrne14 Darren Dunne 15 Nevile Copeland 16 Fergal Bolger 17 Darragh OâLeary 18 Philip Horan 19 Robert Harrington 20